fornia were more important to national interest than were affronts to the Japanese Empire. As expected, the racist immigration legislation enraged the Japanese nation. An even more offensive action occurred in 1924. This action was the quota applied to Japanese immigration to the United States that was included in the Immigration Act of 1924 (Spinks, 1938, p. 617).
Late in the nineteenth century, the United States legislated the Chinese Exclusion Act to close American doors to Chinese coolie labor and protect poor California from the "Yellow Peril" (Hedges, 1939, pp. 494-503) With the exclusion of Chinese immigrants, California businesses turned to Japan for "a much-needed and, at that time, very welcome labour supply" (Hedges, 1939, pp. 494-503) As the Japanese population on the American West Coast increased through labor immigration, economic competition increased between the Japanese immigrants, immigrant settlers from Europe, and native born Americans. By 1906, Japanese immigration to California was sufficient to cause
Japanese Immigration to United States: 1861-1993
________________________________________________________________
Decade___ Total Number__
1861-1870 186
1871-1880 149
1881-1890 2,270
1891-1900 25,942
1901-1910 129,797
1911-1920 83,837
1921-1930 33,462
1931-1940 1,948
1941-1950 1,555
1951-1960 45,534
1961-1970 40,164
1971-1980 ...