the nisei generation
The children born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrants in the early 1900's were known as the 'Nisei' or second generation. As the Nisei grew into adulthood during the Depression, they assumed control of the prosperous farming businesses painstakingly built by their parents. This economic base not only helped stabilize the growing Japanese-American community, but also helped them achieve a political voice. Though American citizens by birth, the Nisei's 'oriental' looks made them easy targets for discrimination from dominant whites. Anti-Japanese attitudes would ultimately prove too powerful during World War II, when thousands of people of Japanese descent were forcibly imprisoned in relocation camps. The Nisei generation only wished to assume their legitimate rights in American society. Society, however, did not recognize them because their race and color mattered more.
Early Immigration and Settlement
Discrimination against the Nisei had its roots in the conflicts over Asian immigration during the late 19th century. In 1882, nativists' concerns over job competition led Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped all immigration from China. Immigrant labor for low wage farm work, however, was still needed. The expanding agricultural economy in the Western U.S. instead turned to Japan for contract labor. At the same time, Japanese economic problems sent many small farmers into high debt. Widespread unemployment and high taxes in Japan made a temporary stay in America an attractive opportunity for many farmers and their families. As soon as they had made their fortune, these 'sojourners' would return home to Japan.The low wages actually paid to the immigrants when they arrived prevented most from returning as soon as they hoped. Forced to work off their debt, many immigrants took up farming. A few bought their own small plot of land, raising fruits and vegetables to market in the growing Western cities. To help work the land, the immigrants sent for the wives they left behind or sometimes had family arrange a marriage based on a photograph. These 'picture brides' and the children they gave birth to steadily increased the numbers of Japanese living in the U.S. during the early 1900's. By 1920, 110,010 Japanese immigrants were living in segregated ethnic communities in California and Hawaii. As the Japanese population grew, white fears began to reappear. The discrimination once aimed at the Chinese was increasingly directed towards the Japanese as well.
Ethnic Antagonism
As the Japanese formed distinct farm communities and ghettoes in cities, whites became more aware of their presence. The Japanese 'oriental' features made them a highly visible minority. Their 'quietness' and industriousness made whites wary. Like the Chinese before them, Japanese workers were concentrated in agricultural or domestic jobs. Rejecting class notions for racial ones, white workers felt Japanese competition for low income jobs would threaten their own positions. Newspaper editorials and politicians warned of the dangers of continued immigration. A Seattle paper in 1900 said "Japanese laborers consist of a class who live and subsist at so small a cost that they unfairly enter directly into competition with intelligent American workmen."1 A union organization, the Building Trades Council, said "the character and rapidly increasing numbers of Japanese and Asiatic immigrants are a menace to the industrial interest of our people."2Demagogues stirred up fears of job loss and racial hatred, characterizing Japanese immigration as 'the yellow peril' or 'the silent invasion.' The Asiatic Exclusion League and the American Legion lobbied for additional restraints against the Japanese. Institutional discrimination became widespread as restrictive covenants prevented the Japanese from moving into white neighborhoods and schools were segregated. When existing laws only recognized white, black and Mongoloid races, many felt Japanese immigration had to expressly stopped and lobbied government to pass laws that would do so.
In 1917, 37 separate resolutions against Japanese immigration were voted on in the California legislature. In many western states, alien land laws were passed that outlawed sales of land to Japanese immigrants or lease contracts for more than three years. Finally in 1924, a Congressional act was passed that restricted all immigration of 'aliens ineligible to citizenship,' earlier defined by Supreme Court to include Japanese immigrants.
Economic Success and Cultural Conflicts
The 1924 Immigration Act stopped all new Japanese immigration into the U.S. Those immigrants who had arrived earlier continued to struggle in their new home country. Farmers worked underutilized or unwanted plots and turned them into productive farms. Other groups formed cooperatives to buy large land tracts with the aid of sympathetic white immigration lawyers. Most worked as hard as they could to get as much yield during their short leases. By the onset of the Depression, 46% of the Japanese population in the U.S. was involved in some type of agricultural business or market. It was a 'vertically integrated market' - where Japanese owned farms sold their goods to Japanese owned markets, whose patrons were members of the growing Japanese community. The ethnically centered market not only helped establish the livelihoods of many Japanese families, but provided a stable economic base for their community during the Depression. By 1930, the ethnic economy kept the percentage of Japanese unemployed to only 5-10% compared to 25% for the national rate.One reason for their success was the traditional closeness of Japanese society. The ethnic interdependence of the economy helped insulate it from the outside effects of the Depression. Family bonds and traditions meant their own came first. Japanese businesses did not easily lay off their employees and everyone pitched in to make do with less. Similarly, the Nisei children growing up in the community were taught the importance of retaining their "Japanese-ness." Their parents discouraged individual thoughts and stressed the need to put their community above all.
This closeness, however, bred suspicion and hatred amongst whites. The insular nature of the Japanese community was seen as a threat to the American way of life. The mayor of San Francisco thought the Japanese were "not bona fide citizens, not the stuff of which Americans are made. They will not assimilate . . . and their social life is so different - let them keep at a respectful distance."3 The white majority saw Japanese insularity as a sign rejecting American culture. This belief only increased the levels of antagonism against the Japanese.
Nisei Identity
The early immigrants believed the community's future success depended on assimilation into the larger society. The Nisei would serve as a 'bridge' between the different cultures4. One way to insure this was through a good education. Japanese parents felt doing well in school was the only way their children would be able to fully participate in American life. Nisei children, therefore, were exposed early on to two strong, yet conflicting cultures - the ancient Japanese world of their parents, and the brash American one at school.As the Depression took hold, the Nisei came of working age. The duality of their lives, however, would make them outcasts. Their love of things American distanced them from their parents and Japanese tradition. Graduating with advanced degrees such as engineering or medicine, the Nisei believed they would be accepted into white dominated professions. They were barred from getting these jobs, however, by discrimination and prejudice. Many Nisei were forced to return to the family farm or accepted menial jobs. Undaunted, most Nisei still identified strongly with their American citizenship. Schooled in American traditions armed with the right to vote, the Nisei turned to mainstream union and political organizations as ways to protect and expand their rights as citizens.
Organization
As the Depression grew worse, the Nisei were denied union membership because of competition fears and racial prejudice.5 The increasing number of unemployed whites in printing, plumbing, carpentry, and masonry unions effectively prevented Nisei participation in these wage labor trades. In the agricultural labor sector, however, the Nisei organized parallel unions groups. The first Japanese led labor group started in the California farming town of Oxnard. In response to wage undercutting by white labor contracting companies, Japanese migrant farm workers joined with Mexican laborers to form the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association. Though successful in their wage strike, they were denied admission to the national organization primarily because of their race. Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation of Labor or AFL, refused to associate with them saying "the American God is not the god of the Japanese."6The first officially sanctioned union resulted from organizing efforts in Seattle during 1937. Three college educated Nisei students organized Filipino and Japanese salmon pickers in Alaska. The AFL had threatened to deal directly with cannery owners for summer labor, 'freezing out' Japanese workers under contract. A thousand workers organized under the rival Congress for Industrial Organizations or CIO banner defeated the AFL's efforts. Shortly after, the three students advised other groups attempting to organize workers in restaurants, produce market suppliers , sawmills and logging camps. The Nisei tried to use their growing influence to gain a place in the union hierarchy.
Earlier social and political activism centered around "kenjinkai" or prefectural associations - groups whose members all emigrated from the same region in Japan. The kenjinkai were instrumental at easing the way for many immigrants into American life. They helped find employment and housing and sponsored many social activities. They also provided a pool of investment credit to start-up new Japanese-owned businesses.
The kenjinkai, however, declined in prominence as the Nisei generation matured. Without the kenjinkai bonds of shared heritage, the Nisei instead used American-like political groups to expand their interests. In 1928, a blind boxer named Jimmie Sakamoto organized several Japanese-American businessmen in San Francisco into a group named the Japanese American Citizens League, or JACL. The group promoted good citizenship as a means to societal acceptance and prosperity. They lobbied Congress to revoke the Cable Act, which denied citizenship for Nisei women who married Japanese immigrants. The JACL also worked to gain citizenship for Asian soldiers who fought for the U.S. in World War I. By connecting Nisei businessmen and professionals into a social network, the JACL hoped its values of citizenship and patriotism to American ideals would finally lift the Japanese community past discrimination and racial prejudice. By 1940, the JACL had fifty chapters and 5600 members.7 Though successful in many of its political and legislative efforts, the events of 1941 would prove acceptance was still far away.
Relocation
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America believed the actions of a nation were associated with a threat from an entire race. Unlike German or Italian immigrants, Japanese Americans were forced into relocation camps because of their visibility rather than their loyalty. The quick support for this policy was built on basic misunderstandings of cultural differences. The Nisei were not rejecting American culture, but were actively looking to participate more fully in it. The insularity of the ethnic economy resulted as a means of surviving in a hostile culture. As the war started, wartime hysteria pumped new life into racial insecurities from the previous century. The one generation that was bridging the differences was now looked at with great suspicion.At once both ethnic and American, old world and new world, the Nisei's identity was built on retaining cultural ties while becoming part of American society. Their process of assimilation was not much different from the struggles of other immigrant groups. Yet, the Nisei's experience is unique in that the transformation was tenuous. Although fully entitled to the privileges of citizenship, the Nisei would never be fully accepted as Americans. The economic and political growth of the Nisei during the Depression turned out to be short-lived, because their status as citizens was not defined by their patriotism or deeds, but by the color of their skin.
1 Robert A. Wilson & Bill Hosokawa, East to America: A History of Japanese in the United States. (New York, 1980) p. 118.
2 ibid, p .119.
3 ibid, p. 120.
4 Ronald Takaki, Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. (New York, 1989). p. 213.
5 Bill Hosokawa, Nisei, The Quiet Americans. (New York, 1969). p. 185.
6 ibid, p. 185.
7 Takaki, p. 222.
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