Japanese Immigration to the United States

This research examines the Japanese American segment of the population of the United States. The findings of this research are presented in three separate topical discussions. The immigration history of the Japanese to the United States is examined in the first discussion, while the demography of Japanese Americans are examined in the second discussion, and contributions by Japanese Americans to American society are reviewed in the third discussion.

There is no record of Japanese immigration to the United States prior to 1861 (Daniels, 1992, pp. 427-441). Immigration data for the 1861-1993 period are presented in Table 1, which may be found on page 3. As the data presented in the table indicate, Japanese immigration to the United States declined dramatically following the virtual exclusion of immigrants from Japan subsequent to the Immigration Act of 1924.

When debating the racially motivated exclusion of Asian immigrants in 1912, the United States Congress had to decide whether California's loudly proclaimed racial and cultural interest in Japanese exclusion was worth antagonizing the Japanese Empire (Light, 1996, p. 60). "California was a white man's society, and it wanted to stay that way. President Taft did not think that California's racial purity was compensation enough for antagonizing the Japanese, so he vetoed the bill." Undeterred, and under pressure from racist voters in California, Congress passed

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40,164 1971-1980 47,965 1981-1990 43,243 1991-1993 23,442 [Source: Bureau of the Census, 1995, p. 11; Wilson & Hosokawa, 1980, p. 306] ________________________________________________________________ a storm of protest in that state, and President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched the "entire American fleet to Japan to 'silence' the Japanese and appease the vociferous Californians" (Inui, 1941, p. 157). Californians agitated for discriminatory legislation at the federal level that would exclude Japanese immigration to the United States (Spinks, 1938, p. 617). The movement for Japanese exclusion was supported by American labor organizations and by nationalist organizations in the country (Spinks, 1938, p. 617). The primary sites of American resentment against the Japanese were those locations where Japanese immigrants settled, with most of the rest of the country either uninterested in the issue or opposed to the California calls for exclusion of the Japanese (Spinks, 1938, p. 617). Divisions within the American population with respect to excluding Japanese immigrants resulted in the adop

Category: Government - J