Another problem is that the population in general saw Japanese immigrants as strangers who could threaten their “achievements, possessions and social standing” (Bauman 2016: 15). Bauman was referring to European, especially French attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016. He was analyzing the attitudes of “the emergent ‘precariat’” sector of society, whose social position has been endangered by socioeconomic and political transformations. However, it could also be applied to the nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century working and middle classes in the Americas and to government policies in relation to Japanese immigrants. This was especially true in Canada and in the United States, where there was strong competition between the established population and Japanese immigrants. This fear of strangers seeing them as a threat to people’s social positions and to their nationalist feeling has lasted for more than a century, and currently shows an upward trend.
Japanese Immigration to Hawaii and the United States
Japanese emigrants went to work on plantations in Hawaii as temporary migrant workers, and from there they migrated to the United States. Among the 200,000 Japanese who immigrated to Hawaii, 180,000 later went to the United States. Most of them were young educated men due to the Japanese law that required eight years of schooling. Compared to the European immigrants who settled in the United States, the percentage of people who could not read and write was low among Japanese immigrants. Most Japanese immigrants came from rural areas and were not severely poor. They arrived in the United States with more money than the average immigrants from Europe (Takaki 1994: 22).
The first Japanese emigrant flow went to Hawaii in 1868, when Hawaii was an independent kingdom. They also immigrated to the west coast of the United States. Those who arrived first were rural young single men. They came from the Provinces of Hiroshima, Wakayama, Kumamoto, and Yamaguchi. Some of them later returned to Japan; others sent for their wives. The American government denied citizenship to those who were born in Japan, although their American-born children had citizenship automatically. Considered foreigners, Japanese immigrants could not buy land for agriculture (Kitano 1980: 185).
The Japanese government controlled who emigrated. Moved by an increasing nationalism, the government considered Japanese emigrants as representatives of their homeland: “Anyone who wanted to go to Hawaii or the United States had to apply for permission. Review boards screened the applicants to make sure that they were healthy and educated, and that they would uphold ‘national honor’ abroad” (Takaki 1994: 22–23).
In 1908, the United States called for a Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan, in which the latter country agreed to prevent the emigration of Japanese laborers. However, there was a loophole: close relatives of workers already in America would be allowed to emigrate. At this time, Hawaii was a territory of the United States, so it followed the same policy (Takaki 1994: 24). Most Japanese immigrants settled in California, where they became shopkeepers and small farmers. Others worked for railroad owners and landowners. Another Japanese community was founded in Seattle in the 1890s. Much like the other west coast communities, these immigrants came primarily from prefectures in the south and west of Japan. Initially, the community was predominantly young, single men. In contrast, emigrants to Brazil were required to be part of family units (Yanagisako 1985: 3).
Immigrants to the mainland faced intense racial prejudice and discrimination. In 1920s, California Nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans, represented only 2 percent of the total population, yet were treated with scorn and hostility. In contrast, immigrants to Hawaii represented 43 percent of the population by the 1920s, when the majority of islanders were of Asian origin (Takaki 1994: 28–29, 31, 33).
In reaction to this intense racial prejudice, many Japanese immigrants formed tight social and economic bonds among themselves. Issei in America preserved their ethnic solidarity and cultural values. This attitude of self-protection was used against them. White racists accused Japanese immigrants “of not wanting to fit into America” (Takaki 1994: 35).
Gaining American citizenship was another struggle for Japanese immigrants. According to the 1790 federal immigration law, only white immigrants could become American citizens. In 1882, a law prohibited Chinese immigration and declared that Chinese immigrants could not become citizens. The laws did not clearly assert that Japanese immigrants were prevented from becoming citizens; thus, several hundred Japanese immigrants won citizenship in the courts. But in 1906, the U.S. attorney general ordered the federal courts to deny citizenship to Japanese immigrants. A few years later, California approved a land law that prohibited immigrants from buying or renting land. In 1921, the state of Washington passed its own Alien Land Law preventing foreign-born Japanese from buying or leasing land. This stands in stark contrast to the emigrants’ ability to purchase land in Brazil (Yanagisako 1985: 3).
The Japanese immigrants’ situation in America worsened in 1921 when Japan and the United States signed the “Ladies’ Agreement.” Under this contract, Japan stopped the flow of picture brides to the United States. In 1924, Congress approved a general immigration law that proscribed all immigration from Asia. One anti-Japanese Californian told Congress: “Of all the races ineligible to citizenship, the Japanese are the least assimilable and the most dangerous to this country” (Takaki 1994: 88).
As a result, many Issei parents registered their children as citizens of Japan. They were really citizens of two countries, American by birth and Japanese by registration. Issei parents were afraid that they could be evicted and made to return to Japan; therefore, they wanted to be able to take their children with them (Takaki 1994: 100).
Japanese immigrants and their children faced the worst time of their lives in the United States during World War II (1942–1945) when they were confined in internment camps. Japanese in Hawaii also suffered restrictions due to war laws, but there was no mass confinement in internment camps. In the camps, the most difficult problem faced by the Japanese and their children was the monotonous daily routine, poor food, and their loneliness in undesirable, obscure locations. Familial life was disrupted because the government assumed the role of parents: meals were served in big dining halls, and the immigrants had their basic survival necessities provided without working. However, some immigrants worked for farmers nearby. There were conflicts among the immigrants and their children and also between them and those who were in charge of the camp administration. Finally, the camps started to be closed in 1945, and by 1946, all Japanese and their families were free. After liberation, some of them settled in Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Minneapolis, but most of them preferred to return to the west coast, especially to California (Kitano 1980: 186–87). It was extremely difficult for these adults to resume their previous lives, given that they had lost all their property and had to start anew as wage earners (Yanagisako 1985: 4–5).
Many Issei had to wait for several years for their naturalization process, and many of them died before getting it. The Naturalization Law of 1790 was finally replaced by the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, which promoted Issei’s citizenship and the right to vote, and stated that the anti-miscegenation law was unconstitutional (Kitano 1980: 188). This law applied to Japanese and all other Asian immigrants.
Japanese Immigration to Canada
Japanese emigration to Canada started at the end of the nineteenth century when young workers from southwest Japan crossed the Pacific and settled in British Columbia. Their aim was temporary migration; they intended to save money after working for a few years and then return to Japan. Japanese immigration started in 1896 with 1000 immigrants; in 1901, the number increased to 4,438, and in