Japanese-American life before World War II

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People from Japan began emigrating to the U.S. in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Japanese immigration to the Americas started with immigration to Hawaii in the first year of the Meiji era in 1868.

Contents

Early immigration

Following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were increasingly sought by industrialists to replace the Chinese immigrants. However, as the number of Japanese in the United States increased, resentment against their success in the farming industry and fears of a "yellow peril" grew into an anti-Japanese movement similar to that faced by earlier Chinese immigrants. [1] Around the turn of the century, around four thousand Japanese immigrants lived in San Francisco, funding their education as domestic workers. [2]

Anti-Asian litigation

The Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted naturalized U.S. citizenship to "free white persons," and an 1870 amendment extended the right to African Americans, but the Issei and other Asian immigrants were excluded from citizenship. As a result, the Issei were unable to vote, and faced additional restrictions such as the inability to own land under many state laws. These laws would remain in effect until 1952, when the Supreme Court ruled alien land laws unconstitutional and the Walter-McCarran Act removed race-based requirements for naturalization.

In 1907, the Gentlemen's Agreement between the governments of Japan and the U.S. ended immigration of Japanese laborers (i.e., men), but permitted the immigration of spouses and children of Japanese immigrants already in the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1924 banned the immigration of all but a token few Japanese.

The ban on immigration produced unusually well-defined generational groups within the Japanese American community. Initially, there was an immigrant generation, the Issei, and their U.S.-born children, the Nisei Japanese American. The Issei were exclusively those who had immigrated before 1924. Because no new immigrants were permitted, all Japanese Americans born after 1924 were — by definition — born in the U.S. This generation, the Nisei, became a distinct cohort from the Issei generation in terms of age, citizenship, and English language ability, in addition to the usual generational differences. Institutional and interpersonal racism led many of the Nisei to marry other Nisei, resulting in a third distinct generation of Japanese Americans, the Sansei. Significant Japanese immigration did not occur until the Immigration Act of 1965 ended 40 years of bans against immigration from Japan and other countries.

The California Alien Land Law of 1913 was specifically created to prevent land ownership among Japanese citizens who were residing in the state of California. This law was strengthened in 1920, and several other western states adopted alien land laws during the 1920s.

Timeline of life before World War II

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Anderson, Emily. "Anti-Japanese exclusion movement," Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16-07-2014.
  2. ↑ Linda España-Maram (25 April 2006). Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila: Working-Class Filipinos and Popular Culture, 1920s-1950s. Columbia University Press. pp. 22–23. ISBN   978-0-231-51080-6.
  3. ↑ Schodt, Frederik L. (2003). Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan . Stone Bridge Press. p.  59. ISBN   978-1-880656-77-8.
  4. ↑ Van Sant, VE., 'Pacific Pioneers: Japanese Journeys to America and Hawaii, 1850–80'(2000)
  5. ↑ Jones, Terry.,The Story of Kanaye Nagasawa(1980), pp. 41–77
  6. ↑ A Digest of Constitutional and Synodical Legislation of the Reformed Church in America, Board of Publication of the Reformed Church in America, 1906
  7. ↑ Tsutakawa, Mayumi. "Gannenmono Exhibition Reveals the Genesis of Japanese Settlement in Hawaii". Densho. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  8. ↑ Kashima, T., ‘Nisei and Issei’, in. Personal Justice Denied (2nd edn, United States of America, 2000) p. 30
  9. ↑ Kashima, T., ‘Nisei and Issei’, in. Personal Justice Denied (2nd edn, United States of America, 2000) p. 30
  10. ↑ Imai, Shiho. "Gentlemen's Agreement". Densho. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  11. 1 2 "Life before Internment Camps". Archived from the original on 2007-03-10. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  12. ↑ "Edmonston Maryland: A Bridging Community" . Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  13. ↑ "Children of the Camps | WWII INTERNMENT TIMELINE". www.children-of-the-camps.org.

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