Japanese Immigration

Commodore Matthew Perry

As industrialization flourished in the West, those countries searched for new markets for their finished goods and sources of raw materials. Commodore Mathew Perry arrived at Tokyo harbor in 1853 as the head of a naval force against which Japan was powerless. The ruling Shogunate had no choice but to agree to open up two ports to western ships in 1854.

More ports become active to Western trade in 1858. Some cities allowed foreigners as full-time residents. Many Japanese were opposed to outsiders, but the Shogunate was unable to effectively resist the foreign wave.

Fig. 2: Reformers and Conservatives Fighting in the Early Meiji Period.

Meiji Restoration

Japanese leaders overthrew the Shogunate and restored the Emperor in 1868 as a response to the Tokugawa Shogunate's weakness against foreign invaders and a deteriorating Japanese economy. Japan underwent one of the most staggeringly fast changes of any country in history. A medieval-style feudal society became an industrialized nation with representative government, European-style courts, and a modern military thanks to fast, radical changes. A rare event for a colonized people, Western powers renegotiated treaties with Japan in 1894. This meant Japan's was considered as an equal nation in status to Western powers.

History of Japanese Immigration to America

It was in the 1880s, in the midst of the Meiji Restoration, that Japanese immigration to the United States began in earnest. Some Japanese had left previously, but it was in the 1880s when large numbers of people began to make the journey. Most entered the United States through Hawaii or the Pacific coast.

Fig. 3: Nakahama Manjiro.

Immigration in the 1860s

The first large-scale Japanese emigration occurred in 1868. 153 Japanese left Yokohama searching for work in Hawaiian sugar plantations. While the Meiji Restoration was bringing urban growth to Japan, rural farmers began to find their opportunities shrinking. Although closely tied to the United States economically, the Hawaii of 1868 was still its administrated by their monarchy.

A smaller group of forty arrived to work farms in California in 1869, marking the first large group of emigration to the continental United States.

Immigration in the 1880s

By the 1880s, Japan began to reconsider emigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 limited Chinese immigration and drove up the demand for Japanese workers. Although the Japanese did face racism in the United States, the government was unwilling to overtly subject the Japanese to restrictions due to Japan's rising prominence on the world stage.

The anti-Japanese sentiment of the era focused on incompatible cultural differences between Japanese and Americans, rather than the innate racial inferiority with which the Chinese had been viewed. Hawaii signed an agreement with Japan to bring Japanese laborers to the island in 1886.

Fig. 4: 1890s Japanese Immigrant Family.

Japan Immigration Policies

In 1894, at a high point in the countries' relations, Japan, and the United States signed an immigration treaty that allowed the Japanese to emigrate to the United States and provided full citizenship protections for them when they arrived.

In a little over a decade, the situation changed dramatically. San Francisco began segregating Japanese and Chinese children into separate schools. The outraged Japanese government considered this action to be a treaty violation. In 1907, the two countries came to what was known as the Gentleman's Agreement. Under this agreement, Japan would begin limiting emigration in exchange for better treatment of the Japanese in the United States.

Japanese Immigration to America Timeline

• 1841 - Manjiro becomes the first Japanese immigrant to the United States
• 1851 - Manjiro returns to Japan
• 1853 - Commodore Perry opens Japan to trade
• 1968 - Meiji Restoration begins
• 1868 - Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii
• 1869 - Japanese immigrants arrive in California
• 1882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act increased demand for Japanese labor in the US
• 1886 - Hawaii and Japan make immigration agreement
• 1894 - US and Japan sign immigration treaty
• 1906 - San Francisco segregates schools
• 1907 - The Gentleman's Agreement limits Japanese immigration to the US

Japanese Immigration to America Statistics

The statistics below correlate strongly to the timeline above. Once the Chinese Exclusion Act is signed, Japanese immigration grows exponentially to meet demands for labor. Between 1910 and 1920, growth slows to reflect the "Gentlemen's Agreement" on immigration limits. Still, the population grows as Japanese American communities enter second to third generations. With roots firmly set in the United States, these families produce more children which still grows the population, but at a slower pace than large-scale immigration.

Fig.5 - 1940s Japanese American Family

Descendants of Japanese Immigrants

First generation Japanese immigrants called themselves "issei," while their children were "nisei," and grandchildren "sansei." With the steady rates of Japanese immigration from the 1880s up to the 1907 Gentleman's Agreement, most Japanese in America were issei–first generation.

It wouldn't be until the 1930s that the Nisei and later generations would make up more than half of the Japanese American population.

In the next decade, this Japanese American generation, more than half of whom were native born and identified culturally as Americans, would face their greatest discrimination yet with the internment camps of WWII.