Japanese-American During Wwii Essay, Research Paper
Japanese immigrants and the following generations had to endure
discrimination, racism, and prejudice from white Americans. They
were first viewed as economic competition. The Japanese
Americans were then forced into internment camps simply because
of the whites fear and paranoia.
The Japanese first began to immigrate to the United States
in 1868. At first they came in small numbers. US Census records
show only 55 in 1870 and 2,039 in 1890. After that, they came in
much greater numbers, reaching 24,000 in 1900, 72,000 in 1910,
and 111,000 in 1920.(Parrillo,287) Most settled in the western
states.(Klimova,1)
Many families in Japan followed the practice of
primogeniture, which is when the eldest son inherits the entire
estate. This was a ?push? factor. Because of primogeniture,
?second and third sons came to the United States to seek their
fortunes.?(Parrillo,287) The promise of economic prosperity and
the hope for a better life for their children were two ?pull?
factors. These foreign-born Japanese were known as Issei (first
generation). They filled a variety of unskilled jobs in
railroads, farming, fishing, and domestic services. (Klimova,1)
The Japanese encountered hostility and discrimination from the
start. In California, a conflict with organized labor was due to
their growing numbers in small areas and racial
visibility.(Parrillo,287)
White workers perceived Japanese as economic competition.
Their willingness to work for lower wages and under poor
conditions brought on hostility from union members. The
immigrants became victims of ethnoviolence. In 1890, Japanese
cobblers were attacked by members of the shoe maker?s union, and
Japanese restaurateurs were attacked by members of the union for
cooks and waiters in 1892. It was very difficult to find steady
employment; therefore, most of them entered agricultural work.
They first worked as laborers, accumulated sufficient capitol,
then as tenant farmers or small landholders. Some became
contract gardeners for whites.(Parrillo,287)
The Japanese farmers were very knowledgeable of cultivation,
which made them strong competitors against white farmers. More
discrimination by the dominant group soon followed.
?In 1913, the California legislator passed
the first alien landholding law, prohibiting
any person who was ineligible for citizenship
from owning land in the state, and permitting
such persons to lease land for no more than
three years in succession.?(Parrillo,287)
This was ofcourse aimed at keeping the Japanese in the
working class.
Their native born children, the Nisei (second-generation),
were automatically US citizens. Thus, the Issei had land put
under their children?s names directly or by collectively owning
stock in landholding companies. Discrimination against the
Japanese continued after World War I. The California legislature
passed a law in 1920 ?prohibiting aliens form being guardians of
a minor?s property or from leasing any land at
all.?(Parrillo,288) Yet another attempt by the dominant group to
preserve power.
Japanese American children also suffered racism and
discrimination. In 1905, the San Francisco School Board of
Education passed a policy sending Japanese children to a
segregated Oriental school in Chinatown.(Parrillo,288)
?Superintendent, Aaron Altmann, advised the city?s principals:
?Any child that may apply for enrollment or
at present attends your school who may be
designated under the head of ?Mongolian? must
be excluded, and in furtherance of this
please direct them to apply at the Chinese
school for enrollment.?(Asia,1)
Japanese immigrants being extremely racially distinct, had
different cultural customs and religious faith, and tended to
chain migrate and stay within their own small communities. This
aroused distrust and the idea that they could not be
assimilated.(Klimova,2) Japan?s victory in the Russo-Japanese
war in 1905 fueled the irrational distrust and prejudice. It led
to the Gentlemen?s Agreement of 1908, secured by President
Roosevelt, which ?Japan agreed to restrict, but not eliminate
altogether, the issuance of passports.?(Parrillo,288) This
attempt at reducing Japanese immigration had a huge loophole, it
allowed wives to enter. Many Japanese practiced endogamy and
sent for ?picture brides.? ?Several thousand Japanese entered
the United States every year until World War I, and almost 6,000
a year came after the war.?(Parrillo,288)
The anti-Japanese attitudes grew stronger. The Immigration
Law of 1924 stated that all aliens ineligible for citizenship
were refused entry. Thus, ?…the Japanese migration to America
[came] to a complete cessation.?(Klimova,2) The law stayed in
effect until 1952.
By 1941, ?about 127,000 ethnic Japanese lived in the United
States, 94,000 of them in California.?(Parrillo,289) Only ?37
percent were Issei…?(Klimova,1) On December 7, 1941, Japan
launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. When news of the
attack reached the west coast, Japanese neighborhoods were
surrounded by police. Within the first day, the FBI arrested
1,300 ?dangerous aliens?. They had jailed nearly 2,000 more by
the end of December.(Spickard,93) Most of them were business
executives, leaders of Japanese associations and community
leaders whose only suspicious act was visiting relatives in Japan
or contributing to the Japanese equivalent of the United Service
Organization (USO). Those arrested were thrown into county jails
and then transferred to detention centers run by the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS).(Spickard,93)
The fear of bombing or even an invasion caused rumors to
spread about treachery and deceitfulness by the Japanese
Americans. The allegations of sabotage and espionage were
twisted by racial bias and lacked any evidence or rationale.
Some were absolutely ridiculous. Such as poisoned vegetables and
planting tomatoes so that they formed arrows pointing at US
military objects.(klimova,2) The anti-Japanese paranoia held by
the dominant group echoed in the media.
Newspapers printed unfounded racist reports about Japanese
Americans, starting in December 1941 and more throughout February
1942. Common examples of racist articles, some openly using
degrading ethnophalisns, are these headlines from the Los Angeles
Times:
?Jap Boat flashes Message ashore?
?Two Japs With Maps and Alien Literature
Seized?
?Caps on Japanese Tomato Plants Point to Air
Base?(Spickard,96)
The fear and hostility toward the Japanese Americans was
accompanied by a wide spread hysteria. People began to call for
their removal from the western states. White farmers were among
those advocating their evacuation. By now, Farmers of Japanese
origin had turned dessert into some of the most fertile farmland,
which was less than 4 percent of the California farmland, and
produced 10 percent of the total value of the states farm
crop.(Klimo
of Salinas, California, made this statement while lobbying for
the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans:
?We?re charged with wanting to get rid of the
Japs for selfish reasons. We might as well
be honest. We do. It?s a question of
whether the white man lives on the Pacific
Coast or the brown men. They came into this
valley to work, and they stayed to take
over.?(Spickard,97)
This terribly racist statement explains on e conflict over
the limited resources available. The dominant group wants the
competition removed and deep the minority group with as little as
possible.
Lieutenant General John L. Dewitt, the head of the Western
Defensive Command, Major General Allen W. Gullion, and other high
ranking officers, all guided by their own racism, also campaigned
for the Japanese American Population to be removed. Dewitt said:
?A Jap?s a Jap. They are a dangerous
element, whether loyal or not. there is no
way to determine their loyalty…it makes no
difference whether he is an American;
theoretically he is still Japanese, and you
can?t change him…you can?t change him by
giving him a piece of paper.?(Spickard,98)
They claimed the evacuation was a military necessity;
however, such a necessity was never demonstrated. The Department
of Justice defended the rights and liberties of U*S. citizens
guaranteed by the constitution of the United States.(Klimova,3)
J. Edgar Hoover also opposed the mass evacuation. He argued that
all the dangerous Japanese Americans were already
jailed.(Spickard,98) Dispite the protest, the Roosevelt
administration supported the evacuation.
On the 19th of February, 1942, ?President Roosevelt signed
Executive Order No.9066, authorizing the War Department to
prescribe military areas and to exclude any or all persons from
these areas.?(McWillans,108) ?More than 110,000Japanese…were
removed from their homes and placed in ?relocation centers? in
Arkansas, Arizona, Eastern California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and
Wyoming.?(Parrillo,289) They lost everything they owned.
Joseph Kurihara was a Japanese American soldier in the US
Army and was for Americanization prior to the evacuation, he
recalls the Terminal Island evacuation:
?It was cruel and harsh. To pack and
evacuate in forty-eight hours…mothers
bewildered with children crying…Did the
government of the United States intend to
ignore their rights regardless of their
citizenship??(Myer,3)
Life in the internment camps was hard. They had to endure
unsanitary conditions.(Asin,1) Most of the imprisoned Japanese
Americans conformed and followed orders. There were some that
protested what was being done to them, but their resistance came
very late.(Spickard,108) Kurihara was one of the few that
practiced defiance. He eventually renounced his US
citizenship.(Myer,4) These people that openly expressed their
new hatred for America as a result of the injustices they
suffered were known as the ?no-no?s?. On the other side, there
were those that desperately wanted to prove their loyalty to the
United States. In January 1943, The US War Department announced
the formation of a segregated regiment. Theses Nisei volunteered
for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to fight for their
country.
They joined forces with the 100th Infantry Battalion, formed
in May 1942 and were also Nisei volunteers, in Europe. The 442nd
RCT eventually consisted of the 2nd, 3rd, and 100th Battalions;
the 522nd field Artillery Battalion; the 232nd engineering
Company; the 206th Army Band; Anti-Tank Company; Cannon Company;
and Service company.(Research,1)
The famous 442nd RCT were the most decorated unit in US
military history for it?s size and length of service. In total,
there were 18,000 individual decorations for bravery, 9,500
purple hearts, and seven Presidential Distinguished Unit
citations.(Research,2)
After W.W.II, Japanese Americans were demoralized and in
economic disarray. Because all of their possessions and property
had been taken away, they simply had to start all over again.
There were emotional and psychological consequences for the
Nisei. It took decades for them to overcome a lingering
shame.(Spickard,134) There is also a generation and cultural gap
between the Nisei and Sansei. The Sansei are in a Quandary over
their identification with their ?dual cultural heritage?. Their
parents push then to become ?white and to ?subscribe to the
legacies of American society?. Yet they are told by their major
social environment that they are not white.(Miyoshi,20)
The Japanese Americans have indeed prospered since the
1940?s. The Nisei and Sansei strongly emphasized conformity,
aspiration, competitiveness, discipline, and encouraged the
Yonsei (fourth-generation) and Gosei (fifth-generation) to higher
education. Their numbers are increasing in the professional
fields. The higher education achievements equate into their
having higher incomes than any other ethnic group, including all
whit Americans.(Parrillo,294)
The Japanese Americans have come a long way. Bus ofcourse
some prejudice and discrimination still exists today. The
?contemporary depiction?s of the Japanese tourists and samurai
businessman…offer little of value to clarifying the identities
and realities of [Japanese Americans]…these stereotypes
continue to shape how they are perceived.?(Kiag,2)
Early Japanese immigrants came to the United States in
search of economic prosperity. They were met with hostility,
prejudice, and discrimination. Everything they worked so hard
for was taken and their rights violated. The dominant group
demonstrated total economic exploitation. After enduring such
injustices and hardships, many are now enjoying the life the
Issei dreamed of for their families.
Bibliography
Work Cited
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Relations in the United States. Needham Heights, :
Massachuchetts: 2000, 287-289.
Klimova, Tatiana A. ?Internment of Japanese Americans: Military
Necessity or Racial Prejudice.? Old Dominion University.
1-9 (5/2/00)
Asia, Ask. ?Linking The Past to Present: Asian Americans Then and
Now.? The Asia Society 1996. 1-3
(5/1/00
Spickard, Paul R. Japanese Americans: The transformation and
Formation of an Ethnic Group. New Yourk:1996,93-159
McWilliams, Carey. Prejudice Japanese Americans: Symbol of racial
Intolerance. boston: 1945,106-190.
Myer, Dillon S. ?Joseph Yoshisuke Kurihara.? Upprinted Americans
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Asin, Stefanie.?Poignand Memories.? Houston Chronicle 7/31/95.1-3
5/2/00
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5/1/00
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