The "Crown" aka King Kalākaua, advocated the immigration of Japanese labor, not just our of the labor needs of the plantations, but  out of a desire to hoʻoululāhui (increase the nation). He felt that intermarriage of Hawaiians (whose population had plummeted as a result of introduced diseases) with Japanese, whom he viewed as a compatible race being a people of color would help save the Hawaiians from extinction, a commonly held belief at the time by certain missionaries, like Amos Starr Cooke, who viewed the extinction of the Hawaiian people as an acceptable and foregone conclusion. His letters and diaries speak of this.