| Therefore
the evacuation of Japanese Americans in the Second World War did not occur
in a vacuum, it was in the context of a generation of fear and racial
prejudice. The Japanese American community was tightly knit, and the first
generation maintained a strong link to the homeland. As a community they
had a reputation for being inassimilable. There were often public
celebrations of traditional occasions, such as the Emperors birthday. There
was also pride in Japanese achievements, such as the victory in the
Russo-Japanese war, which shocked western countries because it was the
first Asian victory over a western power. The Russo-Japanese war and the
heightened immigration of 1903-1904 ( Daniels Concentration 10.) caused even more racial tension on the West coast. This was marked by a series
of anti Japanese American legislation in states where there was a high
concentration of the ethnic group. |
Yoo, In Growing Up Nisei, pg15
Campaign poster of senator James Phelan 1921
|
This
background encouraged the formation of racist
groups such as the Asiatic Exclusion League established in 1905, and the
Oriental Exclusion League, which was a cooperative of many organizations that
proposed anti Japanese legislation, representing a foreshadowing of future
events. These attitudes were echoed in mainstream parties and their policies.
The Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907-1908 signified the end of the Japanese
government issuing passports to laborers to get to the continental US because
of demands by white Americans. However this act did not erase racial tension because
passports were still issued to the wives and children of laborers, and they
could also still be issued to laborers who had already been to the US. Other
racist legislation of this era included the passage of the Alien Land Law in
1913, which prohibited the ownership of property by alien Japanese, which basically
was made up of the entire first generation. |
| However, the legislation did permit the
leasing of land to Japanese Americans, therefore many families merely
transferred the ownership to their Nisei children. This caused further
bitterness, therefore because of the loophole in 1920 a stronger land act was passed,
which further prohibited leasing and sharecropping in addition to land purchase.
Japanese Americans were also excluded from having political power by depriving
them the vote, and therefore the opportunity to vote as a bloc to prevent racist
legislation. There had been attempts to obtain naturalization of Japanese
Americans. However in 1922 the Supreme Court ruled against this right. The
culmination of anti Japanese feeling was embodied in the Immigration Act of 1924
which succeeded in excluding all Japanese from immigrating to the U.S. |
