LOOKING AT ASIANS THROUGH A DIFFERENT MIRROR

Jordan Hall, Kira Oppici, Melissa Gorman, Daniel Grosso

REASONS FOR LEAVING

Many sought sanctuary from intense conflicts in China caused by British Opium Wars

Fleeing from turmoil of peasant rebellions such as the Taiping Rebellion

Also, the bloody strife between the Punti (“Local People”) and the Hakkas (“Guest People”) over possession of the fertile delta lands

Harsh economic conditions also drove Chinese migrants to seek survival in America

Qing government imposed high taxes and many lost their land

Flooding also intensified suffering

VARIOUS EMPLOYMENTS

The “Gold Hills” offered opportunities for employment

325 Chinese immigrants joined the Forty-Niners in the Gold Rush; a year later 450 more joined them

By 1930 400,000 had come to America.

By 1860’s 24,000 were working in the California mines

In 1867 12,000 got jobs with the Central Pacific Railroad

From 1860-1880 a wide array of Chinese became farmers and shared their agricultural knowledge

EARLY CHINESE DISCRIMINATION

The managers of the Central Pacific Railroad forced the Chinese laborers to work through the winter of 1866. Work was dangerous and killed many men.

After that, they went on strike, however, Superintendent Crocker isolated the strikers and cut off their food supply.

Chinese workers became targets of white labor resentment, especially during hard times.

Whites would lead violent anti-Chinese riots throughout California Chinese were beaten and shot by white workers and often loaded

onto trains and shipped out of town ”Ethnic Antagonism” in the mines, factories, and fields forced

thousands of Chinese into self-employment Racial discrimination drove Chinese into work they disdained as

degrading to them as men

DISCRIMINATION CONTINUED…

“nagurs” “God damn Chinamen” “Chinks” known as heathen, morally inferior, savage,

childlike, and lustful Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as

threats to white racial purity Chinese and other people not white could

not testify against whites 1882- 1902 Congress passed the Chinese

Exclusionary Act, which prohibited the entry of Chinese labors

CHINESE LAUNDRYMAN

Chinese washhouses were a common sight as early as the 1850s By 1890, there were 6,400 Chinese laundry workers in California. The “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon. In China, laundry work was a “woman’s occupation,” and men did not

“step into it for fear of losing their social standing.” Laundry work was one of the few opportunities that were open to Chinese.

CHINESE WOMEN

Very limited migration; some were able to send for their wives

“hostage theory” :women were kept home in order to ensure that their absent husbands would not become prodigal sons in America

Most came alone, transported to America as prostitutes

They would sign contracts to pay for the cost of transportation and became sexual indentured servants

Many became opium addicts seeking refuge after the abuse and degradation

Prostitutes were beaten to death by their customers or owners, and others committed suicide by taking an overdose of drugs or drowning themselves in the San Francisco Bay

CHINESE SECRET SOCIETY

1852 the first secret society, the Kwang-tek-tong, was founded in California.

Offered friendship and support to Chinese migrants in an unfamiliar land

Also, provided protection They came to control the opium trade as well as

gambling and prostitution in the Chinese communities. Chinese Six Companies helped settle inter-district

conflicts and provided educational and health services to the community

Gradually, the Chinese were creating their own communities in America

SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

April 18th, 1906 an earthquake shook San Francisco

Fires followed right after The fires destroyed all the

municipal records and opened the way for a new Chinese immigration

Now Chinese men could claim they were born here and bring over their wives

“Paper sons” Forged certificates and bring back

sons If every claim claim to natural-born

citizenship were valid, every Chinese woman living in San Francisco before 1906 would have had to have given birth to eight hundred children

FURTHER AFTERSHOCK

Chinese came to America by the thousands

Newcomers were placed in barracks like cages in the zoo

The purchase of a birth certificate, many of the “paper sons” discovered had to pass an exam and prove their American identity

They would have to study about their “paper family”

10% were sent back to China By 1943, about 50,000

Chinese had entered America

EMIGRATION TO HAWAII

Japan worried they’d be the next victim of Western powers attempt to colonize

Japanese believed that “money grows on trees” in America

Plantation laborers in Kingdom of Hawaii could earn six times more

Wanted better learning experiences

PICTURE BRIDES

Wanted to avoid prostitution, gambling, and drunkenness problems, so promoted female emigration

“The picture bride system was based on the established custom of arranged marriage” (234)

If woman wanted to go to America, marriage requests would pour in, and the woman and man would exchange pictures before their first actual exchange.

Japanese women were joining workforce, totaling 60% of of Japanese industrial laborers in Hawaii by 1900.

Wanted men with families who would stay on plantations

LABORER DISCRIMINATION

Japanese laborers demanded higher wages, which upset the Hawaii Sugar Planters’ Association and Bureau of Immigration

This led to the request of a shipment of Korean laborers to “drive the Japs out” because they didn’t think the two would join together in strikes

Korean supply was cut in 1905, where they then turned to the Philippines

Filipinos began to slowly take over as the Japanese started returning home

The planters began giving tasks by race: whites were given skilled and supervisory positions, Asian immigrants were unskilled field laborers

The Japanese were seen as unskilled because they were not white, meaning they were ineligible to become naturalized citizens

LABORER DISCRIMINATION CONT’D.

No opportunities to get ahead in your employment position because “you can’t go very high up and get big money unless your skin is white. You can work here your whole life and yet a haole [white] who doesn’t know a thing about the work can be ahead of you in no time”

Called out by “bango” followed by a number, never by name

Different nationalities were housed in separate camps, such as Japanese camps, Chinese and Filipino camps, Puerto Rican camps, “Young Hee Camp,” “Ah Fong Camp,” “Spanish A Camp,” “Spanish B Camp,” and the “Alabama Camp”

PLANTATION COOPERATION

Planters eventually started changing the barracks for workers into cottages for families

Gave pleasant surroundings to make the workers healthier and more efficient in work

Laborers started sharing lunches with each other

Workers combined all their languages to form a plantation dialect, called “pidgin English”

ONCE A JAP, ALWAYS A JAP

Immigrants believed that if they succeeded, especially in agriculture, they would be accepted into American society

The first generation of immigrants were called the Issei; second generation were called the Nisei, Japanese-Americans by birth

It was hoped that the Nisei would secure dignity and equality by being born in America

Their citizenship and education did not immunize any of them from racial discrimination

They were still called “Japs” and told to return “home” Graduated with honors and completed college didn’t help

find jobs in the mainstream economy, being denied employment

JAPANESE-AMERICANS IN PEARL HARBOR On the Sunday morning of

December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese fighting planes dropped bombs on the ships anchored in the U.S. naval base of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

21 shops were sunk or damaged, 164 planes were destroyed, 1,178 soldiers and sailors were injured, and 2,388 were killed

The next day before Congress, President Roosevelt announced, “Yesterday…a date which will live in infamy-the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by navel and air forces of the Empire of Japan…I ask that Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack…a state of war has existed.”

This attack forever changed the way the Japanese Americans were looked at and treated

“JAPANESE-AMERICANS: ‘A TREMENDOUS HOLE’ IN THE CONSITUTION”

On December 19, Navy Secretary Frank Knox recommended the internment of all Japanese aliens to on outer island

However, General Delos Emmons as military governor of Hawaii announced, “There is no intention or desire on the part of the federal authorities to operate mass concentration camps…we must remember that this is America and we must do things the American way.” To General Emmons the “American Way” meant that he was required to honor and enforce the United States Constitution

President Roosevelt after acting on the advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved a recommendation for the evacuation of 20,000 “dangerous” Japanese from Hawaii to the mainland

Two weeks later General Emmons reduced the number to 1,550 General Emmons fought that the Japanese were “absolutely

essential” for rebuilding Pearl Harbor since they represented over 90 percent of the workers

In the end, General Emmons ordered the internment of 1,444 Japanese in Hawaii

JAPANESE-AMERICANS LIVING IN THE MAINLAND Head of the Western Defense

Command, General John L. DeWitt, wanted to exclude Japanese aliens as well as U.S. born Americans of Japanese descent from certain areas

DeWitt argued his justification by stating, “We are at war and this area-eight states-has been designated as a theater of operations.”

He stated that he had no confidence in the Japanese living on the West Coast saying, “A Jap is a Jap is a Jap.”

While some political figures fought the idea to completely remove the Japanese eventually under General DeWitt’s command the military posted an order saying, “Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 27, this Headquarters, dated April 30, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above area by 12 o’clock noon, P.W.T., Thursday May 7, 1942

JAPANESE CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Most Japanese felt that they were not able to fight the evacuation so they did not bother

The few that did fight the evacuation by refusing to evacuate were arrested, and convicted. A few of the cases got to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld their conviction

The Japanese being evicted were instructed that they could only bring what they were able to hold, forcing most of them to sell many of their belongings

They were than brought to the control centers to sign in, where each family was given a name

From there they were than taken to assembly centers Their stays at the assembly centers were not long however They were soon shipped onto 171 trains, 500 per person, to one of 10

concentration camps: Topaz in Utah, Poston and Gila River in Arizona, Amache in Colorado, Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas, Minidoka in Idaho, Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, and Heart Mountain in Wyoming

DAILY LIFE IN THE CAMPS

The Japanese in these Concentration Camps found themselves in a military-life routine daily

At 7 am the internees were awaken, they would have breakfast in the cafeteria, and children would than go to school

At school the children would begin the day by saluting the flag and singing “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty.”

These Japanese Americans were forced to give up their values of self reliance and work for government wages

JAPANESE-AMERICANS FIGHTING IN WWII In September 1942, the

Selective Service classified all young Japanese as IV-V, enemy aliens

A month later, however, the director of the Office of War Information urged President Roosevelt to authorize the enlistment of the American-born Japanese

In December the army developed a plan for forming an all-Japanese-American combat team

STILL FIGHTING THE WAR

On February 1, 1943, completely ignoring the evacuation order he had signed a year earlier President Roosevelt wrote to Secretary of War Stimson stating, “No loyal citizen of the United States should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry…Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry. Every loyal American citizen should be given the opportunity to serve this country…in the ranks of our armed forces.”

Five days later the government required all internees to answer loyalty questionnaires

QUESTIONNAIRES

Question 27 asked draft-age males if they were “willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” Question 28 asked, “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power or organization?”

The internees were forced to answer these loyalty questionnaires

4,600 of the 21,000 males eligible to register for the draft, answered with a “no,” or a no response

END OF WWII

33,000 Japanese Americans enlisted in the United States Armed Forces

They believed that participating in the war would be the best way to express their loyalty

The Japanese served extremely useful in the war they translated documents, including battle plans, lists of Imperial Navy ships, and Japanese secret codes

On July 15, 1946, on the lawn of the White House, President Harry Truman welcomed home the Nisei soldiers of the 442nd saying, “You fought for the free nations of the world…you fought and not only the enemy, you fought the prejudice-and you won.”

While the Japanese Americans did as much as they could to fight the prejudice, they still suffered from it, even after fighting for their country

CHINESE POPULATION BOOM

1965: Congress lifts restriction on Asian immigration, led to pop. boom

1960: 237,000 1980: 812,200

HOW DID THEY GET HERE?

Many came for education

Upon graduation became citizens

Brought family over

CHINATOWN Most immigrants did not

speak English

Low end labor

Women were seamstresses in NYC and men worked in food

Led to Chinese district or “Chinatown”

Same thing in San Francisco

VIETNAM

13,000 came in 1975

Forced to leave due to war

2nd wave came in 1979 (150,000)

GREAT MIGRATIONS

Orderly Departure Program (1982)

Allowed 20K Vietnamese in each year to reunite families separated by war

1,388,000 by 2000 Orange County, San

Jose, and LA

FIN