3 paragraph Journal on History
HRW33
WK4JapaneseFilipinoCh10.pptxJapanese & Filipino
California and Hawaii
Policies that affected Filipino Americans
1922 - The Cable Act – Was enacted to discourage white women from marrying Chinese, Japanese and Filipino men.
It provides that any white female citizen that marries an alien ineligible for citizenship, would herself lose her citizenship. If a white woman did enter such a marriage, and the marriage later ended in death or divorce, she could then regain her citizenship. However, if an Asian woman who had been a U.S. citizen by birth, entered such a marriage that later ended, she could not regain her citizenship.
1931- Filipinos who served in the U.S. armed forces now eligible for U.S. citizenship.
1933 - Salvador Roldan vs. LA County, tests the anti-miscegenation laws and the Appellate Court rules that Roldan could marry Marjorie Rogers, an Anglo woman because Filipinos are Malays, not Mongolians ,as prohibited by anti-miscegenation laws. The anti-Filipino forces however soon get legislation added onto existing laws to include Filipino-white in anti-miscegenation prohibitions.
Japanese California Experience
In Hawaii they constituted ~ 40% of the population. In California, they were only 2%
Work Experiences
Agriculture
Railroads
Canneries
** Farmers and Farm owners
Methods for Farm ownership
Contract
The Farmer agreed to plant and harvest a crop for a set amount to be paid by the land owner.
Share
The Farmer and the land owner would split a percentage of the crops profit.
Under both systems the land owner was responsible for the tools and the farmer was responsible for the labor.
Lease
Farmer would lease the land and pay rent at the end of the crop harvest
Japanese Farmers
Timing was right for farm ownership
The growth in population in the city, created a need for more produce.
Through the leasing/share methods Japanese became prominent farmers in CA.
In 1910 they produced 70% of California’s strawberries and up to 95% of snap peas.
Farm labor was relentless, but this time, effort coincided with personal gain. They were working for themselves.
Japanese felt that their success and wealth would gain them American assimilation.
While it gained them consumer power, it did not gain them the right to live where they pleased or marry whom they chose.
Policies affecting Japanese Americans
1905 the San Francisco School Board attempts to segregate Japanese school children in the same way already done with Chinese children,
the Japanese American community and the Japanese government create a firestorm: President Theodore Roosevelt chastises the California State and city school authorities for not appreciating the dangers of "aggravating this belligerent nation" (Japan, whose Navy "could take the Philippines away from us"). Roosevelt did not want to upset U.S./Japan relations.
Having quelled the "San Francisco school incident" Theodore Roosevelt persuades Japan to reach a U.S./JAPAN Gentlemen's Agreement in 1907, whereby Japan voluntarily stops issuing passports to laborers wishing to emigrate to the United States. In exchange, Japanese in the U.S. receive more fair treatment.
Policies affecting Japanese Americans
1913 - The California Alien Land Act, aimed at Japanese farmers, prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from buying land or leasing it for longer than three years; further restrictions are added in 1921 and 1923. ‘
1922 - The Cable Act provides that woman citizens will lose their U.S. citizenship if they marry aliens ineligible for citizenship; unlike white women, Asian American women cannot regain their U.S. citizenship through naturalization.
US born Asian women cannot marry Asian men or they lose their citizenship. But Anti-miscegenation laws state, they are unable to marry whites…..
Assimilation Issues
1922 - Ozawa vs. United States interprets Japanese aliens as ineligible for U.S. citizenship through naturalization.
US Court declared Mr. Ozawa”in every way eminently qualified under the statutes to become an American Citizen, except one – he is not white. (SEE PGE 258)
Supreme Court upheld the lower court
Assimilation Issues
Japanese families did everything they could to assimilate, but were never considered American
Denied their religion
Denied their language
Were industrious and business owners
Became scholars
Acquired wealth and paid taxes
Even more so than other immigrants that had been granted citizenship.
Italians and Irish conserved their culture while still being granted citizenship because they were granted ‘white’ status.
Filipinos
In 1903, the U.S. passed the Pensionado Act, which brought qualified, middle to upper class Filipino students to the U.S. as government scholars to further their education and training and return to the Philippines.
The Philippine Islands was a territory of the U.S. It was the government’s intention to establish an educated class of native Filipinos which would carryout American policy in the Philippines.
Filipino Labor Contribution
While Pensionados were given a free education by the U.S. government, the poorer, peasant class Filipinos sought jobs on Hawaii plantations, California farms, and in the Alaskan fishing industry.
