The Second Generation Japanese Problem

1934

The book is described as a “report” right at the start, from the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York to Standford University “in support of a study of educational and occupational opportunities offered to American citizens of Oriental races.”

As such, it delves into broad issues of the increase of Japanese population, racial prejudice, complaints against the Japanese, and various occupations they could pursue along with general statistical tables.

The book is not what would be termed “fair and balance” in its presentation. The author obviously has a bias against the Japanese immigrants, and it comes across in the things he says and the people he quotes.

A couple of the reasons why Japanese are not hired.

The author notes that other immigrants have had similar problems. (The side is blurry, but it was the best scan I could get.)

The idea of spreading the Japanese immigrants throughout the entire United States was one of the reasons used for the internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

The next major topic discussed is the concept of assimilation, and that it has a variety of definitions.

By this definition, the Japanese cannot assimilate totally due to lack of desire to intermarry. A different definition referred to political assimilation, saying that assimilation was a “...process by which an alien people are taught to adopt the customs, practices and mode of living prevalent in the country in which they reside,” and that physical things (like intermarriage) have little to do with it.

Focusing in on intermarriage, one writer basically says it's a lose-lose situation. That could change, of course, if the immigrants adopt American customs more.

There is one part that follows that's sort of shocking to me:

“Whites have cohabited with all races, but few have married Negroes. Yet some sociologists believe that the Negro question will ultimately be solved by elimination of the blacks. And the fact is that considerable progress has been made in this direction, unpleasant as are its implications.”

What he was talking about here was whites and blacks marrying and, supposedly, that was to solve the “Negro question,” but the author did not understand that such marriages would produce children that would be considered black and not white. It's sort of, and I can't even figure out the exact word to use here, whether it's scary, strange, weird, or what, but society has decided that any “black” blood in a marriage will result in a black child, and a child will only be white if both parents are “pure” white blood.

The author talks about “what the Japanese want” and explains that it is to be allowed to immigrate to the U.S., but that should only be done in small numbers.

Then he talks about why the Japanese dislike the laws that will limit their entry, and says that Japan “objects particularly to being classed with Chinese, Tartars, and Hindus-under the indiscriminate heading of 'aliens ineligible to citizenship.' Such a classification refuses to recognize, in her opinion, th extent to which Japan and the Japanese have outdistanced other peoples in the Orient in their readjustment to occidental civilization.”

In other words, the author is saying that the Japanese think they are better than the other Orientals and should be treated differently.

He adds that they object to our naturalization laws, and that if other foreigners can earn citizenship, than Japanese should be allowed to earn citizenship (this overlooking, of course, the fact that children born in the U.S.of these immigrants will automatically be considered U.S. citizens.)

Then the author talks about what whites think regarding Japanese immigration, and starts right off by mentioning the Exclusion League, the American Legion, the State Federation of Labor, and the Native Sons and Daughters, all of which were virulently anti-Japanese.

This type of prejudice went to high political circles.

So, what does the author of the book feel needs to be done?

1. Greatly restrict immigration from all countries.
2. Exclude all Asiatic laborers from entering the United States. One of the reasons: “The United States has one unsolved race problem because of the presence of twelve million Negroes.” (One of the things that helps make it easier to figure the author's viewpoint is that he quotes McClatchy a lot, and he was one of the most out-there haters of Japanese immigrants that there was.)
3. Make naturalization available to those who are already here and are permitted to settle here permanently.
4. Treat Japanese visitors decently.
5. Remove any discrimination forms against the Japanese immigrants who are already here (just don't allow any more to come in!)

Later, the author writes about Japanese who came to the continental U.S. via Hawaii, as versus those who came directly from Japan, and holds that the ones who came via Hawaii were “inferior to those who came direct...”

This was apparently because the ones coming via Hawaii were of the “peasant class.”

Like I said earlier, this is not a “fair and balanced” report by any means.

This sits at complete odds with much of what has been presented in the book, as it's an intelligent statement that doesn't seem to be followed very much by the writer.

The Governor of California lists some of the problems he sees with Japanese.

The chapter this tidbit is in is entitled “Specific Complaints Against the Japanese,” and includes the following subheadings:

1. The treatment of Japanese is actually typical of how all immigrants are treated, so they are not being singled out for bad treatment.
2. Objections to Japanese by Governor Stephens in 1920
3. Objections by Students in 1927
4. Objections on Economic Grounds
5. Objections on Racial Grounds
6. Objections on Political Grounds
7. Objections related to personal character.
8. Chief objection to the Japanese

In a chapter on Physical and Mental Ability, the author talks about the low level of juvenile delinquency among Japanese youth, and notes it is due to a variety of factors:

1. Close home control
2. General educational care by the parents
3. Close supervision by adults in general over the second generation
4. Moral influence of Japanese-language schools teaching of Japanese spirit
5. Racial consciousness, racial pride, feeling of inferiority
6. Social isolation from the American community
7. So few children over fourteen years of age
8. Many cases settled outside of court

The rest of the book deals with a variety of topics, overloaded with various tables of data.



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