Transcript Document 7206871

Japanese American
Cultural Facts
(Source: Novas and Cao,
Everything You Need to Know
About Asian American History)
Religion Among Japanese
Americans
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Japanese American religions: the majority
up to the 1920s followed Shintoism and
Buddhism; increasing converts to
Christianity, and some believe it holds the
key to assimilation into American society
(144).
Japanese Americans in California
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Many Japanese immigrants ended up in
San Francisco, taking the place of
Chinese after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion
Act was ratified. The 1906 earthquake
sent Japanese out to other parts of
California, where Japanese Americans
became successful farmers.
Discriminatory Legislation

In 1913 the Alien Land Act prohibits
Japanese in California and other “aliens
ineligible to citizenship from owning land.
Thirteen other states do likewise. Some
alien land acts in force until 1947 (94).
The Press and “The Yellow Peril”
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The San Francisco Chronicle publishes a series
of articles in 1900 warning America of the
perceived Japanese immigration threat, the
“yellow peril.” Japanese represented as hordes,
threatening to take land and white women. The
headlines read: “Crime and Poverty Go Hand
and Hand with Asiatic Labor,” “The Yellow Peril:
How Japanese Crowd Out the White Race,” and
“Brown Artisans Steal Brains of Whites.”
Rise in Japanese Immigration
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The 1965 Hart-Cellar Act mattered to
Japanese immigrants: it lifted the 1924
National Origins Quota Act and place
standard limits on immigration from each
country, with 20,000 maximum from each
country (134).
Famous Japanese Americans
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Japanese Americans: Kristi Yamaguchi (4thgeneration, or Yonsei) champion ice-skater;
Nobu McCarthy, actress; Noriyuki “Pat” Morita,
of The Karate Kid (1984); Isamu Noguchi, famed
sculptor, creator of akari lamps; Minoru
Yamasaki, chief designer of the World Trade
Center, of the Twin Towers; Norman Mineta,
mayor of San José and now Democratic Senator
from California.
The Japanese American
Internment
FDR signed Executive Order 9066 on
March 18, 1942. A military imperative.
 Internees relocated, housed in racetrack
stalls and fairgrounds.
 Hastily constructed internment camps.
 Disruption of family life.

Japanese American Chronology
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1868 149 Japanese illegally shipped to Hawaii.
1885 San Francisco builds a new segregated
“Oriental School.”
1893 Japanese in San Francisco form first trade
association, the Japanese Shoemakers’ League.
1900 Japanese plantation workers begin going
[from Hawaii] to the mainland
1904 Japanese plantations workers engage in
first organized strike in Hawaii.
Chronology, cont.
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1905 San Francisco School Board attempts to
segregate Japanese schoolchildren. Asiatic Exclusion
League formed in San Francisco.
1906 Japanese scientists studying the aftermath of the
San Francisco earthquake are stoned.
1907 Japan and the United States reach “Gentlemen’s
Agreement” whereby Japan stops issuing passports to
laborers desiring to emigrate to the United States.
1908 Japanese form the Japanese Association of
America.
Chronology, cont.
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1913 California passes alien land law prohibiting “aliens
ineligible to citizenship” from buying land or leasing it for
longer than three years.
1920 Japan stops issuing passports to picture brides
due to anti-Japanese sentiments.
1921 Japanese farm workers driven out of Turlock,
California.
1922 Takao Ozawa v. U.S. declares Japanese ineligible
for naturalized citizenship. Cable Act stipulates that any
American female citizen who marries an alien ineligible
to citizenship would lose her citizenship.
Chronology, conclusion
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1924 Immigration Act denies entry to virtually all Asians.
1941 United States declares war on Japan following
attack on Pearl Harbor; 2,000 Japanese community
leaders along Pacific Coast states and Hawaii are
rounded up and interned in Department of Justice
camps.
1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs
Executive Order 9066 authorizing the secretary of war to
delegate a military commander to designate military
areas “from which any and all persons may be excluded”
incidents at Poston and Manzanar relocation camps.
See the LAS 325 Website
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http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ematibag