Date of Award

1995

Document Type

Research Paper

First Advisor

Joseph Fairbanks

Second Advisor

Cheryl Swift

Abstract

With racial prejudice and discrimination being common in the history of the United States, it is no surprise that Japanese immigrants were not welcomed into the country. A great amount of Japanese immigrants arrived in the U.S. in the 1890 as they filled up the labor shortage left by the Exclusion Act against the Chinese. Many of them stayed on the west coast and Hawaii. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, Japanese students were segregated for the first time. The paper goes into great detail about how these events began and escalated. President Roosevelt had to get involved in the matter as well as Japan’s ambassador. The author further discusses the arguments and reasons for segregation. In 1924, Congress passed the Immigration Act which stopped Japanese immigration for 14 years. This law was not overturned until 1952 when the Immigration and Nationality Act came along. The issue of picture brides, foreign language schools, the Alien Land Act, naturalization, as well as a Supreme Court case are all issues discussed throughout the paper. The Japanese felt that they were forced to give into assimilation and accommodation in order to fit in.

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