Japanese American history is the history of Japanese Americans or the history of ethnic Japanese in the United States. People from Japan began immigrating to the U.S. in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Large-scale Japanese immigration started with immigration to Hawaii during the first year of the Meiji period in 1868.
Japanese American history before World War II
Immigration There is evidence to suggest that the first Japanese individual to land in North America was a young boy accompanying Franciscan friar, Martín Ignacio de Loyola, in October 1587, on Loyola's second circumnavigation trip around the world. Japanese castaway Oguri Jukichi was among the first Japanese citizens known to have reached present day California (1815), while Otokichi and two fellow castaways reached present day Washington state (1834).
Japan emerged from isolation following Commodore Matthew Perry’s expedition to Japan, where he successfully negotiated a treaty opening Japan to American trade. Further developments included the start of direct shipping between San Francisco and Japan in 1855 and established official diplomatic relations in 1860.
Early Labor Migration Historians have often portrayed the early Japanese labor migrations of the Meiji period as a national project and a heroic challenge by pioneers. However, recent research has revealed that many of these early journeys were accidental, unregulated, and initiated by foreign businessmen rather than the Japanese government or the immigrants themselves. These examples show that the origins of Japanese overseas migration were far more chaotic and full of contingency than the neat and tidy story that was later told.
The first large-scale Japanese expedition occurred in 1868, when Yokohama-based American merchant Eugene Van Reed recruited and sent over 140 Japanese laborers to work on plantations in the Kingdom of Hawai'i. These men, known as the Gannenmono (first-year workers), are often remembered as the starting point of Japanese overseas labor. In the same year, Van Reed also arranged for the transport of 42 Japanese laborers to Guam, which was under Spanish rule rule. These efforts were carried out during the turbulent transition from the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji government, and the new government in Tokyo was unaware that these laborers had been taken overseas. Some of the laborers were ultimately rescued by foreign ships and returned home.
Another early example often celebrated in the history of Japanese immigration is the Wakamatsu Colony, established in EI Dorado County, California in 1869. Led by Dutch merchant Henry Schnell, this project is sometimes described as Japan’s first overseas colonial endeavor. However, the settlement quickly failed, and Schnell abandoned the Japanese participants, demonstrating how arbitrary and accidental the attempt was. Historical sources do not support the idea that they were originally from Aizu-Wakamatsu, as is often claimed. It is possible that they were persuaded or deceived into leaving Japan without formal procedures during the chaos of the Meiji Restoration.
There is no evidence that Japanese workers voluntarily embarked on overseas labor migration during the first fifteen years of the Meiji era. Passport records indicate that most overseas travelers were employed by foreign employers, geisha and prostitutes accompanying foreign clients, or domestic servants employed by Westerners in the settlements. While the Meiji government did not officially prohibit migration, as is commonly believed, the authorities at the time were highly wary of abuses similar to the widespread trafficking of Chinese coolies in treaty ports. Consequently, for over a decade, the government responded harshly to foreign attempts to recruit and transport large numbers of Japanese laborers.
A major turning point came in 1885, when the Japanese government, under an agreement with the Kingdom of Kingdom of Hawai’i, approved the dispatch of approximately 2,000 contract laborers (kanyaku imin) to Hawai’i. These contracted laborers were expected to return home after a set period of time, and were considered “dekasegi” (working abroad) rather than permanent residents. This concept laid the foundation for future Japanese migration to Hawai’i and the American mainland, and early experiences led to discrimination, exclusion, and an unexpected shift from temporary labor to permanent settlement.
These early experiences also highlighted the need for clearer regulations and government oversight, which later shaped Japan’s more organized emigration policies.
Economic Motivations and the Rise of Mass Migration Japanese immigration to the United States was mostly economically motivated. Stagnating economic conditions causing poor living conditions and high unemployment pushed Japanese people to search elsewhere for a better life. Japan's population density had increased from 1,335 per square ri in 1872 to 1,885 in 1903, intensifying economic pressure on working class populations. Rumors of better standards of living in the "land of promise" encouraged a rise in immigration to the US, especially by younger sons who (due in large part to the Japanese practice of primogeniture) were motivated to independently establish themselves abroad. Only fifty-five Japanese were recorded as living in the United States in 1870, but by 1890 there had been more than two thousand new arrivals.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had a significant impact for Japanese immigration, as it left room for 'cheap labor' and an increasing recruitment of Japanese from both Hawaii and Japan as they sought industrialists to replace Chinese laborers. "Between 1901 and 1908, a time of unrestricted immigration, 127,000 Japanese entered the U.S."
The numbers of new arrivals peaked in 1907 with as many as 30,000 Japanese immigrants counted (economic and living conditions were particularly bad in Japan at this point as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5). Japanese immigrants who moved to mainland U.S. settled on the West Coast primarily in California.
Anti-Japanese sentiment
Nonetheless, there was a history of legalized discrimination in American immigration laws which heavily restricted Japanese immigration. As the number of Japanese in the United States increased, resentment against their success in the farming industry and fears of a "yellow peril" grew into an anti-Japanese movement similar to that faced by earlier Chinese immigrants.
Increased pressure from the Asiatic Exclusion League and the San Francisco Board of Education forced President Roosevelt to negotiate the Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan in 1907. It was agreed that Japan would stop issuing valid passports for the U.S. This agreement was intended to curtail Japanese immigration to the U.S., but Japanese women were still allowed to immigrate if they were the wives of U.S. residents. Prior to 1908, about seven out of eight ethnic Japanese in the United States were men. By 1924, the ratio had changed to approximately four women to every six men. Japanese immigration to the U.S. effectively ended when Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which banned all but a token few Japanese people.
The ban on immigration produced unusually well-defined generational groups within the Japanese American community. Initially, there was an immigrant generation, the Issei, and their U.S.-born children, the Nisei Japanese American. The Issei were exclusively those who had immigrated before 1924. Because no new immigrants were permitted, all Japanese Americans born after 1924 were—by definition—born in the US. This generation, the Nisei, became a distinct cohort from the Issei generation in terms of age, citizenship, and English language ability, in addition to the usual generational differences. Institutional and interpersonal racism led many of the Nisei to marry other Nisei, resulting in a third distinct generation of Japanese Americans, the Sansei.
It was only in 1952 that the Senate and House voted on the McCarran-Walter Act, which allowed Japanese immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens. But significant Japanese immigration did not occur again until the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended 40 years of bans against immigration from Japan and other countries.
Farming
Japanese-Americans have made significant contributions to agricultural development in Western-Pacific parts of the United States.
Similar to European American settlers, the Issei, the majority of whom were young adult males, immigrated to America searching for better economic conditions and the majority settled in Western Pacific states settling for manual labor jobs in various industries such as ‘railroad, cannery and logging camp laborers. The Japanese workforce were diligent and extremely hardworking, inspired to earn enough money to return and retire in Japan. Consequently, this collective ambition enabled the Issei to work in agriculture as tenant farmers fairly promptly and by "1909 approximately 30,000 Japanese laborers worked in the Californian agriculture". This transition occurred relatively smoothly due to a strong inclination to work in agriculture which had always been an occupation that had been looked upon with respect in Japan.
Progress was made by the Issei in agriculture despite struggles faced cultivating the land, including harsh environment problems such as harsh weather and persistent issues with grasshoppers. Economic difficulties and discriminating socio-political pressures such as the anti-alien laws (see California Alien Land Law of 1913) were further obstacles. Nevertheless, second-generation Nisei were not impacted by these laws as a result of being legal American citizens, therefore their important roles in West Coast agriculture persisted Japanese immigrants brought a sophisticated knowledge of cultivation, including knowledge of soils, fertilizers, skills in land reclamation, irrigation, and drainage. This knowledge combined with Japanese traditional culture respecting the soil and hard work, led to successful cultivation of crops on previously marginal lands. According to sources, by 1941 Japanese Americans "were producing between thirty and thirty-five per cent by value of all commercial truck crops grown in California as well as occupying a dominant position in the distribution system of fruits and vegetables."
The role of Issei in agriculture prospered in the early twentieth century. It was only in the event of the Internment of Japanese Americans in 1942 that many lost their agricultural businesses and farms. Although this was the case, Japanese Americans remain involved in these industries today, particularly in southern California and to some extent, Arizona by the areas' year-round agricultural economy, and descendants of Japanese pickers who adapted farming in Oregon and Washington state. Agriculture also played a key role during the internment of Japanese Americans. World War II internment camps, were located in desolate spots such as Poston, in the Arizona desert, and Tule Lake, California, at a dry mountain lake bed. Agricultural programs were put in place at relocation centers with the aim of growing food for direct consumption by inmates. There was also a less important aim of cultivating 'war crops' for the war effort. Agriculture in internment camps was faced with multiple challenges such as harsh weather and climate conditions. However, on the most part the agricultural programs were a success mainly due to inmate knowledge and interest in agriculture. Due to their tenacious efforts, these farm lands remain active today.