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Understanding Asian Immigration & Labor in America: The Yellow Peril and Anti-Japanese Backlash

Delve into the history of Asian immigration to America, focusing on the Yellow Peril concept, Issei and Nisei generations, and the Anti-Japanese sentiment post-WWII. Explore key themes through themes such as labor, immigration policies, and societal tensions. Discover the impact of laws like the Gentlemen's Agreement and Alien Land Law on the Japanese community. Unpack the struggles and triumphs of Japanese immigrants and their descendants in the face of discrimination.

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Understanding Asian Immigration & Labor in America: The Yellow Peril and Anti-Japanese Backlash

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  1. Announcements • History and Memory is a required text of the class • 2/14 - Midterm Papers Due @ start of lecture! • Office Hours – 11:15-12:45 in Lit 354 • 2/28 – Community Event Reflection due! • 3/1 – Email description of creative project to TAs! • What medium? Prose? Poetry? Film? Music? Visual? • List key questions, themes, and texts your project will explore. • 2-3 sentences max • 3/13 – Creative project due!

  2. Lecture 7: The Yellow Peril WWII & Executive Order 9066

  3. Issei & Nisei • 1880s – begin arriving in HI as Chinese immigration prohibited  were Japanese Mongolian or white? • 62% of HI’s total population in 1920 = Asian immigrants • 42.7% of HI’s Asian population in 1923 = Japanese immigrants • 1890s – first waves to mainland • 1882 – only 2,039 Japanese • 1902 – 72,257 – majority Issei (first generation) • 1922 – 138,834 – Issei and Nisei (second generation) • Pre-WWII – 70% of all mainland Japanese live in CA; largest Asian group in CA

  4. Issei: Meiji Sojourners • 1853 – Commodore Perry forcibly opens Japan to western trade • 1868 – Meiji Restoration unites Japan; high taxes imposed on agriculture to fund Westernization and modernization programs • 1884 – Japan allows Hawaiian labor recruiters • 1885-1924  200,000 to HI; 180,000 to mainland • Predominantly young males - 60% younger than 30 • Better educated and literate than most immigrants at that time because of Meiji compulsory education • Farming but not peasant class • Meiji immigration policies: • Required immigration application & review process • Active encouragement of female immigration to curb problems Chinese encountered

  5. Picture Brides & Female Sojourners • 1911-1920: • 46% of immigrants to Hawaii = female • 39% of immigrants to mainland = female • Conditions of immigration: • Women defined more by ties to husband than ties to home • Tradition of arranged marriage & picture bride system • 19th century industrialization in Japan • Meiji compulsory education of women • Hawaiian contract labor policies

  6. Japanese American Labor • Hawaiian plantation labor =Inter-ethnic antagonism and pan-Asian unionization • Early 1900s – majority of mainland immigrants = migrant labor & cannery workers • By 1910 – development of mainland Nihonmachi and Japanese businesses • By 1925 – 46% of mainland Japanese were farmers • Contract, share, lease, and ownership methods • Kenjinkai - prefectural-based association; tanomoshi – credit-rotating association; kobaikumiai – farmer cooperatives; nogyokumiai – farmer associations • Technological advance of refrigerated cars = increase in demand for fruit & vegetables nationwide

  7. Anti-Japanese Backlash 1902 – push to renew Chinese Exclusion Act to include Japanese Oct 11, 1906 – SF Board of Education attempts to segregate school system; Pres. Theodore Roosevelt intervenes 1908 Gentleman's Agreement  No segregation but Japan agrees to limit # of new immigrants; families can still be reunited 1913 – Alien Land Law passed in CA 1920 – land laws tightened so that American born children of aliens ineligible for citizenship could not lease land 1921 – Ladies Agreement – Japan prohibits picture brides

  8. Issei & Nisei – Alien & Citizen 1922 – Ozawa v US – Takao Ozawa attempts to prove fitness for citizenship; denied because non-white 1924 – National Quota Act – targets Japanese immigration; reaffirms exclusion of previous Asian immigrants

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