I. Early
Japanese Immigrants
A.
In 1880s, many perform menial labor in mining, lumber, railroad construction
industries
B.
later become migratory agricultural workers--popular with growers because
work hard
C.
skilled farmers turn desert/marshes into productive land:in CA,1% land,10%
crop value
II.Alien
Land Law 1913
A.
Response to threat of cheap labor/competition is not to welcome, but exclude
B.
Denies land ownership to those ineligible to be citizens; target Issei
(1s gen. Japanese)
C.
1880s, Supreme Court rules for excluding Japanese from naturalization(reversed
1952)
D.
Encourages urban self-employment among Japanese: small businesses
III.Other
Anti-Japanese Developments
A.
Japanese and Korean Exclusion League 1905, later renamed Asiatic Exclusion
League
1.
Mainly labor union representation, opposes immigration and intermarriage
B.From
1905-1945, every session of CA legislature considers anti-Japanese measures
C.
1907 proposed separate Asian schools in San Francisco opposed by Japanese
gov.
1.
Leads to Gentleman’s Agreement: revoke school segregation in return
for
voluntary
restriction on immigration initiated by Japanese Government
D.Picture
Bride Invasion: men/women is 7 to 1, so Japanese brokers find wives
in
Japan--seen
as uncivilized by Americans charging fertility would “over-run” U.S.
E.1921
immig. Act respects Gentlemen’s Agreement;1924 Act bans Asian immigration
IV.Japanese
Internment in Concentration Camps during WWII: Executive Order 9066
A.
Response to bombing of Pearl Harbor 1941: Secy. of Navy blames Japanese-Americans
1.
Accused poisoning drink water, blocking traffic, signaling pilots--never
proved
B.
Executive order calls for evacuation of West Coast for security reasons,
yet not Hawaii
1.
Japanese too central to Hawaiian economy--would have destroyed it to remove
C.
113,000 of 126,000 Japanese Americans on mainland interned: 2/3 were U.S.
citizens
1.
In USA, but no trial/due process, no specific charges--simply ancestry
condemns
D.1st
stage of evacuation: weeks to report to assembly centers: fair grounds,
race tracks
1.At
Santa Anita track, bathe in horse showers in which stench of manure lingers
2.Camp
“Harmony” in Washington houses in converted pigpens
3.sell
property in weeks:economic ruin, lost $400 million (Federal Reserve est.)
E.
2nd Stage of evacuation: concentration camps in remote places/desert
1.Families
in crowded in single room, bare light bulb in long wooden cabins
2.Surrounded
by barbed wire, armed sentinel towers
3.Not
allowed to speak Japanese or practice culture
F.
Peruvian Japanese interned in U.S. under Enemy Alien Act of 1798
G.Little
Opposition: Earl Warren carries out enthusiastically as CA attorney General
1.Survey
of American Civil Liberties Union in 1942 shows strong support
2.Yet
any act of sabotage/espionage by Japanese Americans never verified
3.Supreme
Court upholds until Endo v U.S. in Dec, 1944,when ordered released
H.
Why Japanese, but not Italians or Germans?: Presidents Carter’s Commission
on
Wartime
Relocation and Internment of Civilians concludes 3 reasons:
1.
wartime hysteria,failure of political
leadership,racism
2.recommends
$20,000 to each survivor; payments begin in 1990!