1869 is the year when the Japanese started to immigrate to the US. One of the big companies that were responsible for recruiting was the Wakamatsu Tear and Silk Farm Colony. The immigration of Japanese continues steadily through the second half of the 19th century. By 1880 over two thousand Japanese were living in the US and Hawaii. In Hawaii the Japanese worked on the sugar cane plantations and were much desired because of their knowledge of agriculture and crop growing.
In 1907, white supremacists groups, politicians, and labor organizations created a �gentleman�s agreement� which Japan also agreed to, intending to slow down the immigration of Japanese workers but still allowed women and children to come over and join their families who already lived in the US. Though the �gentleman�s agreement� was aimed to slow the number of Japanese entering the US, the opposite happened and in the beginning of the 20th century the population skyrocketed by thousands each year. By 1920, over 110,000 lived in the US.
Angry feelings over the population increase from the same organizations that created the �gentleman�s agreement� worked to stop the Japanese from entering the US at all. That led to the Immigration Act of 1924. The act put Japanese immigration to almost a complete stop, allowing only 100 immigrants of Japanese decent into the US per year until 1952 when the act was finally lifted. The 100 positions allowed in each year were almost held exclusively for white person born in Japan who wanted to come to the US.
1946- The last War Relocation Authority camp closes.
1952- McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act was passed to remove racial barriers to immigration and allowed people of all races to have citizenship, wehre it hadn�t been available in the past.
1990�s- Japan experienced an economic recession, while America�s economy was going strong.
Slides 8 thru 16 show the population of Japanese American�s in every state, including DC, in America in 1990. This shows where Japanese people moved to and settled down. Each graph is broken up into the different divisions.
The first one is the New England Division, including Main, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. For this set of states Massachusetts had the highest population, and the reason for this is because of Boston. Most Japanese immigrants settled in places of high employment, including big cities and high agricultural spots. So the fact that Massachusetts has the highest population in this division is not very surprising.
The next division is the East North Central Division, including the states Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This division had the highest population in Illinois, which totaled 21,831, still not very high. But with Chicago being located there, it is yet another big city with a high job opportunity rate.
Next, we looked at the West North Central Division consisting of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Here the highest population laid in Minnesota followed closely by Missouri with 3581 and 3391 respectively. Here we find lots of land and agriculture, as well as rail roads being built at the time of early migration.
The next division is South Atlantic Division. Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia, West Virginia, North Virginia, South Virginia, Georgia and Florida make up this division. Florida has the win over this division with 8505 Japanese. Florida has many appealing aspects, including the big cities, has the big beach line, as well as the warm climate which helped for them to grow their flowers.
Next, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi make up the East South Central Division. This division had the lowest population total, and part of this comes from the fact that it is in the middle of the country and, although, there are a few big cities, they did not meet the needs of the Japanese people.
The next Division is the West South Central Division, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas with Texas taking the lead of 14735 Japanese. Texas has a lot to offer anyone, let alone migrating immigrants looking for work. With all of the land, there was plenty of room for rail roads, and oil refineries, as well as the big cities such as Austin.
The next one we look at is the Mountain Division, including Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Here, Colorado takes the high count with an 11402 Japanese population. One of the reasons that the population rose here, and that many Japanese settled here, was because one of the camps that Japanese people were taken to was located here in the 1940�s as relocation points.
The next division we looked at was our own Pacific Division, including Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii. California lead this population with an amazing 312,989 and Hawaii followed with 247,486. The reasons for this high explosion of Japanese people are because of the location of these states in relation to Japan, seeing as how, Japanese people first were moved to Hawaii to work for the plantation owners who sought them out, and for California because of the large cities, as well as the gold rush and being dropped off there as a main stop.
The last division is the Middle Atlantic Division which consists of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of course, New York has the highest population with 35291 Japanese people. This is because of the big cities and many job opportunities available there.
Another graph that was included in our presentation was the �How Japanese reported their race in the 2000 US Census�. Here we see that it was split up into four categories. Two under �Asian alone� with two sub groups of �one Asian group� of 93% and �two or more� with 7%. The Next category is �Asian in combination with one ore more other races� with �one Asian group� of 81% and �two or more� of 19%. We thought that this was interesting because it shows that a big percentage sees them as Japanese alone, mixed with no other race, the 93%, and of the Japanese that are in combination with one or more other races, they still have the majority, 81% with one Asian group. It makes you see into their culture and that most Japanese didn�t seem to mix with other races, and part of this is because Japanese marriages were arranged.
Some Japanese immigrants had no trouble assimilating into American culture. They were willing to learn English, took the jobs they were given, and followed what was the �norm�. Some even changed their religion. Some Japanese immigrants didn�t want to assimilate. They just came to America for new opportunities but followed their culture. By not automatically assimilating, a barrier was formed which labeled them at �the other�. Some Americans accepted them and became good, loyal friends to them allowing them to become an �us� with America. Others wanted nothing to do with them. There was always a little hostility present, but it wasn�t until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor when hatred was strongly shown. They were put into relocation camps for a few years where they felt ashamed and embarrassed. They lost their identity by being given a number.
They had so many questions about whether or not they would be able to leave the camp and have a family to raise outside of the camp. They wanted to know if their children would be able to see what the world actually looked like. They wanted to know if their property would still be there for them when they returned. Unfortunately, a lot of their property and belongings were auctioned off at a price less then its actual value. Once they were able to return to their homes after the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for them to be detained in camps, they were not prepared for the hostility they were about to face. If they thought of being spit on and yelled at was harsh enough, they were in for a miserable treat. Their farms were set afire. There were gun shootings. They received anonymous phone threats and they were often yelled at. They would be called �dirty, yellow Japs� and told to go back home. They weren�t able to by merchandise from stores they used to be able to go in because of new sings that said �No Jap trade�. People who were their friends turned on them and now became their enemies and the people who they tried to avoid. It took a few years for the hatred to die down. It still exists now but the �us� and the �them� is not as obvious as it once was.