Xinyu Shang
Reading journal week2
The beginning of the chapter narrates the rapport of the immigrant Japanese among the Americans and the Japanese-Americans in the early 1880s. The immigrant Japanese were mostly low-incomed people with illegal wives who were being pushed into prostitution by their husbands to make the ends meet. Most of these people were poor laborers, brothel owners and relied on unethical means of earning. They were involved in gambling and addiction which created a narrative of all the Japanese which affected the lives of the Japanese-Americans.
The last decade of the nineteenth century caused havoc on the Japanese when the immigration officer declared them as illegal contractors and was denied entry in America, just like Chinese. Issei i.e. the first generation Japanese-Americans and the elite immigrants saw this as a threat to their social image and a cause for racial discrimination thus they made it very clear how they are different from the Chinese. Issei leaders stated, How do Japanese in America and the Chinese in America differ? First, the Chinese in America represent the lower class of the Chinese race, and the Japanese in America the upper class of the Japanese race. Second, the Chinese are so backward and stubborn that they refuse the American way. The Japanese, on the other hand, are so progressive and competent as to fit right into the American way of life….In no way do we, energetic and brilliant Japanese men, stand below those lowly Chinese (Azuma,ch2).
The divergence of the Japanese-Americans escalated as they believed the shabbily clothed laborers do not represent the Japanese and do not meet the standard American lifestyle. The bubble of the Issei leaders burst when the San Francisco Board of Health forcefully tackled the elite and vaccinated them in their groins during the outbreak of Sinification. They began to realize they were nonetheless better than the Chinese according to the Americans. This led to the formation of the Japanese Deliberative Council of America whose aim was to save the national stature of the Japanese and increasing the rights of imperial issues. A significant decrease in meager jobs like mining and manual workers was observed in the twentieth century among the Japanese. The Gentlemen’s Agreement was signed between the American and Japanese governments which terminated the influx of the dekasegi migrants into America. This resulted in jeopardizing the economic sources of Issei contractors who used to hire these laborers.
The political riots up roared in Japan in the early 1900s and the socialist and the leftist groups took refuge in San Francisco. The blasphemous leaflets against Emperor Meiji were distributed in which the Diplomats try to cover up with the American authorities but it was useless and thus Foreign Ministers of Japan ordered the prosecution of the socialists upon their return to Japan.
Meanwhile many reformative measures were being also taken such as anti-gambling campaigns and educating the rural masses. This was also being done to shed the narrative of being associated with the corrupt Chinese. The women were being tutored by the elite Issei Japanese to be more palatable to the American taste. They were being subtly brainwashed to stay in America, adopt their lifestyle and bear their children and be more presentable to the Americans to be inclusive of the American culture. Organizations such as the Japanese Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) were formed whose sole purpose was to introduce the Japanese women as the modern women who wear western attire and behave lady-like. Another noticeable community of the diasporic Japanese in the 1920s had been molded who were not being accepted by the Americans and rejected by the Japanese back home. They suffered a great deal with racial subordination in the white American regime. In areas like Walnut Groove, the Issei farmers had started their successful journey by yielding the top-quality produce, using the labor of Japanese farmers, which the white farmers had overlooked and gained profits triple folds. The Alien Land Law made the farmers more vulnerable and were being exploited by the tenancy contracts by the hands of white property owners. This made them more socially and economically dependent on the Americans and thus they shifted to shared-cropping which had less monetary benefits for the farmers. The institutionalized racism and abuse made the farmers give up on farming.
After the war years, the racial discriminatory lines were blurred to some extent due to the growing population of the Japanese. The debate to permit interracial interactions began beyond the economic ties. America's dismissal of racial equality showed the American hypocrisy and thus left an adverse impact on the young Japanese.
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