Persuasive Essay 2 Pages Double Space
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Session011-PacificCrossings.pptxPacific Crossings
Economic and Political Segregation of Japanese Americans
Push forces
1853 Matthew Perry opens Japan to the West
1868 Meiji Restoration – from Shogunate (feudalism) to Imperial rule – Westernization
Taxation for the military and industrialization
Pauperization: distressed agricultural class
Hawaii and the U.S.
1885-1924
200,000 to Hawaii (40% of the population)
180,000 to the U.S. mainland
Gender migration
Picture brides: contributed to gender balance
46% woman in 1920
First sons stayed in homeland
Presence of women helped ease life on the plantations
Strikes
Hawaiian Sugar Plantation
Pitted one ethnic group against another
Lower wages
Replace workers
Suppress discontent
Class hierarchy based on ethnicity: lunas vs. field workers
Inter-ethnic solidarity
Japanese and Filipino Labor Unions
Hawaii Laborers’ Association
Other groups joined: Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese
Pidgin English
The Mainland
2% of the pop. of CA
Anti-Japanese hostility
Followed the Chinese experience
Success in agriculture: from contract and sharecropping to leasing and ownership
CA’s fruit and vegetable:
70% of strawberries
67% of tomatoes
44% of onions
George Shima: dominated potato production
1907 Gentlemen’s Agreement
Why an agreement?
Stipulated “voluntary” prohibition of Japanese laborers to enter the U.S.
This applied to Hawaii because of its incorporation into the U.S. in 1900
Agreement reached between Japan and the U.S.
Women migration permitted because they were technically not “laborers”
Alien Land Law (1913 Webb-Heney Act)
California passes alien land law prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from buying or leasing it for longer than three years
Other states followed: AZ (1917); WA, MO, and AR (1921); UT and WY (WWII)
1920 Alien Land Act: amendment to the 1913 Act, in order to close loopholes
February 26, 1913
The New York Times
Ozawa v. U.S. (1922)
Justice Sutherland delivered the opinion:
The appellant is a person of the Japanese race born in Japan. He applied, on October 16, 1914, to the United States District Court for the Territory of Hawaii to be admitted as a citizen of the United States. His petition was opposed by the United States District Attorney for the District of Hawaii.
Including the period of his residence in Hawaii appellant had continuously resided in the United States for 20 years.
He was a graduate of the Berkeley, Cal., high school, had been nearly three years a student in the University of California, had educated his children in American schools, his family had attended American churches and he had maintained the use of the English language in his home.
That he was well qualified by character and education for citizenship is conceded.
Derivative Citizenship: Woman marrying a foreigner lost her U.S. citizenship
Marriage to an alien was a voluntary act of expatriation (MacKenzie v. Hare; 239 U.S. 299)
Expatriation through marriage: became aliens in their own country; potentially a woman without a country, if husband’s country did not recognize or adopt wives
Protecting the body politic: height of immigration
Marriages bet. Chinese and whites criminal and void
Immigration law tightened: deportation for infractions
Served as immigration restriction against American women married to foreigners
Exception: Divorce or death - foreign woman retained citizenship; American woman regained citizenship that was lost for marrying a foreigner
1907 Expatriation Act
Independent citizenship to women
Severed the tie between marriage and citizenship
Times have changed:
19th Amendment: Voting rights – equal rights between sexes brewing – property and contract rights
Changes in civil rights also put pressure on political rights
Exceptions:
1. Am. citizen marrying an ineligible woman, he retains citizenship. The converse, however, is not true.
2. Five year waiting period for alien man; but only one year for woman.
3. Living abroad after marriage differentiates man and woman.
1922 Cable Act
American-born, married a Chinese citizen in 1924
Husband dies; widower attempts to return to the U.S. and resume her citizenship privileges
Denied re-entry: she is considered a foreigner who now needs to be naturalized
Naturalization law prohibits Asian woman: “an immigrant born in the U.S. who has lost his U.S. citizenship shall be considered as having been born in the country of which he is a citizen or subject”
Ng Fung Sing, 1925
1924 National Origins Act
Established an immigration quota of 2% based on nationality
Intended to target the Southern and Eastern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, Russian Jews, etc.)
Closed the loophole in the 1907 Gentlemen’s Agreement – voluntary restriction of laborers
Denied entry to “aliens ineligible for naturalized citizenship”
Ended Asian immigration to the U.S. (limited to about 100 per anum)
Historical Contexts
Rise of Eugenics
Identification
Segregation
Separation
Sterilization
U.S. Supreme Court: Buck v. Bell (1927)
Comparisons
Compare and contrast the experiences of two ethnic or racial groups. Be sure to highlight:
Voluntary immigration/forced migration
Contributions and struggles: social, economic, political, cultural
Major defining issues for the development of communities
How could we enrich the American history based on our knowledge of ethnic and racial histories?
