History Analytical essay

Great Depression, World War II, Cold War, & Civil Rights

Week 5

Agenda ➢ Lecture, “Great Depression, World War II, Cold War, & Civil Rights”

○ World War II Cont. ■ Filipino Americans ■ Japanese Americans ■ Chinese Americans

○ Beginning of Cold War ■ Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Migration

○ Immigration Reform in 1950s

Filipinos in World War II ➢ Tydings-McDuffie Act, 1934 ➢ 1946 Filipinos become eligible

for citizenship & quota increased to 100

Japanese Americans ➢ 125,000 Japanese Americans in contiguous US ➢ Many nisei ➢ Many citizens ➢ Executive Order 9066

○ Signed by FDR Feb. 19, 1942 ○ Interred 120,000 Japanese Americans ○ 50% children ○ 70% women

Japanese Internment ➢ Many Japanese Americans

believed they would not be interred

➢ Executive Order 9102 ○ Created Civilian War

Relocation Authority ○ Established and managed

camps ➢ Within 4 months, 110,000

interred ○ Left behind businesses

and homes

Japanese Internment

Resettlement & Reparations

➢ Goal to integrate Japanese Americans ➢ Ex Parte Endo, Dec. 1944

○ Supreme Court ruled that government could no longer detain loyal citizens

➢ ⅔ of those interred returned to West Coast ➢ Civil Liberties Act, 1988

○ Paid victims of internment $20,000

Chinese Americans During WWII ➢ 75,000 Chinese Americans

living in contiguous US ➢ Benefited from anti-Japanese

sentiment ➢ Helped war effort ➢ 15% of shipyard workers in Bay

Area were Chinese Americans

Chinese Americans During WWII ➢ 13,499 Chinese Americans

fought for US in WWII ○ 22% of Chinese men in

US ➢ Chinese Exclusion Act repealed

1943 ○ Allowed for naturalization ○ Quota of 105

➢ Chinese wives of American citizens able to come to US in 1946

➢ 1945-1952 ○ 840 Chinese quota spots ○ 11,000 immigrated to US

■ 10,000 women

Puerto Ricans ➢ Annexed by US following

Spanish-American War ➢ Citizenship granted 1917

○ Not affected by immigration restrictions

➢ 1940 ○ 70,000 Puerto Ricans in

US ○ 90% in US

➢ Puerto Rican Federal Relations Law ○ 1950 ○ Essentially made Puerto

Rico a commonwealth ○ Limited citizenship

Puerto Ricans ➢ In contiguous US faced poverty & prejudice ➢ Religion

○ Catholic ○ Alienated from US church ○ Folk religion

■ Botánicas

Repeal of 1882 Exclusion ➢ Chinese immigration 1943 ➢ Filipino immigration 1946

○ 1952-1965 ■ 3,618 quota immigrants ■ 13,860 non-quota immigrants

➢ Asian Immigration ○ Chinese, Filipino, Indian, and Pakistani

immigration ■ Quotas remained small ■ Now eligible for citizenship

○ Japanese, Korean, and others ■ “Aliens ineligible for citizenship”

➢ McCarran-Walter Act (Immigration and Nationality Act) 1952 ○ Truman veto ○ Ended exclusion of racial & ethnic groups from

naturalization & immigration

Japanese Americans ➢ Quota of 185 until 1965 ➢ 45,000 Japanese immigrants

between 1952 and 1960 ○ 40,000 were women,

mostly married to non-Japanese soldiers & veterans

➢ High levels of education

Chinese Americans ➢ 1940s - population increased

41% ➢ 1970s - population increased

86% ➢ 1960-1980 500,000+ Chinese

immigrants ➢ Included Taiwan, Hong Kong,

Southeast Asia, & China ➢ Range of education & wealth

status

European Refugees from WWII ➢ 1946 5,000 refugees admitted to

US

Displaced Persons Act 1948, 1950 ➢ First time legislation set refugee

policy not immigration

UN’s International Refugee Organization “...victims … of the nazi or fascist … or … quisling regimes … or Spanish Republicans and other victims of the Falangist regime in Spain… or persons who were considered refugees before the outbreak of the second world war, for reasons of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion… who have been deported from, or obliged to leave their country of nationality or of former habitual residence.”

Congress added volksdeutsche Persons of German ethnicity who fled/expelled from Eastern Europe, Italian refugees from Venezia-Giulia, and refugees from Czechoslovakia

Displaced Persons Act 1948, 1950 ➢ New quotas ➢ 250,000 new immigrants ➢ 1950 - upped to 415,000 ➢ Cold War impact

Immigration & Nationality Act 1952 ➢ AKA McCarran-Walter Act ➢ Ended racial & ethnic based exclusion

from naturalization and immigration ➢ Increased immigration ➢ More refugees

“Whom We Shall Welcome” ➢ Truman’s Critique ➢ Recommended instead end of

National Origins System ➢ Recommended 5 principles

○ Right of asylum ○ Family reunification ○ Needs in the US ○ Needs in the “Free

World” ○ General immigration

Immigration & Nationality Act 1952 ➢ AKA McCarran-Walter Act ➢ Ended racial & ethnic based exclusion

from naturalization and immigration ➢ Increased immigration ➢ More refugees

Refugee Relief Act, 1953 ➢ 205,000 nonquota person for 2.5 years ➢ Refugee defined as “any person in a country or area which is

either Communist or Communist-dominated, who because of persecution, fear of persecution, natural calamity or military operation is out of his usual place of abode and is unable to return thereto, who has not been firmly resettled, and who is in urgent need of assistance for the essentials of life or for transportation.” ○ 5000 (2.5% of total) could be Asian refugees

■ 2000 Chinese refugees ➢ 1956 revision

○ Broadened eligibility to include Middle East refugees ➢ 1962 revision

○ Included Latin American refugees ➢ 1965 immigration reform

○ Immigration include special preference for refugees ➢ 1945-1980 2.25 million people entered US as refugees

Immigration in 1950s ➢ 3.5 million entered US ➢ Only ⅓ quota immigrants ➢ Far fewer Europeans than anticipated

Operation Wetback, 1954-1955 ➢ Counter to bracero program ➢ Eisenhower administration ➢ Aimed to discourage farmers from hiring

workers outside of proper channels ➢ Immigration agents rounded up people who

lacked proper documents ➢ Numbers difficult to determine

○ 1953 875,000 immigrants apprehended ○ 1954 1 million immigrants apprehended ○ First fiscal year of program, 250,000

immigrants apprehended