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.
Japanese Immigration to the United States
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 a more exclusionary immigration bill in 1916, but President Wilson vetoed it for the same foreign policy reason as had President Taft. Congress overrode Wilson's veto in 1917, writing into law the Immigration Act of 5 February 1917, which first created an Asian "barred zone" from which immigration to the United States was prohibited. In effect, the five years of deliberations that preceded this legislation determined that ethno-cultural and phenotypical continuity in Cali...