Japanese Americans
The Japanese Americans have maintained loyalty to the United States
throughout
the history of there immigration beginning in 1843 (Leathers, 6).
Over the
years, they have persevered through the trials and tribulations
of
discrimination and prejudice. The white community often discriminated
them
because of the misunderstanding of their language and culture. They
overcame
this obstacle, and became productive citizens of the United States
of America.
The immigration of the Japanese into the United States was
first recorded in
1843. Because of the strong currents and winds, sea
traders and fishing fleets
from many nations learned to exploit these winds
and currents to travel from
East Asia toward North America. Japanese
seafarers were among this group. The
first Japanese to come to the United
States were accidental visitors- shipwreck
survivors who were rescued by U.S.
vessels. Over the next few decades, several
such incidents occurred, but
these incidents only involved a few sailors. Only a
few remained to live in
the United States permanently. By 1880 fewer than 150
Japanese lived in
the U.S. (Leathers, 6-7). This number stayed so low because it
was illegal
for most Japanese to emigrate from their home country. However, in
1885,
the Japanese government eased it’s restrictions on emigration
(Leathers,
7). Through this action the number of Japanese in the United
States and Hawaii
increased rapidly. At this time, Hawaii was not yet part of
the United States.
During the 1890s, the average number of Japanese
entering the United States
increased by about 1,000. In 1900, more than
12,000 Japanese entered the U.S.
(Leathers, 7-8). In 1924, immigration of
Japanese was virtually halted when a
new immigration law was passed by the
U.S. Congress to prohibit the entry of
Asians. Significant immigration of
Japanese to American did not resume until the
late 1940s (Leathers, 8).
According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service, only
450,359 Japanese immigrated to the United States between 1820 and
1988.
Japanese immigration to the United States constitute less than 10 percent
of
the total of Asian immigrants between 1820 and 1988 (Leathers, 8).
The
Japanese word Issei is used for any person who was born in Japan but
later moved
to another country- a first generation immigrant. A Nisei is an
immigrant’s
son or daughter who was born outside of Japan. The third
generation, the Sansei,
are the daughters and sons of the Nisei. The fourth
generation, the Yonsei, are
the children of the Sansei
(www.honolulu.miningco.com, 1). Japanese immigrants
to the United States
nurture a strong awareness of their ancestry. Japanese
Americans classify
themselves into specific groups depending on know many
generations have
passed since a person’s family immigrated to the United
States (Leathers,
8). There were two major reasons for the sudden increase in
Japanese
immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped the immigration
from
China to America. This was passed because of the concern over Chinese
labor
flooding the market and leaving few jobs for the Americans. However, a
result of
the act was labor shortage in the western part of our country.
Thus, there was a
demand for Japanese immigrants who were good farm laborers
and who would work
for low wages. Another factor which helped stimulate
Japanese immigration was a
law passed by the Japanese Government in 1896.
This Emigrants Protections Law
required that each departing worker have
someone responsible for his financial
support so that if he became ill, he
would not suffer. This law intended to keep
those who emigrated well taken
care of (Leathers, 12). Because of the financial
requirements many families
could not afford to support an emigrant to the United
States. As a
result, emigration companies furnished the Japanese emigrant with
the
necessary financial assistance and guaranteed him a job in the
U.S.
(Leathers, 12). The life of Japanese immigrants in America was not found
to be
what the average immigrant expected. Many found that the stories of the
great
wealth and the wonderful life in the United States were greatly
exaggerated.
Unskilled workers became agricultural laborers worked for
lower wages than
native Americans who were performing the same kind of work.
The types of work
which the Japanese found varied greatly. Farming,
merchandising, domestic
service, railways, factory work, canneries, dairying,
plant nurseries,
fisheries, and clerical tasks claimed most of the new
immigrants. However, by
1920, there were also more than 350
Japanese-Americans employed as professionals
(Leathers, 14-15). Most
immigrants were men between the age of 20 and 40. The
imbalance of men to
women varied greatly, by about three to one. As a result,
many Japanese men
married women from Japan and brought them to the United
States. A male
immigrant in the U.S. did not often have the money or the time to
return to
Japan, so a practice known as a "picture bride" marriage
developed (Kitano,
46-47). This long-distance form of courtship received its
name because it
often involved an exchange of photographs between a man in the
United
States and a women in Japan. The immigrant would then send a letter
home
telling his parents telling them that he wanted to marry a suitable
women.
Investigations would then take place, and if both parties seemed
satisfactory,
the marriage would be performed while the husband was in the
U.S. The Japanese
government would permit the bride to join her new husband
in the United States
(Kitano, 47-48). Picture bride marriage seemed strange
to many non-Japanese
Americans and this helped build prejudice against
Japanese immigrants. In 1921,
the Japanese government announced that it would
discontinue issuing passports to
picture brides because of the American
opposition (Kitano, 46). From the
beginning Japanese were unable to become
naturalized citizen of the United
States. In 1870, Congress passed an act
that stated persons of African ancestry
could now be granted citizenship;
however, this still excluded people from Asia.
Few immigrants managed to
gain citizenship, because, in some cases, the law was
not strictly enforced.
Because of this exclusion this gave rise to the hatred
that developed against
the Japanese in America, especially in California
(Leathers, 25). Hostility
against the Japanese surfaced in San Francisco. After
the mayor Eugene E.
Schmitz and his political boss, were charged with corruption
in office, they
tried to divert public attention by blaming the social problems
on the
Japanese. Hostility grew amongst the American public. In 1906, the
San
Francisco school board ruled that Japanese-American students could no
longer go
to school with students of European descent. All children of
Japanese descent
attended a separate "Oriental school" in Chinatown
(www.askasia.org,
1). In 1913, the California legislature passed the
Alien Land Law of 1913. This
law banned the purchase of farmland by anyone
who was not eligible for
citizenship. This targeted the Japanese immigrants.
Although there were pleas
from the president, he was unable to persuade the
legislature passed the Alien
Land Law (Leathers, 28). Although the
hostility and prejudice against the
Japanese Americans was great during
the early 1900s, the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor in 1941, intensified
this prejudice. As a result, President
Roosevelt, declared that all
people of Japanese descent, American or not, were
enemy aliens. They were to
be relocated to detention camps throughout the
nation. Though there was no
evidence of a single case of Japanese-American
espionage throughout the war,
the executive order authorized the wholesale
deportation of 70,000 U.S.
citizens of Japanese descent and 42,00 Japanese
resident aliens
(www.thesierraweb.com, 1). Japanese Americans responded
voluntarily to the
evacuation notices. Families could only take what they could
carry. Life in
the detention camps was strictly controlled. Barbed wire fences
and towers
with armed guards surrounded the camps. Some Nisei were able to leave
the
detention camps, after being permitted by the government ( Kitano, 58).
In
1943, the military started accepting American born Japanese. Many
Japanese
Americans were eager to prove their loyalty by serving in the
military. The
Japanese-American soldiers received great public attention
for their valor
throughout the Pacific and Europe. Through the dedication and
patriotism of the
men who participated 442d, the view and attitudes towards
the Japanese Americans
was changing (Kitano,60-61). The war changed
traditional roles for the Japanese
Americans. By the 1950’s the same
schools that had barred Japanese students
were found hiring Nisei as
teachers. The acceptance of Hawaii as the 50th state
of the Union marked a
milestone in the Japanese-American society. Hawaii had
become the first
American state to elect public officials of Japanese ancestry
(Kitano,
61-62). In a 1980 census, more than 700,000 Japanese Americans resided
in the
United States. Slightly more women than men made up this group, and
their
median age was 33.6 years. More than 90 percent lived in urban areas.
Almost 70
percent of persons of Japanese ancestry residing in the United
States were born
here (Kitano, 63). Japanese-Americans have become prominent
contributors to
today’s society. Jokichi Takamine arrived in the United
States in 1884 and
began working to isolate adrenaline. In 1985, Ellison
Onizuka became the first
descendant of Japanese immigrants to fly in space.
He was a mission specialist
on the classified military flight of the space
shuttle Discovery in 1985.
However, in 1986, he was a member of the
tragic flight of the space shuttle
Challenger. (Kitano 75) The
contributions of the Japanese-Americans to our
country have been great. Their
industry and good citizenship are widely known to
those familiar with them.
They have become scientists, journalists,
entertainers, businessmen, farmers,
and have entered into a wide diversity of
occupations throughout the history
of the United States. Juvenile delinquency is
practically unknown in
Japanese-American groups. The Japanese have served a
great service for all
Americans. They have endured prejudice, insult, physical
harm, loss of
property, and the evacuation from their homes. Despite these
hardships, they
have maintained a loyalty to the United States and served all
Americans.
(Leathers, 68) This proves true to all Americans that the color of
skin,
religion, physical appearance, or religion have nothing to do with
the
patriotism one has for it’s country.
Bibliography
Guterson,
David. Snow Falling on Cedars. New York: Vintage Contemporaries.
1995.
460 pgs. Kitano. Harry. The Japanese Americans. New York: Chelsea
House
Publishers, 1988. Leathers, Noel L. The Japanese in America.
Minnesota: Lerner
Publications Company. 1974. Leathers, Noel L. The
Japanese in America.
Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company. 1991.
INTERNET Asian Society. Linking
Past to Present: Asian Americans Then and
Now. 1996. www.askasia.org/frclasrm/readings.r000192.html.
Durham, Kathy.
Issei, Nisei,Sansei, Yonsei: Japanese Americans on O’ahu- Part
1
www.honolulu/library/weekly/aa041497.htm Thistlewaite, Chuck.
Manzanar
National Historic Site: America’s Concentration Camp.
www.sierraweb.com/lonepine/manzanar.html
ENCYCLOPEDIA "Japanese
Americans." Britannica Encyclopedia. CD-ROM.
Encyclopedia Britannica.
1998.