Japanese Americans - the Patterns of Japanese Immigration - Essay Example

Japanese Americans are a sub-group of the East Asian Americans, which is a further sub-group of the Asian Americans. The Japanese Americans were the third largest Asian American community but in recent times, it is now the sixth largest Asian community in the United States as per the Census 2000 with a population of 795,051 (Ameredia, 2006). This is the count for the only Japanese group while the actual number of Japanese in America would be higher as they are combined with other Asian groups also. The Japanese American population declined by 6.3% since 1990. As per the Census 2000, the Japanese Americans comprise for 7.77% of the Asian-American population and 0.28% of the US population. Like other ethnic minorities, the Japanese too had to struggle to establish themselves in the United States economically, educationally, socially, religiously and politically. This paper will discuss the patterns of Japanese immigration, the developments, the history and the changes that took place over the years. It will also discuss the reasons for Japanese immigration to America and their initial experience. Among the first to arrive from Japan in 1869 were the settlers with The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, according to the Brown Foundation Journal (2000). They carried with them mulberry trees, silk cocoons, tea plants, and bamboo roots. COHORTS (1999), a publication of the Stanford Geriatric Education Center, describes that thousands of young Japanese male laborers came from Hawaii and Japan in 1885 to work on railroads, to pick fruit and vegetables for canneries, or to work in industries such as logging, mining, and meatpacking. ParkNet (2004) further clarifies that the first group arrived under the leadership of John Schnell. Initially, a group of Japanese were picked up from the streets of Yokohama and shipped to Hawaii. These were found to be unsatisfactory after which they developed systematic recruitment process. Based on the Census 1870, ParkNet quotes that out of 55 Japanese in the United States, 33 were in California and 22 in Gold Hill. The 1880 Census showed 148 Japanese in the United States including 48 in California. According to ParkNet these could have been either students or those who had left Japan illegally as the laborers were not allowed to leave their country until after 1884. In 1884, the Japanese government and the Hawaiian sugar plantations signed an agreement to allow labor migration. In 1890, 2038 Japanese resided in the United States out of which 1114 lived in California. ThinkQuest, an organization that has done thorough research on immigration to the United States, gives a details account of the Hawaiian sugar industry. There was a boom in the Hawaiian sugar industry between 1870 and 1880. At the same time, Japan was undergoing a painful transition to modern economy that resulted in large-scale unemployment, bankruptcies, and civil disorders. This led to mass emigration to the United States where the Hawaiian sugar industry was thriving. From 1885 to 1894, over 28,000 Japanese migrated to the Hawaii and they were mostly single men. The Japanese who migrated were all farmers or farm laborers and initially about three-quarters of them returned to Japan. When America took over the Hawaii islands, they expected that the American laws would bar them from importing labor from Japan. As a result, they imported more than 26000 contract laborers in one single year. The contracts were then voided which allowed the Japanese to migrate to the United States mainland but Hawaii continued to be the main area of settlement for the Japanese. The Brown Foundation Journal and the ParkNet give details of the systematic way in which laborers were recruited, a fact that was not been analyzed by ThinkQuest. After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were needed to replace the Chinese immigrants (Wikipedia). According to ParkNet, the first group of people picked up from Yokohama and shipped to Hawaii was found to be unsatisfactory. Natives from Hiroshima, Kumamoto, Yamaguchi, and Fukushima were recruited for their expertise in agriculture, hard work, and willingness to travel (BFJ). According to Wikipedia, the Japanese Americans have made significant contribution to the agriculture, especially in the western United States, like California and the Hawaii. They introduced sophisticated irrigation methods that enabled cultivation of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Japanese immigration remained relatively unaffected until 1907 when the ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ was executed which barred the people from Japan from entering the United States. A provision in the agreement allowed the wives and children of laborers already in the United States to enter the country, according to ParkNet. The Immigration Act of 1924 barred anyone from entering the United States from Japan except a token few, claims Wikipedia. Immigration to Japan was cut for 28 years (BFJ). The Japanese Americans have given special names to each of its generations in the United States (COHORTS). The first generation born in Japan or the early immigrants is called the Issei; the second generation or the American-born children of Issei are Nisei, the third Sansei, who are the children of Nisei. Then there are the Kibei, who are young Nisei (usually sons) sent overseas for a Japanese education. The post 1965 Japanese immigrants are called the Shin-Issei while the post World War II brides are called Senso Hanayome. The entire Japanese population across generations is termed Nikkei. After the 1924 ban on immigrants, the second generation or the Nisei became significantly different from the Issei in terms of age, citizenship, or language ability. ThinkQuest gives a detailed account of the struggle and the discrimination that the Japanese had to face in the United States. The race discrimination was quite well known back in Japan as the government stopped issuing passports to those who wanted to migrate to US mainland. This discrimination was less pronounced in Hawaii and passports were permitted for Hawaii. The Japanese relations with the Americans was influenced by the relations that the Chinese had with the Americans as the Japanese came soon after the Chinese. The Japanese too started as unskilled laborers, and were welcomed as substitutes for the Chinese coolie labor. Subsequently, their progress threatened the American society and this was more prominent in the mainland than Hawaii. Laws were imposed which prevented the Japanese to go into skilled labor and from purchasing land in California. The Japanese initially worked as agricultural laborers at lower wages than the ‘whites’ but later they acquired the land by paying more than the ‘whites’. They hence became popular with the employers but antagonized by the other employees for willing tom work at low wages. The Japanese earned their way through hard work and longer hours. Word soon spread of their efficiency and their overall pay scale increased. This unpopularity with the masses prevented them from moving up in their work, due to which they shifted to the west coast and turned to agricultural, floral and fishing industries. Brown Foundation Journal too gives details of the discrimination that the Japanese had to face. From 1909 until the Second World War, anti-Japanese Bills were introduced in the California legislature every year. The 1922 Supreme Court decision in Takao Ozawa v. United States case the verdict was announced that the Japanese were ineligible for US citizenship. Earlier in 1790, ‘free white persons’ had been made eligible for citizenship by the congress but due to some ambiguity about the term ‘white’ about 420 Japanese attained citizenship due to naturalization. A ruling by a US Attorney General in 1906 stopped this practice. Further instances of discrimination have been cited by the BFJ. Separate schools for children of Indian, Mongolian, Chinese, and Japanese origin was established following an amendment to the State Political Code in 1921. They attended segregated schools until the WWII. In 1945, a Japanese American challenged that segregation on the basis of race or ancestry violated the 14th Amendment. This segregation was withdrawn in 1947. In retaliation to the Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbor in 1941, anti-Japanese feelings ran high especially in mainland US. In Hawaii where the attack occurred, only about 1500 Japanese Americans were taken into custody compared to over 100,000 on the mainland that were interned. In terms of the Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt on 18 February 1942, people of Japanese descent had to evacuate the west coast within 48 hours. This left the entire economy is a devastating condition. Businesses were shattered; careers suffered a setback. The internment camp policy of WW II was the most serious discrimination against the Japanese Americans. Wikipedia mentions of eleven different camps across the US to which about 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent after the war. The Nisei or the Americans with Japanese ancestry were forcibly interned with their parents and children. Despite this, many Japanese Americans served in the World War II in the American forces while their families were detained in the camps. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL, 2001) gives an apt description of discrimination that the Japanese had to face in the United States: "No mass exclusion or detention, in any part of the country, was ordered against American citizens of German or Italian descent. The Japanese were confined to bleak barrack camps, which were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military police. Only after the war, these Japanese Americans were allowed to rebuild their lives. The post war resettlement began in 1945. Many families permanently relocated to the East and the Midwest after finding jobs there. Others who returned to the west coast found their homes under deplorable conditions, and suffered continued discrimination in housing and employment (COHORTS). Despite all the discrimination meted out to them, the Japanese American income became at par with the whites by 1959; by 1969, it surpassed the national average family income by 32 percent. By 1990, the family income of Japanese Americans was 45 percent higher than that of native-born, non-Asian Americans (ThinkQuest). Economic progress resulted in acculturation and acceptance. Inter marriages became commonplace and by 1980 three-quarters of the Japanese Americans spoke only English. It is even more interesting to note that the Japanese in the US mainland had higher incomes and position than their counterparts in Hawaii despite more discrimination against the Japanese on the mainland. The Japanese on the US mainland came from higher social strata and were wealthier. The BF Journal details the economic settlement and the professions that the Japanese American chose. Nihonmachi (Japanese sections of town) were developed with their own businesses. The immigrants had to work away from the cities for the railroads, oil fields, canneries, and farms. Land in the San Joaquin Delta was reclaimed with the help of the Japanese laborers. Agriculture was the main business of the Japanese. The entire operation right from raising the plants to retail sales was done in Japanese-style. They even experimented with different types of rice and were engaged in farming, distributing and selling it. Cooperatives helped to improve the growing, packing and marketing of crops. ParkNet gives a detailed account of the state of the families of the first generation Japanese who migrated to the United States. They were mostly males because they were initially employed as laborers. According to the Census of 1900, only 410 of the 24,326 Japanese were females. From 1908 onwards, the Japanese females arrived into United States as ‘picture brides’. According to the Japanese culture, marriages were arranged based on the socio-economic status, and the family background. As photography came into existence, pictures were exchanged. Entering the brides name in the grooms family registry legally constituted marriage. Those who found travel expenses prohibitive settled for long-distance marriage. The entire marriage procedure was followed in Japan as if the groom were physically present. Thereafter, the bride migrated to the United States as the wife of the laborer. Most of the Issei were married in this manner, though not all. Those picture brides, who entered the United States after 1910, had to undertake long treacherous boat trips, which made them sick physically in addition to the anxiety that they had to undergo. After the long journey they still had to confront the Detention Barracks at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Papers were processed there after which they were subjected to medical examination. This was hence the place where the picture brides met their husbands for the first time. The population in California increased due to childbirth because of the entry of the picture brides. The anti-Japanese cited this as a violation of the Gentleman’s Agreement after which the Immigration Act of 1924 was imposed. The immigrants before 1924 were generally the young people but since the immigration of women were delayed, the husbands were much older than their wives were. Women entered the United States only between 1908 and 1924, which meant that the Nisei were born between 1910 and 1930. After this there was a gap of 28 years. Due to the huge age gap between husbands and wives, the vast majority of the Japanese Americans are women. This gap of 28 years left a distinct mark of differentiation between the generations. Issei immigrated before 1924; those born between 1920 and 1930 were Nisei; the Nisei married another Nisei, which gave birth to the Sansei generation. The Nisei had an advantage over the Issei. The Nisei moved at fast pace and managed lucrative positions. By 1924, the Issei generation opened businesses such as restaurants, laundries, cleaning establishments, grocery stores, service stations, theaters, and barbershops (COHIRTS). The Issei and Nisei placed their faith and hopes in the success of their children to insure that they had opportunities that were denied them. Immigrants to the United States have always been helpless victims of discrimination and the Japanese were no exception. The Japanese Americans were discriminated right from the beginning. While labor was extracted from them at low wages, their strengths were never appreciated. They made significant contributions to agriculture, which went unnoticed. Even though many had even served in the American army during the Second World War, they were never given the due recognition. On the contrary, they carried a stigma of disloyalty. The war-time sufferings are beyond words. They were denied the naturalization rights; they were discriminated in housing and employment. They were discriminated in education. The pattern of immigration kept changing depending on the changes in the laws of the United States. They struggled to defend and establish themselves at every stage. Nevertheless, the Japanese Americans, the Sansei or the third generation Japanese, manage to resettle with grace and dignity. They shifted from the rural to the urban areas and enhanced their economic base. Today the Japanese Americans can be found in the states of California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington with a high rate of interracial marriage. Each year about 7000 Japanese enter the United States, which amounts to about 4% of the total Asian immigration. References: Ameredia (2006), Japanese American Demographics, 05 May 2006 Brown Foundation Journal, The Brown Quarterly, The History of Japanese Immigration, Volume 3, No. 4 (Spring 2000) -- Asian American History Month, 05 May 2006 COHORTS (1999), Japanese American Elders, 05 May 2006 JACL (2001), A Lesson in American History: The Japanese American Experience, 05 May 2006 ParkNet (2004), Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California, 05 May 2006 ThinkQuest, Immigration, The Journey to America, 05 May 2006 Wikipedia, Japanese American, 05 May 2006 Read More