Japanese in the United States

1932. The book starts off examining Japanese emigration in general. Then it goes into a chapter on Japanese immigration to Hawaii in particular. He notes that “...the practice of employing Japanese labor in Hawaii was put an end to by the Japanese government” and that lasted until 1884. It was pressure from Hawaii that finally reversed that decision.

Then follows more tables of information and statistics about the actual numbers in Hawaii, etc. This is followed by a statement about the low criminal rate among the Japanese, and then is followed by still more tables of statistical information. The next chapter deals with Japanese immigration into the United States (remember: Hawaii was not a state of the U.S. at the time.) Again, there are more tables of statistical data.

The next chapter goes into characteristics of Japanese immigrants and surprise, surprise, there's still more tables of information. A chapter on the causes of Japanese immigration is followed by one on geographical distribution. This has one interesting table in it, comparing the Japanese population by area in the U.S. from 1880 through 1930. As of 1930, there were less than 400 persons of Japanese ancestry in the New England area. Adding to this the Middle and South Atlantic areas, and you came up with a total of 4407. The central part of the country totaled 2758. The Mountain area was 11,418, and the Pacific area was 120,251. The Japanese were thus concentrated primarily on the West Coast, although there was still a moderate number on the Est Coast, but a smaller number in the center of the country.

More tables of information follow, including one showing Japanese residents by county and city for 1930. Los Angeles had the largest number, with San Francisco having a little over half that many, followed by Oakland.

Japanese in domestic service is the subject of the next chapter. The average monthly wage for a Japanese cook, for example, was $95. Japanese city trades is the next chapter (more tables of information). Their jobs were things like running hotels, restaurants, barber shops, laundries, etc.

Three kinds of shops declined in number, those being restaurants, laundries and shoe shops and cobblers, this due to “organized hostility from their American competitors in the city.”

The next chapter covers miscellaneous occupations, and this is followed by chapters on Japanese in agriculture.

There is then a chapter on “the cultural background of Japanese immigrants.” The writer notes that, as far as intermarriage between whites and Japanese goes, it is basically just a matter of time, pointing out that intermarriage had already occurred between whites and blacks.

This is followed by a chapter on anti-Japanese agitation. Part of it deals with the aftermath of the earthquake, and attacks on Japanese and boycotts of their stores. The school board problem is discussed, and this is followed by a chapter on The Gentlemen's Agreement, and then one on the alien land laws.

Several chapters are then devoted to the second-generation Japanese in American, including their schooling and assorted problems.



Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page