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Japanese have been a presence in the continental United States for more than a century, but some Japanese, slaves held by several Indian tribes, were in the Northwest even before the arrival of the first Whites. From 1636 to around 1860, Japanese were forbidden to emigrate. The Tokugawa shogunate imposed an embargo on emigration in the 17th century, and because of fear of the corrupting influence of the West, had effectively sealed off the borders. But the arrival of Admiral Perry in 1853, and the signing of a peace treaty between the United States and Japan, reversed for a short time Japan's emigration policy. Laws forbidding emigration were reinstated when Japan feared that the export of labor would lower their prestige among nations of the world. Emigration laws were later relaxed again only because of severe economic conditions and crop failures in southern Japan. From 1886 until 1924 there was considerable Japanese emigration to Hawaii (238,758) and the United States (196,543).
Japanese in Hawaii
Sugar is believed to have been first milled in Hawaii as early as 1802; however, it was not until the 1840s that it became a major crop. Native Hawaiians were hired first to do the growing, harvesting, and milling of sugar, but there eventually became an acute shortage of Hawaiian laborers. Compounding the problem was the Hawaiian emigration to California during the gold rush and thousands of Hawaiians dying from diseases brought to the Islands by foreigners. Recognizing the need for cheap labor for sugar plantations, the Hawaiian ambassador to Japan persuaded the government to allow 180 contract laborers to sign up for work.
The Japanese found conditions on the sugar plantation harsh. They worked from dawn to dusk, unaccustomed to the scorching hot Hawaiian sun. Because they did not understand orders given in English, workers were often bullwhipped. After the Japanese government learned of these conditions, Special Commissioner Katsunosuke Inouye was sent to Hawaii to investigate charges of cruelty to Japanese workers. Japan threatened to stop sending workers unless something was done to stop this abuse. Frightened by the possibility of termination of the labor source and hoping to satisfy Japan's concern for Japanese workers in Hawaii, the Hawaiian government entered into an agreement with Japan making Japanese immigrants wards of the Hawaiian government, and the planters its agents. Waiting to see if the agreement with Hawaii stopped Japanese worker abuse, Japan did not allow further emigration until 1886. Between 1886 and 1894, 26 sailings brought 29,069 Japanese immigrants. Another 30,000 Japanese immigrants were brought in during the two years after Hawaii's annexation in 1898.
After the Organic Act was passed in 1900, giving Japanese laborers more freedom, there were many small strikes for increased wages and better working conditions. Dissatisfied and unhappy, over 40,000 left Hawaii for employment in the United States. This, and an outbreak of bubonic plague among the immigrants of Honolulu, caused a critical labor shortage. Sugar planters then turned to the Filipinos as a source of cheap labor.
Japanese in the United States
In 1880, two years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, fewer than 200 Japanese lived in the United States. A decade later, Japanese immigrated at an annual rate of 1,000. 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.
As with the Chinese, 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.
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. 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.
Japanese Internment During World War II
Up to World War II, both Chinese and 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. Military officials reasoned 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.
At first the Japanese were given time to leave the West Coast. A few did leave, but they found no acceptance in other areas of the United States. Eventually they were told to stay where they were pending relocation under a newly created federal agency, the War Relocation Authority (WRA). Across the western United States, all those of Japanese descent were transferred to "relocation camps." These camps were located in Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. They resembled military barracks, and privacy was at a minimum. More than 110,000 men, women, grandmothers, grandfathers, children, and babies were kept behind barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of the Japanese evacuation by a six to three vote, after the dissenting justices gave sharp minority opinions.
The situation in Hawaii was different, however. At the outbreak of World War II, Japanese comprised about one-third of Hawaii's population. Seen as a source of needed labor, limited restrictions were imposed on the Japanese. As the war continued, only a few Japanese whose record before the war rendered them suspicious were interned.
In 1945, the 38th parallel was hardened by the inability of North Korea and South Korea to agree on the structure of a unified Korea. About ten million people, one-third of the Korean people, lived north of the 38th parallel. South Korea, slightly smaller in land size than the North, was the home to over 25 million people. The ambition of the North Korean Workers Party, molded by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was to reunify Korea under Communist rule. Under American occupation from 1945 to 1948, a variety of political parties were formed in South Korea, each representing faction support among the Korean elite.
In 1949, the United States military forces withdrew from South Korea as part of a policy of military pull-back from Asia. Taking advantage of the American pull-back, and assured of Stalin's continued support from the Soviet Union, North Korean forces moved across the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950.
Immediately after the invasion, America pledged its support to Korea, and quickly built force strength there to 600,000 men. Asian-Pacific-Americans were not segregated into separate units during this conflict and their achievements in Korea confirmed their loyalty and patriotism. Despite extensive support from the Communist Chinese and the Soviet Union, the North Koreans were driven back, and an armistice was signed in July 1953. In October of that same year, the United States signed a mutual defense treaty with South Korea.
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