The story of Japanese immigration is an unusual one in the history of colonialism: from a colonized nation to quickly transform themselves into their own colonial empire. At times managing to achieve some acknowledgment of equality from Western empires, their people were nevertheless viewed as the “other” by those same powers. Here is a question: how did Japanese immigration to the United States reflect Japan's rising to become the strongest Asian power of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? Let's find out!
Origins of Japanese Immigration to America
The story of Japanese immigration to America began with a US interest in accessing Japan. The exchange of these two cultures would alter both deeply. Not just ideas, people were exchanged as well. For over 250 years, one family had ruled Japan as the Tokugawa Shogunate, also known as Edo Shogunate. Two hundred years have happened since Japan engaged in contact with the outside world–this was a largely unchanging feudal society.
Shogunate: A military government with a hereditary line of succession, similar to a monarchy in feudal Europe.
Fig. 1: Commodore Mathew Perry.
Commodore Matthew Perry
As industrialization flourished in the West, those countries searched for new markets for their finished goods and sources of raw materials. Commodore Mathew Perry arrived at Tokyo harbor in 1853 as the head of a naval force against which Japan was powerless. The ruling Shogunate had no choice but to agree to open up two ports to western ships in 1854.
More ports become active to Western trade in 1858. Some cities allowed foreigners as full-time residents. Many Japanese were opposed to outsiders, but the Shogunate was unable to effectively resist the foreign wave.
Fig. 2: Reformers and Conservatives Fighting in the Early Meiji Period.
Meiji Restoration
Japanese leaders overthrew the Shogunate and restored the Emperor in 1868 as a response to the Tokugawa Shogunate's weakness against foreign invaders and a deteriorating Japanese economy. Japan underwent one of the most staggeringly fast changes of any country in history. A medieval-style feudal society became an industrialized nation with representative government, European-style courts, and a modern military thanks to fast, radical changes. A rare event for a colonized people, Western powers renegotiated treaties with Japan in 1894. This meant Japan's was considered as an equal nation in status to Western powers.
By the early twentieth century, Japan completed its transformation, as it became an imperial power itself. While Japan had become relatively respected on the world stage, western countries did still view Japan as an “other” and reacted negatively to its attempt to grow into an imperial power on the same scale as western nations.
History of Japanese Immigration to America
It was in the 1880s, in the midst of the Meiji Restoration, that Japanese immigration to the United States began in earnest. Some Japanese had left previously, but it was in the 1880s when large numbers of people began to make the journey. Most entered the United States through Hawaii or the Pacific coast.
Fig. 3: Nakahama Manjiro.
Nakahama Manjiro: the First Immigrant
The first Japanese immigration to the United States was the result of an accident. In fact, leaving Japan was a crime punishable by death. Thus begin the story of Nakahama Manjiro, the first Japanese immigrant to the US.
When he was 14, Manjiro's fishing boat was wrecked and its crew was rescued by an American whaling ship in May 1841. The captain of the ship set Manjiro back to Massachusetts where he was educated, joined a whaling ship, and eventually even discovered gold during the California gold rush.
Manjiro finally returned to Japan in early 1851, he was given a new status as a samurai and sought by the government for his knowledge of the outside world. He served as a translator when Commodore Perry arrived and aided Japanese modernization by translating imported works on ship building, whaling, and naval tactics.
Asian and Pacific Islander heritage month was first declared in May 1992, in celebration of Manjiro's arrival in the United States.
Immigration in the 1860s
The first large-scale Japanese emigration occurred in 1868. 153 Japanese left Yokohama searching for work in Hawaiian sugar plantations. While the Meiji Restoration was bringing urban growth to Japan, rural farmers began to find their opportunities shrinking. Although closely tied to the United States economically, the Hawaii of 1868 was still its administrated by their monarchy.
A smaller group of forty arrived to work farms in California in 1869, marking the first large group of emigration to the continental United States.
Japan migrant workers conditions
The conditions that the Japanese encountered in Hawaii were harsh. They were not used to the climate, were poorly treated, and the cost of goods was beyond the means of their pay. The government of Japan sent a representative to negotiate for the immediate return of some and return upon completion of their contract at the expense of the Hawaiian government for others. As a result of the experience, the government of Japan refused to send migrant workers abroad for almost two decades.
Most Japanese immigrants of the time set out to gain knowledge to bring back to their native land. They believed the United States to be welcoming to foreign immigrants and the home of valuable skills and information which would push along the Meiji Restoration. They were unprepared for both the discrimination they would encounter and the roots they would set down in their new homes.
Immigration in the 1880s
By the 1880s, Japan began to reconsider emigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 limited Chinese immigration and drove up the demand for Japanese workers. Although the Japanese did face racism in the United States, the government was unwilling to overtly subject the Japanese to restrictions due to Japan's rising prominence on the world stage.
The anti-Japanese sentiment of the era focused on incompatible cultural differences between Japanese and Americans, rather than the innate racial inferiority with which the Chinese had been viewed. Hawaii signed an agreement with Japan to bring Japanese laborers to the island in 1886.
Fig. 4: 1890s Japanese Immigrant Family.
Japan Immigration Policies
In 1894, at a high point in the countries' relations, Japan, and the United States signed an immigration treaty that allowed the Japanese to emigrate to the United States and provided full citizenship protections for them when they arrived.
In a little over a decade, the situation changed dramatically. San Francisco began segregating Japanese and Chinese children into separate schools. The outraged Japanese government considered this action to be a treaty violation. In 1907, the two countries came to what was known as the Gentleman's Agreement. Under this agreement, Japan would begin limiting emigration in exchange for better treatment of the Japanese in the United States.
Japanese Immigration to America Timeline
- 1841 - Manjiro becomes the first Japanese immigrant to the United States
- 1851 - Manjiro returns to Japan
- 1853 - Commodore Perry opens Japan to trade
- 1968 - Meiji Restoration begins
- 1868 - Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii
- 1869 - Japanese immigrants arrive in California
- 1882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act increased demand for Japanese labor in the US
- 1886 - Hawaii and Japan make immigration agreement
- 1894 - US and Japan sign immigration treaty
- 1906 - San Francisco segregates schools
- 1907 - The Gentleman's Agreement limits Japanese immigration to the US
Japanese Immigration to America Statistics
The statistics below correlate strongly to the timeline above. Once the Chinese Exclusion Act is signed, Japanese immigration grows exponentially to meet demands for labor. Between 1910 and 1920, growth slows to reflect the "Gentlemen's Agreement" on immigration limits. Still, the population grows as Japanese American communities enter second to third generations. With roots firmly set in the United States, these families produce more children which still grows the population, but at a slower pace than large-scale immigration.
Year | Number of Japanese in the US |
1880 | 148 |
1890 | 2,039 |
1900 | 85,437 |
1910 | 151,832 |
1920 | 220,284 |
1930 | 278,465 |
Hawaii became a US territory in 1898 and already had a large Japanese immigrant population, partially explaining the large jump in 1900.
Fig.5 - 1940s Japanese American Family
Descendants of Japanese Immigrants
First generation Japanese immigrants called themselves "issei," while their children were "nisei," and grandchildren "sansei." With the steady rates of Japanese immigration from the 1880s up to the 1907 Gentleman's Agreement, most Japanese in America were issei–first generation.
It wouldn't be until the 1930s that the Nisei and later generations would make up more than half of the Japanese American population.
In the next decade, this Japanese American generation, more than half of whom were native born and identified culturally as Americans, would face their greatest discrimination yet with the internment camps of WWII.
Japanese Immigration - Key takeaways
- For 200 years, Japan had been isolationist until Commodore Mathew Perry forced the country to open up to US trade
- During the Meiji Restoration, Japan rapidly modernized and Westernized
- Japanese began to immigrate to Hawaii in 1868 and the US in 1869
- Japanese immigration to the US increased significantly after the Chinese Exclusion Act
- In the 1890s, Japan had reached a level of equality with western powers that it was able to renegotiate its foreign treaties
- Deteriorating US and Japanese relations led to the Gentleman's Agreement limiting Japanese immigration to the US
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