Immigration...Japanese: Introduction

Introduction

Child waiting to be sent to internment camp, 1942

Japanese immigrants began their journey to the United States in search of peace and prosperity, leaving an unstable homeland for a life of hard work and the chance to provide a better future for their children. However, before the first generation of immigrants could enjoy the fruits of their labor, they had to overcome hostile neighbors, harsh working conditions, and repeated legislative attacks on their very presence in the country. Acceptance came only after the immigrants and their children were forced to endure one of the 20th century's worst crimes against civil liberties, and from that crucible fought to claim their place in the life of the nation.

An Open Door
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy sailed gunships into Tokyo harbor, forcing a reclusive nation to open itself up to trade with the U.S., and incidentally providing the people of Japan with an unprecedented glimpse of an alien culture.

Osaka street scene

Since 1639, Japan had maintained an official policy of isolation from Europe and most of its colonies, and emigration was strictly controlled. However, in the years that followed Perry's arrival, Japan underwent a tremendous social transformation, and for many Japanese the U.S. increasingly became a model not only of modern military might, but also of a desirable way of life.

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan's rapid urbanization and industrialization brought about great social disruption and agricultural decline. As farmers were forced to leave their land, and workers were left jobless by foreign competition, they looked more and more for a better life outside the islands of their homeland. As Japanese wages plummeted, and word of a booming U.S. economy spread, the lure of the United States became difficult to resist.

Woman with child, Tokyo

Some of the earliest Japanese immigration to lands that would later become part of the United States was illegal. In 1868, the Hawaiian consul general secretly hired and transported 148 contract laborers to Hawaii, although they were eventually discovered and returned. Beginning in the 1880s, however, legal barriers to emigration began to drop, and major emigration soon followed. The Japanese government showed significant interest in the process, often selecting emigrants from a pool of applicants, favoring ambitious young men with good connections. Many prospective emigrants enlisted the support of prominent citizens to underwrite their expensive journey to the U.S. At first, most emigrants planned to return home eventually, and saw their sojourn as a quick path to wealth and respectability.

Between 1886 and 1911, more than 400,000 men and women left Japan for the U.S. and U.S.-controlled lands, and significant emigration continued for at least a decade beyond that. The two most popular destinations were the archipelago of Hawaii and America's Pacific coast. In both places, the immigrants would discover a new and radically different way of life, but the two destinations each responded to, and were shaped by, the newcomers in a unique and distinctive way.

Introduction | Hawaii: Life in a Plantation Society | The U.S. Mainland: Growth and Resistance | Behind the Wire | Rebuilding a Community


	last updated 02/02/04 view basic version

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1790

The federal government requires two years of residency for naturalization

1864

Congress legalizes the importation of contract laborers

1819

Congress establishes reporting on immigration

1868

Japanese laborers arrive in Hawaii to work sugar cane fields. (Japanese)

1885

Congress bans the admission of contract laborers.

1929

Congress makes annual immigration quotas permanent.

1948

Supreme Court rules that California’s Alien Land Laws prohibiting ownership of agricultural property violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

The United States admits persons fleeing persecution in their native lands; allowing 205,000 refugees to enter within two years

1952		Immigration and Nationality Act: individuals of all races eligible for naturalization; reaffirms national origins quota system, limits immigration from Eastern Hemisphere; establishes preferences for skilled workers and relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens; and tightens security and screening standards and procedures

1953		Congress amends 1948 refugee policy to allow for the admission of 200,000 more refugees

1980

The Refugee Act redefines criteria and procedures for admitting refugees

1986

Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalizes illegal aliens residing in the U.S. unlawfully since 1982.

1907

The U.S. and Japan form “Gentleman’s Agreement” in which Japan ends issuance of passports to laborers; U.S. agrees not to prohibit Japanese immigration.

1913

California’s Alien Land Law rules that aliens “ineligible to citizenship” were ineligible to own agricultural property.

1915

The Supreme Court rules in Ozawa v. United States first-generation Japanese ineligible for citizenship and could not apply for naturalization.

1924

Immigration Act of 1924: establishes fixed quotas of national origin and eliminates Far East immigration.

1988

Civil Liberties Act provides a presidential apology and compensation of $20,000 to all Japanese-American survivors of the World War II internment camps.

2001

A memorial honoring Japanese-American veterans and detainees opens on the edge of the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C.

1941		Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor galvanizes America’s war effort; over 1,000 Japanese-American community leaders incarcerated for “national security”.

1942		President Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066: authorizes building “relocation camps” for Japanese Americans living along the Pacific Coast.