Race & Ethnicity Discrimination

Aaron Ramos

10/16/07

Race & Ethnicity

In 1880, two years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, fewer than 200 Japanese lived in the United States. From 1899 to 1903, another 60,000 entered the United States, largely because of the acute labor shortage in California. The exclusion of the Chinese had left many menial and unskilled jobs without takers. The Japanese population at this time was concentrated largely on the Pacific Coast, with the center at San Francisco. They were rural farmers from southern Honshu and Kyushu, and unlike the Chinese who migrated to urban living, the Japanese preferred rural farming. The early Japanese farmers and farm organizations laid the groundwork for future Japanese immigrants by providing capital and agriculture expertise. Like the Chinese, the Japanese received few loans from banks, so a Japanese rotating credit association, one of many variations, would accept subscriber deposits and give loans to the most needy Japanese workers who wanted to purchase land. The cooperation between the association and the workers was built on trust and honor, and the rate of default was rare.

The Japanese welcome began to fade as their numbers began to rise. Unlike the Chinese, however, the Japanese did not disperse. America began to stereotype Asians into two categories: the Chinese, humble and "inferior" who could be tolerated; and the Japanese who were cunning and aggressive and required domination to keep them in place. Reports appeared in the English-language press portraying the Japanese as the enemies of the American worker, as a menace to American womanhood, and as corrupting agents in American society-in other words, repeating many of the same slanders as had been used against Chinese immigrants in the decades before. “The head of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, denounced all Asians and barred them from membership in the nation's largest union”

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated a "Gentlemen's Agreement" that called for Japan to issue passports to Japanese coming to the continental United States only if they were coming to join a parent, husband, child, or to return to a former home or farm. This agreement greatly diminished Japanese emigration to America. Five years after the passing of the Gentlemen’s Agreement, the California legislature passed the Alien Land Law, which barred all aliens ineligible for citizenship, and therefore all Asian immigrants, from owning land in California, even land they had purchased years before. Between 1930 and 1940 the number returning to Japan exceeded new immigrants to the United States. This trend continued up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese parents sent their children to Japan to be educated, and by 1942 it was estimated that more than 25,000 Asian-Americans had been educated in Japan.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. That very same day the Japanese American Citizen League telegraphed their allegiance to President Roosevelt, Pledging there support, as citizens of the United States, to drive out the Japanese invasion with their fellow Americans. The Japanese American Citizens League, an organization of Nisei professionals, declared in its creed:

I am proud that I am an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, for my very background makes me appreciate more fully the wonderful advantages of this nation… I pledge myself… to defend her against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Up to World War II, Japanese were subject to discrimination under American law. During World War II, employment opportunities opened up to Chinese-Americans, while Japanese- Americans were stereotyped as potential enemies of the United States. There were signs in restaurant windows stating “Japs not allowed” or “My son was killed at Pearl Harbor” and also there was counters to that by the Japanese population with signs like “My son died at Hiroshima. How do you think I feel?” It was reasoned by military officials that most Japanese were loyal, but felt that the task of screening the loyal from the disloyal presented too great a problem. Shortly after the start of the war, President Roosevelt signed legislation ordering the evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry from West Coast areas. Below is part of the executive order made by the President of the United States designating what should be done for the “evacuations”.

Executive Order No. 9066

“NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he