Japanese Americans

For more information on Japanese history and culture, seeVol. 3: Japanese.

OVERVIEW

The first Japanese arrived in America by accident in the early 1800s, swept off in their fishing boats by powerful currents and shipwrecked. Rescued at sea by U.S. ships, they were brought to America, where they usually remained because it was illegal at that time to leave or enter Japan. In 1868 a group of about 150 contract laborers secretly left Japan and came to work on the sugar plantations in Hawaii. After suffering mistreatment and harsh working conditions, they were called back to Japan. About one-third returned, while the others chose to stay on in Hawaii.

In 1885, Japan decided to open its borders in a limited way and allowed a restricted number of emigrants to leave for Hawaii. Most of those who chose to go to Hawaii intended to work hard, save a large sum of money, and return to Japan. A few did, but most ended up staying in Hawaii.

Groups of Japanese Americans began to establish farming colonies in the early 1900s. Although the first experiment, the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony established in 1869 near Sacramento, California, had failed, later attempts were more successful. Between 1904 and 1919, five farming colonies, each called Yamato Colony, were established in the San Joaquin Valley of California, near Boca Raton, Florida, and near Browns-ville, Texas. The Texas colony did not last much longer than the original Wakamatsu failure, and the Florida colony eventually dwindled away (though it struggled along for almost three decades). The California colonies, however, are still in operation today, and the Wakamatsu Colony is being restored as an historic site.

In 1908, as a compromise between Japanese-U.S. relations and anti-Asian racial tensions in California, Japan and the United States signed the "Gentleman's Agreement," discontinuing all Japanese emigration to the United States except for "former residents, parents, wives or children of residents" in return for the integration of Japanese American students into American public schools. But fear of the so-called "Yellow Peril" led to further discriminatory acts, such as alien land laws (stating that no one who was ineligible for U.S. citizenship, which included all Asians, could own land); the "Ladies' Agreement" of 1921, barring any more picture brides from entering the United States, and, finally, the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924, which prohibited the immigration of anyone ineligible for citizenship, effectively ending Japanese immigration.

In 1929, Japanese Americans created the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) to fight for their rights and promote a Japanese American identity for all Japanese Americans. The JACL still exists today as the largest Asian American civil rights organization.

Relations between the United States and Japan worsened throughout the 1930s. Then, on 7 December 1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, at that time a U.S. Territory (it would become the 50th U.S. state in 1959). The U.S. government immediately seized over 1,000 Japanese American community leaders in Hawaii and on the U.S. west coast and

imprisoned them. Two months later, on 10 February 1942, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which ordered all Japanese Americans to be evacuated from their homes and sent to detention camps. They were also presented with loyalty questionnaires to fill out and sign. At the time, the U.S. government believed this was necessary to prevent those Japanese Americans still loyal to Japan from sabotaging U.S. military efforts, carrying out espionage for the Japanese government, or staging internal attacks. However, no other immigrant group was detained or had their loyalty questioned during the whole of World War II (1939–45), including German and Italian Americans. Executive Order 9066 was clearly racially motivated, and it would take decades for the U.S. government to redress this grievous wrong. In 1988, a bill was finally passed to pay $20,000 per internee living when the bill went into effect, or to his or her heirs, and in 2005 the California legislature passed a bill to give diplomas to Japanese Americans who had been forcibly removed from high school during the internment. The internment camps themselves are now being preserved as historic sites and educational centers.

Most Japanese Americans had been forced to sell their homes and businesses at a moment's notice when informed that they were to be evacuated. After suffering for almost three years in the dreadful living conditions of the internment camps, they were released to a life with no home, no property, and no financial resources. Many were afraid to return to the "Japantowns" of the West Coast because anti-Asian sentiment was still running high there. Consequently, the Japanese American community became much more widely dispersed, scattering across the United States.

Japanese Americans also tried to hide their cultural differences, blending in with mainstream American society as much as possible. A great deal of traditional Japanese culture was discarded by Japanese Americans in those first years after World War II, and more has been lost in succeeding generations. The movement for redress (compensation for wrongs done to Japanese Americans), which began in earnest in the 1970s, did lead many young Japanese Americans to examine their history and begin to reclaim their identity as Japanese Americans. Once redress was achieved, however, the rallying point for Japanese Americans as a culture group was gone and interest in a separate Japanese American identity waned once again.

The children and grandchildren of Japanese American internees were encouraged to adopt mainstream American values, traditions, and attitudes. Most grew up speaking only English, learning and experiencing very little of traditional Japanese culture. Because they no longer lived in Japanese American enclaves but were rather dispersed throughout American communities, they made many non-Japanese American friends. This led to a rise in interracial marriages to the point that today there are very few Japanese American children of pure Japanese descent. The Japanese American community may eventually disappear simply through racial blending.

According to the U.S. Census, there were 1,148,932 Japanese Americans living in the United States in 2000. Over two-thirds (about 70%) are American-born, almost twice as many as in any other Asian American group. Although Japanese immigration continues into the United States, most Japanese Americans are descended from Japanese who arrived before 1924. Some 200,000 Japanese settled in Hawaii and 180,000 on the U.S. mainland between 1885 and 1924.

Most Japanese Americans (68%) still live in the West, with the majority concentrated in the Pacific region. California has the highest population of Japanese Americans (394,896). Although Hawaii has fewer Japanese Americans (296,674) than California, they comprise a higher percentage of the total population (25%, compared to 1% in California). In 2000 one-fifth (20%) of all Japanese Americans lived in Honolulu alone. The next highest Japanese American populations are in the states of Washington (56,210), New York (45,237), Texas (28,060), and Illinois (27,702).

Japanese Americans distinguish themselves by generation. Issei are first generation Japanese Americans who were born in Japan. Their children, second generation Japanese Americans, are called Nisei. The children of Nisei and grandchildren of Issei are known as Sansei, or third generation Japanese Americans. Yonsei are fourth generation Japanese Americans, children of Sansei. Many Japanese Americans today are either Sansei or Yonsei. They have lived in the United States longer than some European Americans and consider themselves more American than Japanese. Most do not speak Japanese or follow traditional Japanese customs.

The Japanese are very tolerant, and Japanese Americans likewise follow a variety of religious faiths. In their efforts to assimilate with mainstream American culture, many have become Christian, though they may still visit Buddhist temples on traditional Buddhist holidays. Certain Shinto customs also survive, such as visiting shrines at New Year's and praying to Shinto gods for luck.

Major rites of passage, such as weddings and funerals, may be celebrated in traditional Buddhist or Shinto fashion. Somefamilies take their children to the Buddhist temple for the Infant's First Service, or Hatsu Mairi, in May, where the children are formally introduced to the community for the first time. Adult Japanese Americans who choose to pursue Buddhism seriously are given a Buddhist name in the Three Treasures, or Ti Sarana, ceremony held every March and September.

Most Japanese Americans continue to celebrate certain traditional Japanese holidays. Although different communities celebrate a variety of holidays, nearly all Japanese Americans recognize New Year's (Shogatsu), the Doll Festival (Hina Matsuri), Children's Day (Tango no Sekku), the Weaving Loom or Star Festival (Tanabata), and the Bon Dance (Bon Odori). Japanese Americans often add typical American holiday foods, such as ham or turkey, to their traditional Japanese feasts, and girls may display American rather than Japanese dolls on Hina Matsuri.

Tanabata had been celebrated in a rather reduced form in the United States, consisting of small gatherings of people reading poetry. Recently, however, Japanese Americans are returning to more elaborate displays of traditional Tanabata decorations. Bon Odori has become the occasion for huge parades with professional dancers in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Although Japanese Americans have for the most part become thoroughly Americanized, certain traditional customs remain, such as gift giving. Younger generations, however, are beginning to lose touch with the importance of these rituals, much to the chagrin of their parents and grandparents. One traditional Japanese value to which even younger Japanese Americans still adhere is the strong bond between mother and child. Studies show that Japanese American children are held more by their mothers and spend less time alone than other children in the United States. Japanese American children are taught to respect their elders, and they grow up with feelings of gratitude and obligation toward their parents that last throughout their lifetime.

Many Japanese Americans continue to eat traditional Japanese foods, such as sushi, sashimi, maki, and tempura. Japanese foods have also become popular among the general U.S. population. In May 1964, Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki (1938–) opened the first Benihana restaurant, in New York City. Though some critics consider the food more American than Japanese, it is prepared in a flamboyant "Japanese" manner by Japanese American chefs wielding large knives at lightning speeds right at the customers' table. Benihana restaurants are now located in cities throughout the world.

Japanese Americans have contributed more than just food to American society. The arts of haiku poetry, origami (paper-folding), ikebana (flower arranging), and Kabuki theater are practiced and enjoyed by many Americans. Actors such as George Takei (Star Trek) and Pat Morita (Happy Days and the Karate Kid films) are well known to most Americans, and musicians including Yoko Ono, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the jazz band Hiroshima have added elements of their Japanese heritage to the world of American music, as have James Iha, a guitarist formerly with the Smashing Pumpkins, and rapper Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

A number of Japanese American writers have found success, including Ronald Takaki, Bill Hosokawa, Jun Atsushi Iwamatsu, Lydia Minatoya, David Mura, Phillip Kan Gotanda, Kyoko Mori, and others. Successful Japanese American artists and architects include Eiko Ishioka, Gyo Obata, and Minoru Yamasaki.

Although the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii and the United States came as contract laborers, they were carefully selected by the Japanese government from the ranks of the well educated to serve as ambassadors of a sort. Most Japanese Americans descend from these hard-working, highly skilled immigrants and carry on their drive to succeed. The unemployment rate among Japanese Americans is very low, and only 8.6% live below the poverty line, as compared to 12.4% of the overall American population.

Some Japanese Americans who have risen to the top in their fields are Nobel Prize winners Leo Esaki and Tetsuo Akutso; research scientist Douglas Ishii; Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American astronaut (who was tragically killed aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986); U.S. Senators Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa and Daniel Inouye; U.S. representatives Bob Matsui, Patsy Takemoto Mink, and Norman Mineta; Superior Court Judge Lance Ito (who was named to preside over the O. J. Simpson trial in 1994); George Aratani, founder of the Mikasa Corporation (one of the largest privately owned international firms); lawyer and director of the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, Dennis Hayashi; and CBS news correspondent James Hattori.

Japanese Americans have also been very successful in sports. Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal for figure skating in the 1992 Winter Olympics and has also won gold and silver medals at World Championship competitions. Several Japanese American baseball players have made the major leagues, and Japanese American athletes have risen to the top in many other sports as well, including gymnastics, boxing, golf, track and field, tennis, volleyball, hockey, football, and basketball. Miki Gorman, a 2005 nominee for the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, is the only woman to win the Boston and New York City marathons twice each, as well as the only woman to win them both in the same year (1977). She was also the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon in under three hours (1974). Japanese Americans are also responsible for bringing karate, judo, aikido, and ninjutsu (whose practitioners are called ninjas) to the United States.

Japanese Americans still suffer the wounds and scars of internment during World War II, and anti-Asian discrimination continues to afflict their lives. Studies have shown that Japanese American men are paid less than what European American men earn for the same work, and few Japanese Americans are promoted to top management positions. Chinese American Vincent Chin was mistaken for a Japanese by European American auto workers in Detroit in 1982. The auto workers called Chin a "Jap," blamed him for the loss of their jobs, and beat him to death on the street. This sort of racial prejudice prevents Japanese Americans from taking their full and rightful place in American society.

Both Japan and Hawaii encouraged the emigration of women to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to promote a stable home life among Japanese laborers there and discourage prostitution, gambling, and other vices to which single young men might succumb. Many Japanese women came to Hawaii and the U.S. west coast as "picture brides." In a system similar to the traditional arranged marriages of Japan, a man and a woman would exchange photos and letters until the woman could travel across the sea to join her husband.

Despite Japanese and Hawaiian efforts, however, some hundreds or even thousands of young Japanese women were brought to Hawaii and the United States as prostitutes. Most were either sold into prostitution by their destitute families, kidnapped, or tricked into joining the recruiters. Life was hard for these young women, and they saw little of the profits from their forced labors.

Other Japanese women came to Hawaii and the United States, not as picture brides or prostitutes to serve the male contract laborers, but as contract laborers themselves. Thou-sands of Japanese women worked as cooks, seamstresses, and field laborers alongside the men. However, even their lives were more difficult than the lives of Japanese American men: although the women did equal work, they received only $6 per month in wages, as compared to the men's wages of $10 per month.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asian-Nation. Asian American History, Demographics, and Issues, http://www.asian-nation.org (2 June 2008).

Bernardo, Stephanie. The Ethnic Almanac. Garden City, NY: Dolphin Books/Doubleday & Co., 1981.

California Japantowns. http://www.californiajapantowns.org/index.html (2 June 2008).

Gall, Susan, and Irene Natividad, ed. The Asian American Almanac. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.

Gonzales, Juan L., Jr. Racial and Ethnic Groups in America, 2nd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1993.

Japanese American Citizens League. http://www.jacl.org (2 June 2008).

Lee, Lauren. Japanese Americans. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark Books/Marshall Cavendish, 1996.

National Distance Running Hall of Fame. http://www.distancerunning.com/news/class_05.html (2 June 2008).

Niiya, Brian, and Sandra Yamate. "Who Are the Japanese Americans?" In The Asian American Almanac, Susan Gall and Irene Natividad, ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. American Factfinder. http://fact-finder.census.gov (2 June 2008).

—by D. K. Daeg de Mott