JAPANESE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

by

Lynn Jones

A Thesis/Project Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Social Science Emphasis in American History

May, 2005

JAPANESE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

by

Lynn Jones

Approved by the Master’s Thesis Committee:

Dennis Fitzsimons, Major Professor

Date

Gayle Olson-Raymer, Committee Member

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Rodney Sievers, Committee Member

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Delores McBroome, Graduate Coordinator MASS – Teaching American History Cohort

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Donna E. Schafer, Dean for Research and Graduate Studies

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ABSTRACT

Japanese American Immigration and Assimilation by Lynn Jones Using World War II as a pivotal period from which to view Japanese-American assimilation, this study will probe laws, attitudes and motives that led to the “military necessity” of Japanese internment in 1942. The controversies that emerged over the constitutionality of relocation are a backdrop for analyzing the geographic factors in Japanese settlement in Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington, and for analyzing the differences in detention policies. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, General John DeWitt, and American-born Fred Korematsu provide character studies that reflect the legal, military, and social debates central to detention. Racially restrictive laws which segregated Japanese students from public schools, made citizenship unavailable to non-whites, and prohibited aliens from owning land are critical to understanding the pervasive racism that limited the civil rights of Japanese Americans at the time. Before 1853 Japanese culture was separate and insulated from western development for centuries. The circumstances that opened Japan to trade, pushed Japanese from their homeland, pulled the first generation of migrants to Hawaii, and eventually to the west coast as contract laborers, will initiate the fourth, fifth, or eighth grade unit of study. Students will survey Japanese cultural traits, from arts to social iii

hierarchies, provide comparative information and a scale by which to measure Japanese American assimilation. Finally, students will examine post World War II Japanese Americans, many of whom lost businesses, land, and status during internment. Both Japanese and white attitudes changed. Systematically and determinedly Japanese Americans ascended U.S. social, educational, and economic ladders, maintaining cultural traits while achieving success in American terms.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................... v JAPANESE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION............................... 1 STEPS ALONG THE WAY............................................................................................... 4 DISCRIMINATION AND LEGISLATIVE CRUSADES............................................... 17 THE MODEL MINORITY AND THE NATIONAL MYTH.......................................... 29 CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................... 33 LESSON PLAN ................................................................................................................ 37 Introduction................................................................................................................... 37 Prior Content Knowledge and Skills............................................................................. 40 Lesson Hook ................................................................................................................. 41 Fourth Grade Lesson..................................................................................................... 43 Topic One: The United States is a mixture of cultures, native and immigrant..........43 Topic Two: Japanese immigrants descended from a unique heritage. ......................45 Topic Three: Japanese immigrants came, first to Hawaii, then to the west coast of the United States, in search of opportunities...............................................51 Topic Four: Japanese immigrants to California met much discrimination................56 Topic Five: After Pearl Harbor, Japanese immigrants and American-born citizens of Japanese descent were subject to unconstitutional restrictions. ..............58 v

Topic Six: A democratic society makes decisions based on the dictates of the people........................................................................................................................60 Evaluation ..................................................................................................................... 61 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................. 63 APPENDIX A................................................................................................................... 68 Grade Level Standards Addressed in the Lesson.......................................................... 68 Grade Four .................................................................................................................69 Grade Five..................................................................................................................69 Grade Eight ................................................................................................................70 APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................... 71 Assignments, quizzes, tests, final evaluation instruments ............................................ 71 1. Lesson planning chart ............................................................................................72 2. Cultural Iceberg .....................................................................................................73 3. Japanese Family Crests ..........................................................................................73 4. Haiku by Bashō and Buson....................................................................................74 5. Reflection Sheet .....................................................................................................75 6. Issei Interview Questions.......................................................................................75 APPENDIX C ................................................................................................................... 78 Photographs, maps, charts, graphs, primary documents............................................... 78 1. Map 1 – Pacific-centered world.............................................................................79 2. Map 2 – Asia..........................................................................................................80 3. Map 3 - Japan.........................................................................................................81 vi

4. Map 4 - Hawaii ......................................................................................................82 5. Map 5 – United States............................................................................................83 6. Japanese Picture Brides disembarking at Angel Island .........................................84 7. Photo 2 - Japanese Picture Brides being interviewed at Angel Island...................85 8. Document 1 – Japanese American relocation order. .............................................86 9. Japanese Americans being evacuated from their homes........................................87 10. Japanese Americans preparing to relocate. ........................................................88 11. Japanese American soldiers in Italy, World War II.............................................89 12. Japanese American translators, World War II. ....................................................90 13. Cartoon 1 – Japanese cartoon depicting Japanese American solution to nativist harassment over right-to-work .....................................................................91 14. Cartoon 2 – Cartoon depicting Japanese school segregation in San Francisco, October 11, 1906. ....................................................................................92 15. Cartoon 3 - Stereotyping the “model minority.”..................................................93

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JAPANESE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

At first glance, the Japanese immigrant experience echoes the experiences of millions who came to America from all over the world, full of mixed emotions and hope for a new start. Reading Oscar Handlin’s Pulitzer prize-winning The Uprooted, one feels the pain of immigrants leaving their homelands, shares excitement at their prospects, and sympathizes with both the disappointments and determination of becoming American.1 Considered by many the quintessential study of immigration, Handlin’s work conceptualizes the distinction between heritage — cultural conformity within a home context, and ethnicity — distinction within another culture. As Stephen Fugita and David J. O’Brien point out, this concept has become a critical tool for analyzing and identifying immigrant assimilation strategies.2 Handlin, however, never applies this cultural analysis to the hundreds of thousands of Asian immigrants who arrived in the United States through the west coast. Beginning with the publication of Japanese Americans3 by Harry H. L. Kitano in 1969, and Ronald Takaki’s Strangers from a Different Shore4 in 1983, and A Different Mirror 5 in 1993, scholarly and literary works embraced the American migration story from a bicoastal perspective. Each work generated controversy, asked questions, and kept alive the interesting story of Japanese immigrants’ determination to become American. 1

Oscar Handlin. The Uprooted. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1973) Stephen Fugita and David J. O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991) 20 3 Harry H.L.Kitano. Japanese Americans: The Evolution of a Subculture (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall 1976) 4 Ronald Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. (New York: Penguin Books, 1989) 5 Ronald Takaki. A Different Mirror. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1993) 2

1

2 Since California’s gold rush in 1850, Asians have had a significant impact on the building of the West. The Chinese were the first large Asian immigrant group to labor for low wages, working on the bottom socioeconomic rung. They were the targets of controversial laws restricting immigration, citizenship, and land ownership for over 100 years. The Japanese, whose immigration began after the Chinese had already broken the trail in both Hawaii and on the west coast of the United States, entered an already hostile, anti-Asian environment upon arrival in California after 1890. Both the first generation issei — immigrant Japanese ineligible for citizenship, and their American-born children — the nisei, suffered legalized and social sinophobic discrimination for which they developed unique coping strategies en route to assimilation. A voluminous body of literature details the Japanese American narrative. While internment camps and reparation maintain prominent currency, there is little popular discussion of several key questions: What is the cultural inheritance that identifies and distinguishes Japanese ethnicity? Why are Japanese American social and legal crusades for integration unfamiliar to the general public? What practices led to internment? Why are post-war Japanese Americans considered the “model minority?” What do the Japanese internment and assimilation experiences tell us about the “national myth” that David Kennedy describes: The chronic discomfort of government officials with their own policy… bore witness to the singular awkwardness with which American culture tried to come to terms with the internment episode. What happened to the Japanese was especially disquieting in wartime America precisely because it so loudly mocked the nation’s best image of itself as a tolerantly inclusive, fair-minded “melting pot” society – an image long nurtured in

3 national mythology, and one powerfully reinforced by the conspicuously racialized conflict that was World War II.6 These are the primary questions addressed by the scholars examined in this study. Each question will be considered, within the context of these categories which emerged from the literature: steps along the way, discrimination and legislation, the model minority, and the national myth.

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David M. Kennedy. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) 760

STEPS ALONG THE WAY

Historians have clearly sequenced and analyzed the events that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan at the end of 1941. Writing with decades of hindsight scholars’ examinations of documents from that period show a confused and tentative jumble of information and misinformation that raced back and forth across the country as an emergency response to the attack materialized. David Kennedy uncovered some examples: “Eleanor Roosevelt’s airplane was grounded…while [she] telephoned to check on a radio message that San Francisco was under bombardment. Carpenters hammered up dummy aircraft plants in Los Angeles to decoy Japanese away from the real factories. Athletic officials moved the traditional New Year’s Day football classic from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena… to North Carolina.” 7 Allen Winkler reports that General John DeWitt of the Western Defense Command initially rejected the notion of mass evacuation as “damned nonsense,” and defended the rights of loyal Japanese American citizens.8 U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle was “determined to avoid…persecution of aliens that had characterized the First World War.”9 Ronald Takaki explains that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover quelled fantastic rumors of spy rings and traitorship, assured authorities that he had not found any reason to suspect security breaches from Japanese Americans, and declared that public and political pressures were substituting for factual data in the decision-making process.10

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Kennedy. Freedom From Fear. Allen Winkler. Home Fron U.S.A. (Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc. 2000) 9 Kennedy. Freedom. 748 10 Takaki. A Different Mirror. 380 8

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5 Kennedy chronicles how Milton Eisenhower, hastily appointed director of the emergency War Relocation Authority, initially predicted that useful projects might be accomplished in the internment camps that would change the discriminatory climate and redirect the popular animosity against the Japanese. Shortly after relocation began Eisenhower resigned, claiming his conscience would not allow him to participate.11 As rumors of impending sabotage increased, public pressure mounted, and undocumented allegations stood in place of evidence. General DeWitt relied on the 18th century Enemy Alien Act and the Sedition Acts12 to request authority to evacuate all Japanese aliens and citizens from the contentious west coast, for reasons of “military necessity.” Against the fervent recommendations of the director of the Enemy Alien Control Unit, Edward J. Ennis and others, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.13 The President’s order referred to the exclusion of all enemy aliens from prescribed military areas, although it was applied most indiscriminately to west coast Japanese. Takaki sums up: President Roosevelt had signed a blank check, giving full authority to General DeWitt to evacuate the Japanese and place them in assembly centers and eventually in internment camps. And so it happened, tragically for the Japanese and for the U.S. Constitution, for there was actually no military necessity.14

11

Winkler. Home Front. 82 The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/alien_sed.html (Accessed April 4, 2005) 13 Executive Order 9066. http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/executiorder9066.html (Accessed April 4, 2005) 14 Takaki. Strangers from a Different Shore. 392 12

6 Allan Winkler confirms that “the government’s claim that it had to act as it did on military grounds has now been thoroughly debunked in this disgraceful affair.”15 Indeed, the only “military strikes” ever uncovered occurred between 1944 and 1945 when Japan sent Fugo balloon bombs (incendiary bombs held aloft by hydrogen balloons) to the west coast in hopes of creating forest fires that would distract American attention and manpower away from the war. While few of the balloons made it across the Pacific, one accidentally killed six members of a picnicking family on the Oregon coast after the war was over.16 Otherwise, no military strike was ever executed by Japan on the mainland. The resulting curfew and evacuation affected all Japanese, who represented about two percent of the population on the west coast. Compared to Hawaiian Japanese, these mainland Japanese were “economically marginal and socially isolated.”17 First person accounts disclose the eroding confidence of the issei, and their American-born offspring who doubted that their government could make fair choices during the tumultuous months after the bombing. Nisei Frank Chuman, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, remembers “I felt very much alone… fearing that my features would cause me to be the target of hatred and suspicion…”18 Kyoko Oshima Takayanagi remembers anatgonists yelling at her father, “Get the hell to Yokohama!”19 Emi Somekawa expressed the growing fears of many in the business community:

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Winlker. Home Front U.S.A., 80 Japanese Balloon Bombs. http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/jbb.htm (Accessed February 25, 2005) 17 Kennedy. Freedom From Fear. 749 18 Lawson Fusao Inada, editor. Only What We Could Carry. (Berkeley, California: Heyday Books, 2000) 19 Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. The Japanese American Family Album. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 16

7 I think the thing we felt the most was that people who stopped in at our store thought maybe we should close it up. For our safety. But my husband said, “No there’s no need to do that. We’re American citizens.” But as things came out in the newspaper and on the radio as days went by, it really got worse. So then I felt too that we had to stay inside, and then we had a curfew. We had to have our lights out at eight… When April came along we knew that we had to go. So my husband started selling things in the store.20 Lauren Kessler illustrates the experiences of the Masuo Yasui family: FBI agents searched their home for radios, cameras, firearms or anything that seemed suspicious to them. 21 After ransacking his home and taking maps that had been drawn by his children for school projects, Yasui, hardworking pillar of his Oregon community, was taken from his home on no charges, by two armed guards, and his family was not told where he was to be taken. Magazine and newspaper articles played both sides of the Japanese issue. People’s World, on February 2, 1942, appealed to readers to resist hysteria, and to treat “both aliens and native-born Japanese with courtesy and respect.”22 However the San Francisco Chronicle, one month after Pearl Harbor, warned people against using epithets against the Japanese that might offend other Asian Americans, and suggested using terms like “Japanazi” or ironically, “Japaryans” instead.23 Other publications exacerbated the vehement anti-Japanese feelings of nativists looking for a reason to take action against their long time competitors. The Los Angeles Times said, “A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched — so a Japanese born of Japanese parents — grows up to be 20

Inada. Only What We Could Carry. Lauren Kessler. Stubborn Twig. (New York: Random House, 1993) 22 Inada Only What We Could Carry. 16 23 Inada Only What We Could Carry 21

8 a Japanese, not an American.” Walter Lippman, a widely read essayist and journalist, joined the call for the mass removal of Japanese Americans. “The Pacific Coast is officially a combat zone…There is plenty of room elsewhere for him to exercise his rights.”24 Rumors masquerading as fact bred fear about the possibilities of a fifth column mustering subversive aid to Japan. The entire coast was on alert to the possibility of imminent attack, and the “counterfeit patriots” in the press mimicked the public panic.25 Ironically in Hawaii, where Honolulu endured the Pearl Harbor attack directly, a different scenario unfolded. There, Japanese Americans made up over one-third of the state’s population. The Washington War Department initially recommended mass evacuation of all Japanese. In Hawaii writ of habeas corpus was suspended and several hundred suspected spies were taken into custody. However, because of their crucial importance to the territory’s economy, military governor General Delos Emmons recommended against wholesale relocation. Only 1,444 Hawaiian Japanese were interned, compared to 110,000 from the mainland. Cooler heads prevailed in the Hawaiian community as well. As David Kennedy illustrates, a truer melting pot of cultures existed on the islands, and white Americans were not the numerically dominant race.26 The Honolulu Star Bulletin denounced rumors of subterfuge as “weird, amazing, and damaging untruths.”27 As Michael Angelo Dilauro claims, the Hawaiian experience more closely paralleled the mainland experiences of non-citizen Italians and Germans,

24

Inada Only What We Could Carry. Inada Only What We Could Carry. 26 Kennedy. Freedom from Fear. 27 Takaki. A Different Mirror. 381 25

9 who were labeled enemy aliens.28 With relatively few actually interned, Winkler alleges that these ethnic groups nonetheless “found their physical movement and employment opportunities restricted.”29 A critical examination of the literature uncovers a classic pattern in what Roger Daniels and Harry Kitano describe as the build-up from “ordinary” responses to prejudice, to “extraordinary solutions.”30 The authors, who argue that extreme acts of racism develop in stages, call the first three stages “ordinary,” in terms of American racial problems: first, subjecting minority groups to victimization by prejudice, next, depriving minorities through discriminatory laws, and then insulating people through segregation. The fourth stage contains “extraordinary” solutions to a perceived danger from a subordinate group, including isolation (as in internment camps), exclusion, and ultimately, genocide.31 Richard Schaefer suggests three reasons for the subordination of a group: the necessity for stratification to maintain the stability of a society (functionalism), the inherent need for tension among competitive groups (conflict perspective), and the creation of self-fulfilling prophecies through society’s expectations (labeling theory).32 Kitano and Daniels add that prejudice begins with simple territorialism.33

28

Michael Angelo Dilauro. Prisoners Among Us. (Michelangelo Productions. 88 minutes. 2003) DVD Winkler. Homefront 30 Roger Daniels and Harry H.L. Kitano. American Racism: Exploration of the Nature of Prejudice. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1970) 31 Daniels and Kitano. American Racism. 12 32 Richard T. Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001) 33 Daniels and Kitano. American Racism. 12 29

10 Three of the factors that Schaeffer believes isolate and identify subordinate groups — religion, ethnicity, and race — typified the issei and their children.34 Paul Watt explains that the Japanese arrived from a polytheistic, nature-oriented society in which the beliefs of Japan — Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism — blended to emphasize individual spirituality without affecting communal identity.35 The religions made few demands, and tolerated different faiths. As Walter LaFeber states, except for a brief period before the Tokugawa Shogunate suspended contact with the rest of the world, the Japanese rejected Christianity simply because they saw no reason to adopt an exclusive foreign faith that would prevent them from worshipping their gods and ancestors. 36 Upon immigration some Japanese remained Buddhist, preferring the tolerant spirituality to which they had been accustomed. Takaki notes, “On every plantation they established Buddhist temples; planters themselves often donated lands… for they viewed Buddhism as a stabilizing influence on their workers.”37 Very few immigrants remained Shintoists, because it is rooted in the landscapes and seasons of Japan. But many now saw it as “logical and proper to adopt the religion of their host country,” says Ben-Ami Shillony, ‘in the same way that they would worship a local deity in Japan. After all, Jesus was the “local deity” of the U.S.’ 38 Ethnicity, a second factor in Schaeffer’s classification of subordinate groups, has always played a role in American society. But Japanese immigrants were associated with 34

Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. 5 Paul Watt. “Japanese Religions” Japan Digest. September 2003 36 Walter LaFeber. Clash. (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1997) 37 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore 164 38 Ben-Ami Shillony. “The Jews and the Japanese: Cultural Traits and Common Values” JPRI Occasional Paper No. 6 (November 1995) 35

11 conspicuous cultural characteristics, leading to stereotypes that survive today. As Takaki illustrates, despite progress, exposure and changes in Japan, the origins of the Japanese immigrants were homogeneous relative to other immigrant groups.39 Stephen Fugita concurs that “by any standard, the Japanese were among the most homogeneous in the world.”40 Harry Kitano reminds us that this homogeneity lay in stark contrast to the roiling European immigrant-rich plurality in the United States of the time.41 Representing the agricultural or merchant middle class, most Japanese immigrants — male and female — arrived with the equivalent of an eighth grade education. Japan had a national system of banking and saving, values which matched American mores. The strongly patriarchal Japanese families professed filial piety, respect for age and the ancestral clan, and favoritism toward male children.42 In the memoirs of Akemi Kikumura, she complains that “Meiji men” — men whose strongly held cultural values were established in the Meiji dynasty — had a revered but often severe role as a husband and a father.43 Lauren Kessler uses an old Japanese expression to describe the imposing father, Masuo Yasui, in The Stubborn Twig. “Make the children suffer even if you have to buy suffering for them!”44 American and Japanese cultural attitudes diverged, however, on the notion of community versus individual goals. Kitano describes Japanese families as prizing

39

Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity. 36 41 Harry H.L. Kitano. Japanese Americans: The Evolution of a Subculture (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall 1976) 3 42 Kitano. Japanese Americans 43 Akemi Kikumura. Through Harsh Winters.( Novato, California: Chandler and Sharp Publishers, 1981) 44 Kessler. Stubborn Twig. 135 40

12 cohesion and harmony over individual achievement, though individuals were expected to perform competitively in everything they did. To that end, Japanese families emphasized hard work, duty, obligation, and responsibility.45 Fugita and O’Brien explain that Japanese immigrants carried with them a collective sense of “peoplehood,” particular to their heritage, and the ideals of work ethic, loyalty and frugality — conduct that seemingly fit in with and matched European American principals. 46 Walter LaFeber contrasts the seventeenth century upsurge in European exploration, colonialism, and competitive trade, to Japan’s tranquil isolation, known as sakoku, between 1640 and 1853.47 Determined to keep its culture intact and maintain its feudal organization, the Tokugawa Shogunate resisted the temptation to profit – economically or culturally — from developing world commerce and technology during its 200 years of sakoku. In fact, Jared Diamond points out that Japan clung to cumbersome traditions like the complex and prestigious form of writing called kanji, for the sake of cultural identity. 48 Moreover, Japan was historically unique in actually abandoning a highly perfected gun-making technology, in order to preserve the sword symbolism of the samurai warrior class. LaFeber cautions “…sakoku did not mean lack of creativity. A flourishing middle class culture bloomed that produced Kabuki theater, imaginative fashions, influential painters, and lasting poetry.”49

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Kitano. Japanese Americans. Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity 47 LaFeber. Clash. 48 Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel.( New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1999) 49 LaFeber. Clash. 8 46

13 LaFeber conveys how the allure and influence of the West loomed on the global horizon, when in April, 1853 United States Commodore Matthew Perry forced an opening in communication with Japan which ultimately led to the collapse of sakoku and the feudal system.50 The United States viewed this new Asian alliance as an extension of the “far west;” an additional “conquest” of manifest destiny that would expand the market for rapidly increasing American industrial products. LaFeber points out that however amicable initial cooperation was, “As Japan vigorously moved into late nineteenth-century capitalism and imperialism, profound differences remained between that island nation and the Western members of the [imperialists’] club.”51 Subsequent changes in Japan affected all levels of society. The new Meiji dynasty reorganized, centralized, and westernized the imperial government. Takaki describes the growing pains that created cultural and economic chaos.52 By the late1860s the burden of taxation had so impoverished island farmers that hundreds of thousands were landless, homeless, and starving. Freedom from sakoku and economic necessity caused a netsu — immigration fever. To alleviate the pressure, select residents were allowed to emigrate from their homeland for the first time in hundreds of years, which coincided with the need for laborers in a burgeoning Hawaiian sugar industry.53 In Ronald Takaki’s study of Hawaii he describes how entrepreneurial Caucasian Americans in the mid-nineteenth century saw and seized the opportunity to secure land

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LaFeber Clash. 33-45 LaFeber. Clash. 64 52 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 53 Takaki. A Different Mirror. 51

14 for the establishment of sugar plantations in the “West Indies” model.54 Justifying the pursuit as emancipating natives from the Hawaiian monarchy’s cruel exploitation, plantation culture was the wedge that ultimately split apart traditional Hawaiian society.55 Upon acquiring huge tracts of land through negotiations with commercially unsophisticated native leaders, American capitalists established self-supporting plantation worker communities to regulate every aspect of the intense and scheduled labor that was required to produce sugar. Hawaiian laborers failed to thrive under plantation authority, so a series of ethnic groups was imported as immigrant labor. By 1868, neither the Chinese nor Portuguese imports proved to be loyal workers, so in 1868 Japanese were hired. The first company of Japanese contract laborers was so mistreated at the plantations that Japan refused to allow further indenture. LaFeber says that it was another twenty years before conditions in Japan worsened to the point that egress was a national inevitability.56 Japan wanted to ensure that representatives abroad would reflect responsibly on the homeland, so at that point, a carefully monitored and controlled exodus ensued. Takaki reports that “when the government of Japan announced its intention to fill 600 emigrant slots for the first ship to Hawaii in 1884, it received 28,000 applications.”57 Only men made the pilgrimage to Hawaii in the first year of departure from Japan. Poetry, diary accounts, oral histories, and cartoons, articulate the undertakings and migration of several thousand Japanese immigrants. Recollections of the push and pull 54

Ronald Takaki. Pau Hana. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983) Takaki. Pau Hana. 56 LaFeber. Clash. 57 Takaki. Pau Hana 55

15 factors that took them first to Hawaii, and subsequently to the west coast are prevalent. Haunting haiku reflect not only the feelings, but the literacy and education of the newcomers to America. With tears in my eyes I turn back to my homeland Taking one last look.58 Illusion and I Traveled over the ocean Hunting money trees. - Kijo59 Unique to Japanese contract laborers, many women eventually migrated as well as men; and by 1920 46 percent of the Japanese labor force was female. Takaki found that in the second year of contract labor in Hawaii, Japan sent abroad wives, picture brides, and single women in an attempt to maintain a high moral standard among its émigrés.60 This resulted in a happier workforce of hard-working men, and equally hardworking Japanese women, who were paid less for the same work.61 The Japanese population, initially sojourners, put down unintended roots, raised families, and established healthy ethnic enclaves within their class hierarchy in the plantation community. Fugita and O’Brien claim the external force of ethnic and class segregation and the internal attributes of group orientation and collective interests combined naturally to build Japanese support

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Inada. Only What They Could Carry. Haiku from the Japanese American National Museum http://members.tripod.com/~AliMcJ/ESLTOA9.html (Accessed March 20, 2005) 60 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 61 Takaki. A Different Mirror 247 59

16 groups in the plantation camps.62 By 1920 Japanese made up 43 percent of Hawaii’s population. From 1880 until 1924 nearly 100,000 Japanese fled the poverty and loss of livelihoods at home, in search of “the land of the money trees.”63 With backgrounds in agriculture and a fervent work ethic, the first proud men who contracted as plantation laborers took with them cultural morals and values that allowed them to cope with what they found to be oppressive prejudice. The combination of discrimination and the Japanese disposition to maintain a group infrastructure formed first an ethnic, and later a class “parallel community.”64 From this support system they faced class and racial intolerance with a strategy of accommodation, picturesquely defined by Kitano: “like a stream, they have followed the contours of the land, followed the lines of least resistance, avoided direct confrontation, and developed at their own pace, always shaped by the external realities of the larger society.”65 Meantime, Hawaii was militarily overthrown and annexed by the United States in1893, which immediately deemed indentured labor illegal. Released from their multiyear contracts, many Japanese Hawaiians joined Japanese nationals in a new migratory surge to the continental United States.

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Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity, 181 Takaki. Different Mirror. 246 64 Fugita and O/Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity. 65 Kitano. Japanese American,s 3 63

DISCRIMINATION AND LEGISLATIVE CRUSADES

“Dirty Jap!” “ Slant-eye!” “Yellow Japs go away.” Such vilification appears regularly in the recollections of Japanese immigrants to the Pacific Coast, and reflects Schaeffer’s third factor of identification of subordinate groups: race.66 Takaki contrasts the pervasive continental hostility, to the acceptance and general “aloha spirit” toward Japanese and other Asians in Hawaii. The Japanese fit into a vastly different social community in the islands than on the mainland. Takaki reveals: In Hawaii, Japanese were needed as laborers, and they had been incorporated in a paternalistic racial hierarchy. A large white working class did not exist in the islands; in fact, most of the people in the islands were Asian, and the Japanese alone represented 43 percent of the population.67 What started as ethnic solidarity became class solidarity, in the form of unionization and collective action related to conditions of labor. Ethnic identities converged as different nationalities acquired a common language, and a coalition developed based on people of the same class, rather than on ethnicity. Individual advancement was not a possibility within the status-ranked confines of corporate Hawaii.68 Conversely, Japanese on the mainland were in a racial minority. They entered a labor market already populated by white workers. They started out in direct competition

66

Richard T. Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 179 68 Takaki. Pau hana. 67

17

18 with the white population.69 Kitano wonders at the fortitude of the early Japanese immigrants: The conditions with which they were faced were so adverse that one is led… to inquire into any special conditions in the Japanese background of these people, in the hope of seeing there some special advantages or characteristics that enabled them to remain in America, to endure, and ultimately to succeed here.70 Fugita and O’Brien claim these conditions “reinforced the need to develop self-help networks in economic affairs.”71 Takaki describes how in California, Oregon, and Washington, racial discrimination led to the formation of ethnic enclaves where “the Japanese found certain possibilities that existed to a greater extent on the American continent than in Hawaii.”72 Disconnected from the mainstream, Kitano recounts how Japanese carved out niches in merchandizing and small scale specialized-market farming, all supported by a tightly bound issei ethnic community.73 The literature chronicles decades of anti-Japanese discrimination in the form of federal and state executive and legislative crusades that socially, economically, and politically ostracized the Japanese from Caucasian Americans. The stage for this discrimination was involuntarily set by the Chinese. As Japan awoke from its two hundred year isolation, the Chinese were rushing to California for gold and employment opportunities. To escape the turmoil caused by

69

Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. Kitano. Japanese Americans. 11 71 Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicty.22 72 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 180 73 Kitano. Japanese Americans. 17 70

19 rebellions, drought, famine and opium wars with Europe hundreds of Chinese fled to gam saan, Gold Mountain, in 1850. Takaki explains that during the first few years of the Gold Rush, pluralistic hordes of foreigners worked together with cautious respect. But below the surface of this probationary calm, the Know-Nothing Party was busy agitating and electioneering, stirring up nativist hostility toward all non-white miners, with the Chinese their particular target.74 Claiming that the Chinese were unassimilable heathens, white Americans attacked this “Chinese problem” with in a series laws intended to harass and drive the Chinese out of California. The basis for their persecution was supported by the 1790 Naturalization Act75 which reserved naturalized citizenship for Caucasians only. In fact, this legislation made Asian immigrants ineligible for citizenship until the 1954 McCarran-Walter Act finally removed all racial barriers to naturalization.76 Without citizenship, nonwhites were denied the right to vote, own property, bring suit, or testify in court — all the basic protections and entitlements that white citizens take for granted. Takaki lists the progressively restrictive legislation enacted, not for the revenues they brought in, but to discourage competition from the Chinese.77 Under California’s third governor, John Bigler, a simple “foreign miner’s tax” was assessed, followed by a “foreign miners’ license tax,” which required monthly payments from every foreigner who did not desire to become a citizen. The inequity of this tax was hardly lost on the 74

Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. The Naturalization Act of 1795. http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/naturalization/ (Accessed March 23, 2005) 76 Takaki. A Different Mirror. 400 77 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 81 75

20 Chinese, who were not eligible for citizenship, desirous or not. When this law was overturned by the federal Civil Rights Act of 1870, California enacted yet another law, with clear intent built into the title. “An Act to Discourage the Immigration to this State of Persons Who Cannot Become Citizens Thereof,” taxed ship owners fifty dollars for the entry of every one of their passengers ineligible for citizenship. Seven years later another law to “protect free White Labor against competition with Chinese Coolie Labor” attempted to make California the exclusive domain of the white American laborer. According to Takaki, these laws did little to actually discourage the steady flow of Chinese immigration.78 In 1882, California pressured the federal government to completely halt the immigration of Chinese laborers through the Chinese Exclusion Act,79 which was not repealed until 1943 when the United States needed China as an ally against Japan.80 The legal blockade on Chinese immigration coincided with the annexation of Hawaii to open the door to Japanese migrants. They arrived hopeful at the prospect of moving up the socioeconomic ladder as they left behind the Hawaiian class system. Unfortunately, the new immigrants were quickly painted with the same sinophobic brush as the Chinese, who had been subjected to persecution and prejudice for three decades. For the Japanese, as Takaki illustrates, discrimination based on class was suddenly substituted for discrimination based on race.81

78

Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 84 “Chinese Exclusion Act: A Black Legacy” http://sun.menloschool.org/~mbrody/ushistory/angel/exclusion_act/ (Accessed April 7, 2005) 80 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 111 81 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore.181 79

21 Starting in 1890, Japanese immigrants filled the low-wage labor niche previously filled by incoming Chinese. Working in migratory railroad camps or as farm laborers, they lacked the accustomed paternalistic support of Hawaiian plantation culture, and struggled for years to develop the ethnic support system that would provide the stability to become upwardly mobile.82 In the cities, sophisticated young Japanese adventured to the West searching for a western education. Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s cartoon strips document that these upper class boys were treated with the same disdain as the immigrant laborers, many working as houseboys, in laundries or in restaurants between classes.83 Kessler describes the patient progress the of the Yasui brothers in the development of an ethnic enclave in their small Oregon town.84 After cutting, grubhoeing, dynamiting, and burning out stumps from logged-over land, “some men of small means bought this cheap land and spent the next five years clearing it for themselves while simultaneously working in the mills to put food on the table.” Takaki follows the unfolding of Masajiro Furuya’s business empire, from the time he worked as a tailor to his position as a top businessman on the Pacific coast.85 By employing Japanese immigrants, and catering to the Japanese market, Furuya was part of the closed circle of ethnic enterprise which was the foundation of success for the issei community. Takaki also shows how Japanese truck farmers in the early 1900s produced successful yields of

82

Takaki. Strangers From a Distant Shore. Kiyama, Henry Yoshitaka. The Four Immigrants Manga. (Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, 1931) 84 Kessler. The Stubborn Twig.28 85 Takaki. Strangers From a Distant Shore.186 83

22 specialty crops on their intensely cultivated acreages.86 Eiichiro Azuma discusses the domination in production of labor-intensive field crops that led to a multi-million dollar Japanese agricultural industry in Walnut Grove, California by 1917.87 Japanese determination and white American opposition thus contributed to the establishment of parallel societies, with Japanese building a formidable independent economy inside an exclusively Japanese network. Clearly, whites maintained a tolerant attitude toward minorities until they attempted to better their situations or compete for economic equity. To thwart the growing success of the Japanese, efforts were made to limit immigration, deny property holding, restrict housing, and refuse equal access to education, as described by Takaki.88 “Support for the anti-Japanese legislation was overwhelming — thirty-five to two in the Senate and seventy-two to three in the Assembly” made ownership of real property unlawful for “aliens ineligible to citizenship.”89 Eileen H. Tamura explains that an Americanization effort was applied to Japanese immigrants’ children, nisei, even though their issei parents were ineligible for citizenship, and … racist sentiment dictated that the Japanese genotype was not worthy of becoming American. Children were expected to speak only English, lose all vestiges of Japanese culture, swear absolute allegiance to the United States, become Christians, obey the laws, and continue to be content as the labor class. 90 86

Takaki. Strangers From a Distant Shore. 189 Eiichiro Azuma. “Japanese Immigrant Farmers and California Alien Land Laws.” California History Spring 1994 14 88 Takaki. A Different Mirror 271 89 Takaki. Strangers From a Distant Shore. 203 90 Eileen H. Tamura. “The English-only Effort, the Anti-Japanese Campaign, and Language Acquisition in the Education of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, 1915- 40” History of Education Quarterly Vol. 33, No.1 (Spring 1993) 37-58 87

23 Nativists feared that Japanese language schools, maintained in ethnic enclaves, promoted Japanese nationalism and retarded the acquisition of English, according to Tamura.91 Paradoxically, the language schools generally did not make fluent Japanese speakers out of nisei, as they saw little reason and had limited incentive for learning the language, as citizens of an English-speaking country. Ben-Ami Shillony concurs that “the first generation, the issei, spoke Japanese and observed Japanese customs; but their children, the nisei, hardly spoke Japanese and were seeking acceptance as Americans.”92 Takaki writes that on October 11, 1906 the San Francisco Board of Education directed school principals to “send all Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children to the Oriental School.” 93 (See Appendix C-14) California’s xenophobia quickly became international news. Japan responded by claiming a treaty guaranteeing equal educational opportunities to Japanese children had been violated. President Theodore Roosevelt, fearful of Japanese agitation, concurrently rescinded the order and began negotiations with Japan to limit Japanese immigration. As had happened with the Chinese, white labor pressed for nothing less than total exclusion for the Japanese. At the peak of antiJapanese animosity, the 1908 Gentleman's Agreement evolved which halted Japanese immigration. The Japanese government agreed it would no longer issue passports to skilled or unskilled laborers to the U.S. In a loophole, however, laborers who had already been to America could return to Japan, and passports could be issued to parents, wives, and children of Japanese already living in the United States. This legislation started a 91

Tamura. “The English-only Effort” Ben-Ami Shillony,. “The Jews and the Japanese: Cultural Traits and Common Values” JPRI Occasional Paper No. 6 (November 1995) 93 Takaki. Strangers From a Distant Shore. 201 92

24 west coast rush of tens of thousands of wives and “picture brides” — women whose marriages were arranged for them in traditional Japanese custom, and whose photos were exchanged with prospective husbands.94 Ironically, the Gentlemen’s Agreement had the exact opposite of its intended effect. Mitchell Maki points out that marriages arranged in Japan led to the start of many Japanese American families, causing the Japanese population to quickly more than double.95 As flagrant discrimination and violence against Japanese continued, the California legislature passed the California Alien Land Law 1913, prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from owning or leasing land. Frank W. Van Nuys points out that, although the language isn't explicitly racial, the law only applied to Asian immigrants and it gave white farmers an unfair advantage by keeping Japanese and other competitors out.96 Eiichiro Azuma contends that through loopholes in the law Japanese continued farming until a 1920 ballot initiative barred them from leasing land altogether, which effectively “undermined their economic foundation.”97 Takaki discusses the sudden shift in population growth after the 1924 Immigration Act created the first quota system based upon national origin.98 The act favored immigrants from northern and western Europe over "the inferior races" of Asia and southern and eastern Europe by “prohibiting entry of aliens ineligible for

94

Kikemura. Through Harsh Winters. 25 Mitchell Maki. Achieving the Impossible Dream. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999) 96 Frank W. Van Nuys. “A Progressive Confronts the Race Question.” California History. Spring 1994, 2 97 Eiichiro Azuma. “Japanese Immigrant farmers and California Alien Land Laws: A Study of Walnut Grove Japanese Community” California History, Spring 1994, 14. 98 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 209 95

25 citizenship.”99 The act represented the culmination of several decades of racialized, antiimmigration sentiment and policy. This explicit preference system continued to shape American demographics and immigration policy until the 1960s. Despite active commitment to integration and Americanization, Japanese Americans were still targets of discrimination, points out Bill Helfman.100 In the 1930s and 1940s the federal government created programs that subsidized low-cost loans, opening up home ownership to millions of Americans for the first time. Government underwriters introduced a national appraisal system tying property value and loan eligibility to race, inventing "redlining," and effectively locking nonwhites out of homebuying. The development of restricted suburbs helped European "ethnics" blend together as whites, and further displaced non-whites.101 As persistent discriminatory laws supported western society’s xenophobia, the issei community “circled its wagons,” and organized effective economic improvement strategies through land and business ownership, and educational support, that upheld stringent Japanese customs.102 Ethnic enclaves networked to create a wholly functional society, independent of mainstream organizations. Beginning in 1930, says Helfman, the activist Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) began to override the more traditional, cultural Japanese social clubs.103 Educated in public schools, nisei were determined to avoid the discriminatory experiences of their issei parents by being 99

Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 209 Bill Helfman. “Sun Rising in an Eastern Sky.” California History. Spring 1994, 65 101 History of the FHA http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/fhahistory.cfm (Accessed March 20, 2005) 102 Kessler. Stubborn Twig 103 Helfman. “Sun Rising in an Eastern Sky.” 54 100

26 politically astute young Americans. Takaki adds that throughout the next few decades the JACL, a conservative and “accomodationist” group, walked a thin line to balance the assertion of Japanese American civil rights with patriotism.104 According to Mitchell Maki, one purpose of the ethnic enclave was to “uphold the reputation of the Japanese in the United States. Although they were perpetually excluded, they wished to be recognized as good and loyal citizens.”105 Maki notes that within the issei-driven communities, nisei and even sansei (third generation) children were caught in a tumultuous clash of rigid Japanese family expectations and American ambitions, underscored by the social and legal racism which pillaged their rights as citizens. The stage was set for a climactic event, which arrived in the form of a Japanese attack on American territory at Pearl Harbor.106 It is generally agreed that the wartime relocation and internment was a pivotal point in Japanese American history. Maki calls it “the high point of anti-Japanese segregation and isolation.”107 Kitano says, “For many Japanese it was the end of the line, and the dramatic culmination of racism that they had endured all their lives.” Lives and livelihoods were destroyed. Yoshiko Uchida108 and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston109 remember that their family structures broke down in the barracks and cafeteria-style of internment camp living. Nisei developed their own networks, independent of family 104

Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 224 Maki. Achieving the Impossible Dream. 106 Maki Achieving the Impossible Dream. 107 Maki Achieving the Impossible Dream. 108 Yoshiko Uchida. Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982) 109 Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. (New York: Bantam Books, 1973) 105

27 influence. Kessler says,” For the issei, it was the end of power and control; for the nisei, it was the end of innocence.”110 While all Japanese Americans suffered under curfew, exclusion, and incarceration edicts, internees varied in their responses to relocation. Inada collected accounts from dozens of internees, some of whom stoically and patiently complied with every order. Many nisei distinguished themselves militarily in the United States war effort. Others sued the government, or refused to swear allegiance to the country who would repress the rights of citizens. A rift opened in the cohesive fabric of Japanese American solidarity.111 Four legally significant U.S. Supreme Court cases set historic precedents as a result of Executive Order 9066, and they reflect a transition in attitudes that affected the post-war rights of Japanese Americans. Maki summarizes the individual cases of Minoru Yasui, Gordon K. Hirabayashi, both of whom broke the curfew order, and Fred T. Korematsu, who failed to report for evacuation. 112 In the case of Mitsuye Endo, the only one of the four lawsuits that won, the Supreme Court declared that race was not a determinant of loyalty, and that the evacuation order was contrary to American ideals.113 Following the extraordinary discrimination and isolation of Japanese American internment, Takaki asserts that there “blew a fresh breath of democracy through America [that] opened the way toward greater diversity.”114 While rampant anti-Japanese racism persisted in many west coast communities, Kessler reminds us, there was a nationwide 110

Kessler. Stubborn Twig. 233 Inada. Only What We Could Carry 112 Maki. Achieving the impossible Dream. 35 113 Kessler. Stubborn Twig. 234 114 Takaki. Strangers From a Different Shore. 406 111

28 inclination to right the wrongs that the ethnic Japanese community had suffered.115 Kitano explains that the social and bureaucratic climate toward Japanese Americans changed after World War II.116 In 1952 a quota for Japanese immigration was authorized, as was the passage of the McCarren-Walter Act which allowed Asians to become naturalized citizens. At the end of the 1940s, token monetary settlements were made for the tremendous financial losses suffered by internees.117 Kitano interprets these as “symbolic gestures of sympathy and remorse from the government for its treatment of them.”118 But nowhere was the shift more apparent, claims Kitano, than in “postwar patterns of occupation, income, and education.” Japanese Americans, led by a determined nisei, stepped into a prosperous postwar economy and a more tolerant American society.

115

Kessler. Stubborn Twig. 235 Kitano. Japanese Americans. 89 117 Kessler. Stubborn Twig. 252 118 Kitano. Japanese Americans. 89 116

29 THE MODEL MINORITY AND THE NATIONAL MYTH

The history of social, economic, and political discrimination against the Japanese must be examined in contrast to the “model minority” reputation of Japanese immersion into America’s “melting pot.” As William Peterson demonstrates the Japanese were a genuine success story: Barely more than 20 years after the end of war-time camps, this is a minority that has risen above even prejudiced criticism. By any criterion of good citizenship that we choose, the Japanese Americans are better than any other group in our society, including native-born whites. They have established this remarkable record moreover, by their own almost totally unaided effort. Every attempt to hamper their progress resulted only in enhancing their determination to succeed. Even in a country whose patron saint is the Horatio Algier hero, there is no parallel to this success story.119 Takaki shows statistics that verify the compatibility of Japanese and American middle class values, which functioned to assimilate Japanese Americans successfully into mainstream American culture.120 Fugita and O’Brien concur, showing that rates of educational and economic achievement are statistically higher among Japanese Americans than in other minority or white American populations, so much so that Japanese Americans might be termed “super-assimilated.” 121 Journalist Annie Nakao alleges, “Today, Japanese Americans are the very symbol of assimilation — upwardly

119

William Peterson. “Success Story: Japanese American Style” New York Times Magazine, January 9, 1966, 20 120 Kitano. Japanese Americans. (139) 121 Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity.

30 mobile, marrying outside their ethnic group at high rates and dispersing throughout suburban America.”122 Kitano identified that a pattern in superior educational performance by Japanese Americans began before World War II.123 Fugita and O’Brien’s research shows that by 1990, 43.9 percent of California nisei and sansei were college graduates.124 The 2000 Census found that “nearly eighty percent of 1999 Asian/Pacific Islanders were high school graduates who went directly to college, the highest proportion of any racial group.”125 The census concluded that “Their high income levels appear to reflect …a relatively high proportion of workers in managerial and professional specialty jobs.” “Additionally, only 3.9 percent of Asians/Pacific Islanders were unemployed in 1999, compared to the national total of 4.4 percent.”126 Interestingly, Kitano and Fugita found that more than a quarter of Japanese Americans are self-employed, with many others employed in white collar positions within Japanese-owned businesses, reflecting a continuation of the pre-war trend in ethnic mutual support.127

122

Annie Nakao. “Cultural Rituals Help American Japanese Hang onto Their Roots.” SF Gate.com. September 10, 2000. http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/09/10/NEWS12211.dtl (Accessed March 1, 2005) 123 Kitano. Japanese Americans. (97) 124 Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity.(85) 125 “Educational Attainment in the United States.” U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/education/cps2004.html (Accessed March 25, 2005) 126 “Executive Summary: Asian and Pacific Islanders in America: A Demographic Profile.” Population Resource http://www.prcdc.org/summaries/asians/asians.html (Accessed April 7, 2005) 127 Kitano. Japanese Americans. 102, and Fugita. Japanese American Ethnicity. 119

31 Census statistics show consistently high incomes among Japanese Americans. Since 1997, Asians and Pacific Islanders have had the highest median household incomes among the nation's racial groups.128 In 1999 Asian American women averaged the highest salaries, nationwide, compared to women of any other ethnicity, including white. They earn 75% of what white males earn in today’s market.129 In the 2000 census, the median personal income for Japanese Americans was $61,630.00, compared to $48,500.00 for white Americans.130 Kitano lists characterizations that typify the Japanese American norm, as nonconfrontational, respectful, quiet, and responsible.131 Fugita and O’Brien further document that Japanese Americans have the lowest divorce and teen pregnancy rates of any other racial minority, as well as low crime rates and low incidence of mental illness.132 From a societal standpoint, Japanese Americans personify the most soughtafter qualities in American values. Yet Schaefer cautions against stereotyping the “model minority,” even in what seems like a positive light.133 He warns that “praising the victim” is simply a variation of “blaming the victim,” a form of labeling. He adds that success and achievement can

128

“Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month: May 1-31” http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc/change/census.html (Accessed March 1, 2005) Information not separated by Asian sub-group. 129 Amy Caiazza, PhD, April Shaw, and Misha Werschkul. Women’s Economic Status in the States: Wide Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Region. Washington, D.C. Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 1999 Available from: http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/R260.pdf (Accessed December 21, 2004) 130 “Socioeconomic Statistics and Demographics.” Asian Nation. http://www.asiannation.org/demographics.shtml (Accessed March 1, 2005) 131 Kitano. Japanese Americans. 105 132 Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity. 133 Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. 179

32 overshadow “unrecognized and overlooked needs.”134 Upon deeper investigation, Schaefer finds that seemingly creditable statistics can bury lingering inequities. For example, though mean Asian American median incomes are higher than mean white American median incomes, if numbers are compared after isolating by education levels, “whites earn more than their Asian counterparts.”135 The danger of enshrining an entire minority is that it allows society to exclude them from the possibility of still needing help. Despite success, individual Japanese Americans still suffer from discriminatory acts and a standard panoply of social ills.136 Comprising eight percent of the U.S. population in the 2000 census, most Japanese Americans continue to live in Hawaii and California.137 Kitano notes that, “with acculturation, increased affluence, and diminishing hostility from the larger community,” Japanese Americans direct their energies outward from the traditional ethnic enclave base.138 At the same time, according to Fugita and O’Brien, indicators of full integration such as intermarriage and forfeiture of ethnic traditions, show that Japanese Americans experience some persistent social boundaries.139

134

Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. 180 Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. 181 136 Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. 181 137 “Executive Summary: Asian and Pacific Islanders in America: A Demographic Profile.” Population Resource . http://www.prcdc.org/summaries/asians/asians.html (Accessed March 1, 2005) 138 Kitano. Japanese Americans. 139 Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity. 165 135

CONCLUSIONS

Harry Kitano admits that it “seemed that the early Japanese came to the wrong state at the wrong time with the wrong color, religion and nationality.”140 Immigration scholars caution us against romanticizing past oppression, by remembering that people abandoned repressive situations in search of opportunity. Takaki shows how American capitalist culture eradicated a now-idealized Hawaiian culture, which Hawaiians willingly abandoned at the time because of cruel oppression by the monarchy.141 Japanese immigrants suffered injustice and exploitation under American policies, even as thousands fled bleak conditions in Japan. While it is crucial to learn from, and avoid past inequities, scholars remind us that stories of immigration offer pride, hope and determination. Japanese immigrants shared a cultural inheritance which included a uniquely homogeneous ethnic loyalty. That fellowship provided a foundation for the establishment of mutual support systems in a hostile society. Combined with a determined work ethic and a philosophy of resilience, Japanese immigrants set the tone for their American-born descendants, by finding the paths of least resistance to patiently strive for and achieve lofty goals. Japanese American internment and post-war achievements are more prevalent in popular discussion than are pre-war crusades for integration. However scholars acknowledge that events leading up to internment represent classic escalation in the 140 141

Kitano. Japanese Americans. 187 Takaki.Pau Hana.

33

34 stages of prejudice.142 From denial of citizenship to prohibition of land ownership, Japanese American immigrants experienced uncommonly exclusive discrimination. In the case of Japanese immigration, white Americans possessively held the cards of power and determined a “territory” of rights and prerogatives that they defended against aliens attempting to cross into the territory. The practical need to maintain two distinct groups (functionalism143) — a superior and an inferior — validated white territorialism. Manifest Destiny, and the American attitude toward possession of property, real or cultural, made the “territory” of citizenship real. Japanese immigrating during the heyday of this nativist fervor were subjected to the escalating onslaught of western demagoguery. Many of the characteristics which initially differentiated Japanese immigrants from their European counterparts became determinants in their rise to the status of “model minority” after World War II. Fugita and O’Brien identified the combined factors of cultural predisposition and assimilation opportunities as contributing to their advancement.144 Japanese American cohesiveness and orientation to collective interests assured economic and social advantages through networking and mutual support. Such cultural predisposition allowed for early economic success through ethnic enclaves, and supported them again as they reestablished their livelihoods in the prosperous mainstream economy after the war. Furthermore, the structure of Japanese values so matched those of Americans, that once legislative and social discriminatory restraints were lifted, Japanese ethics fitted comparably into mainstream society. The stature of the Japanese American

142

Daniels and Kitano. American Racism. 12 Schaeffer. Race and Ethnicity.16 144 Fugita and O’Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity. 178 143

35 “model minority” was achieved by diligent maintenance of ethnic community strategies, and by relatively easy assimilation to American principles, whose values were compatible with their own. David Kennedy’s “national myth,” — the American self-image of a tolerant inclusive, fair-minded, “melting pot” society145 — was tested and rewritten on the backs of Japanese Americans. The extraordinary experience of Japanese American internment continues to be a watershed event, not only for Japanese Americans, but for all Americans. Scholars have examined the event, the precursors, and its aftermath in detail and from multiple perspectives. In contrast to the scholarly literature, journalists Michelle Malkin and Lillian Baker used interpretations of historical documents to support the decision to relocate and intern people of Japanese ancestry, on the basis of national security.146 They, among others, claim that racial profiling and the restriction of civil liberties supercede human rights in times of national emergency. In her book In Defense of Internment, Malkin writes: Generations of schoolchildren have been taught to believe that our government threw only ethnic Japanese into camps because of wartime hysteria and anti-Asian bigotry. It's a convenient myth that allows today's civil liberties absolutists to guilt-trip America into opposing any use of racial, nationality or religious profiling to protect the homeland.147

145

Kennedy. Freedom from Fear. 760 Webb Research Group – books by Lillian Baker. http://www.pnorthwestbooks.com/docs/relocation.html (Accessed March 25, 2005) 147 Michelle Malkin. http://michellemalkin.com/books.htm (Accessed March 25, 2005) 146

36 While apologists for racial profiling emerge in the wake of 9/11, Japanese Americans of all generations are among the most vocal and organized in opposition to the repetition of an incident which might infringe on constitutional and human rights. Japanese immigrants share many of the migration experiences of settlers to the United States. They also endured unique and extraordinary forms of social and bureaucratic prejudice. Japanese American solidarity and perseverance provided the backdrop for successful achievement and assimilation in American society. Their history furnishes landmarks in the development of the western United States, and their emergence as a successful minority groups reflects not only their triumph, but the growth of integrity in American culture itself.

LESSON PLAN

Introduction Standard elementary American history curricula focus on mid-nineteenth century European immigration. (See Appendix A for list of standards.)148 Curricula focus on the optimism of hardy Swedes, persecuted Poles, famished Irish, and poor Italians gazing hopefully at Ellis Island before disembarkation, after which a pattern of demoralizing events evolves through differences in language, skin color, skills, lifestyle, and governance.149 West Coast immigration stories are gilded with California’s gold rush romance, where the Chinese represent the focus migrants. There is little mention of Japanese immigration, except to compare it to the Chinese and to mention Japanese internment during World War II. California History-Social Studies Standards 5.4.6, 5.6.7, and 8.7.2 outline teaching about racism and civil rights, generally from the African American perspective.150 From the initiation of slavery to the Civil War, and from reconstruction to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the exposé of man’s inhumanity to man is an undeniably huge topic in American history.151 It provides a backdrop and a timeline against which changes and stagnation in American racial and ethnic attitudes are measured. And yet

148

National History Standards for Grades 5 through 8 Available from http://nchs.ucla.edu/standards/era85-12.html (Accessed December 30, 2004) 149 Oscar Handlin. The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations that made the American People. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973) 150 California History Standards http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/hstgrade8.asp (Accessed March 25, 2005) 151 National History Standards for Grades 5 through 8 Available from http://nchs.ucla.edu/standards/era85-12.html (Accessed December 30, 2004)

37

38 prejudice and discrimination have affected many in this multicultural society. An examination of the different reasons for, and responses to, prejudice gives us a broader understanding of this part of our national heritage. Because the roots of American history began on the Eastern Seaboard a challenge arises in teaching historical substance to fourth- through-eighth graders on the Pacific Coast that is both relevant and relatable to them. Japanese immigration in America is given a brief nod in American history textbooks. Yet in the West, the story of Japanese immigration provides people, places, and events that convey hands-on examples of immigration pushes and pulls, racism, immigrant determination, and two-way cultural exchange. Students can stand on the sites where Japanese American history began and speak to first generation immigrants and World War II internees. What’s more, there are movies, photographs, primary documents, and literature written for every reading level, exploring aspects of the history from overview to detail. This hands-on availability is central for making history memorable and intelligible for the nine- to thirteen-year old age group.152 Historical knowledge is fundamental to developing a commonsense world view. Teeming with examples of humans interacting in various contexts, children piece together historical understanding not by memorizing, but by learning in concrete and abstract ways, by connecting new information to what they’ve already acquired, and by seeing, touching, debating, role-playing, comparing, and critically thinking about the 152

Lee W. Formwalt. Seven Rules for Effective History Teaching or Bringing Life to the History Class Reprinted from OAH Magazine of History 17 (October 2002) http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/ww1/formwalt.html (Accessed February 11, 2005)

39 causes of any given event. To develop reflective citizens who have the tools and background to make rational decisions is the highest purpose of a democratic society’s education system. Furthermore, citizens educated in a state which is both a “melting pot” of world cultures and historically xenophobic must scrutinize the reasons for immigration, assimilation, nationalism, and racism in order to participate in a solutionoriented world society. Using the wealth of historical and contemporary written, visual, and oral documents about Japanese Americans, this lesson plan offers the underutilized history of Japanese American immigration and assimilation as an instructional menu of events and perspectives to use in teaching elementary children about immigration and racism. It is a remarkable story in its climactic events, made more noteworthy by the short shrift it has been given in school-age texts. Every setting, every conflict, every problem and solution in the story has a comparison in other parts of the world, and in various time periods, from ancient to modern. As William Peterson wrote in 1966, the full tale can be taught rewardingly in isolation as well: The Japanese Americans, in short, ought to be a central focus of social studies. Their experience converts our best sociological generalizations into partial truths, at best; this is a laboratory case of an exception to test a rule. Conceivably in such a more intensive analysis, we might find a means of isolating some of the elements of this remarkable culture and grafting it onto plants that manifestly need the pride, the persistence and the success of our model minority.153

153

William Peterson. “Success Story: Japanese American Style” The New York Times, January 9, 1966

40 While controversy exists over the stereotyping of minorities — “model” or not — modern Japanese Americans have assimilated and achieved, by many measures of success, in ways that reflect the highest American values.154 This six-day study, adaptable for use in either fourth, fifth, or eighth grade classrooms, will give students an overview of the motivations and experiences of Japanese immigrants to the United States (See Appendix A for a full list of related standards). The unit focuses on one overall theme: In a democratic society people make decisions. Each daily lesson centers on a topic that illustrates why and how the Japanese came to America, how they assimilated into American life, and how they were viewed and treated by the American people. Students will examine the conflicts and cooperation that illustrate the Japanese and white American struggle over the Pacific frontier. They will recognize the escalation of prejudice that led to World War II internment, view modern day examples of intolerance that show potential for escalation, and discuss possible ways to decrease such escalation. In so doing, students will understand that “we the people” have made decisions that have both negatively and positively affected the Japanese who immigrated to the United States. Prior Content Knowledge and Skills Fourth grade students, in their mission to amass an overview of the entire history and the geography of California, have studied the various incursions of foreigners on the

154

Richard T. Schaefer. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice Hall 2001)

41 first people. They are familiar with the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods of administration, and have studied Chinese immigration beginning with the Gold Rush. Fifth grade students study the development of the United States up to 1850. They have compared pushes and pulls that led to various episodes of American immigration before that time. Students have examined the principles and ideals of self-government and the Constitution, which form the basis of a pluralistic society in which individual rights are secured. Eighth grade students focus on the shaping of the Constitution. They learn about the challenges in the development of American politics, society, culture, and economy. They make connections between the rise of industrialization and contemporary social and economic conditions. Lesson Hook The unit begins with a content hook, in which students are instructed to simply watch a PowerPoint slideshow of people, numbered one through fifty. The images show Chinese, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mongolian, Tibetan, Singaporean, Vietnamese, American Indian, and Americans of Asian descent. At the end of the slideshow the teachers asks, “Who are these people?” Children may respond “Chinese people,” or name other Asian groups that live in their communities, or with whom they are familiar. The teacher displays a world map, and asks students to find the continent of Asia, then has students point out all the countries in Asia. The teacher asks, “Can you point to any other places that Asians live?” If students do not respond, the teacher

42 informs them that many people of Asian ancestry are citizens of countries all over the world. The teacher asks students if they know what countries their ancestors came from, and wonders if people ever mistake them for being non-American. The teacher shows the PowerPoint again. The students are a given blank piece of paper and asked to guess the nationalities (not ethnicities) of the people in the slideshow, as it runs again. Discussion follows with these sample questions: •

How is one to distinguish between Koreans, Japanese, and Americans (for example), if they look alike? Can one use dress or hairstyles, if physical features do not identify nationality?

•

Has anyone ever mistaken you for Irish, Mexican, German, or African? Why or why not?

•

What is the difference between nationality, race, and ethnicity? Are these distinctions real or created? Do the distinctions matter? Why or why not?

•

Are we more likely to make assumptions about the ethnicity of people who look different than the majority? Why or why not?

•

Is it ok to make assumptions about nationality based of physical features, or even language? When is it ok, and when is it not?

•

Is there any danger in making assumptions about one’s nationality? Is there a danger in making assumptions about one’s ethnicity? Why or why not?

43 •

Is there anything we can or should do to keep from identifying people by nationality, race, or ethnicity?

The teacher shows the Doonesbury cartoon (See Appendix C-17), and asks if this too shows stereotyping. Is there any danger in this form of stereotyping? Fourth Grade Lesson This unit of study delivers historical content, while asking students to critically assess democratic principles in regard to alien and citizen rights in the United States. The unit is divided into six units, which vary in length according to an individual teacher’s time, focus, and interest. Topic One: The United States is a mixture of cultures, native and immigrant. The goal of this lesson is twofold. First, the Japanese experience will serve to illustrate the pushes and pulls, and the initiation into American society of waves of immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Second, it will juxtapose the viciousness of racism to the tolerance and blending of cultures, in an effort to weigh the effects on people and society. The class period begins with the “content hook.” The teacher leads the discussion about racism and discrimination, with some comparative analysis. The teacher then explains that the class will study immigration from a West Coast point of view, using the Japanese immigration experience, which began in Hawaii in 1884 and in California, Oregon, and Washington in the 1890s. The teacher refreshes their memories about the Chinese immigration experience, and asks them to be aware of parallels in the Japanese

44 story. At this point the theme, written on a sentence strip, is put up along the top of a bulletin board, and read aloud. “In a democratic society people make decisions,” is defined and deconstructed in a class discussion. The class will refer to the theme each day, and reflect on its meaning in relation to immigration and immigrants. The teacher introduces a “cultural iceberg,” enlarged on a bulletin board, and hands out an individual copy to each student. (See Appendix B-2.) Students glue their icebergs onto the front of a manila folder, which will serve as a repository for the information collected during the unit of study. Together, the class examines and compares the top of the iceberg — the overt, concrete representations of a culture, such as art, food, and music, to the bottom of the iceberg — beliefs and behaviors, where intolerance and misunderstanding between cultures often develops. Students will write information they collect about Japanese culture throughout the study onto sticky notes, which they’ll attach to the large bulletin board iceberg. The collection of ideas will be used for discussion and evaluation. Inside their folders, students will keep a “Reflection Sheet,” (See Appendix B-5) on which they will write daily reflections on the theme. Explaining that cultures derive from different locations around the world, the teacher gives each student a copy of the Pacific-centered world map, a map of Asia, and a map of Japan. (Appendices C-1, 2, and 3)155 In groups of three or four, students work together using atlases to identify and label continents and oceans on the world map, 155

National Geographic.com: “Maps and Geography.” http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/ (Accessed April 9, 2005)

45 countries, seas, and geographic features on the Asian map, and the individual islands, bays and large cities on the map of Japan. The lesson ends with the teacher taking notes on a K-W-L chart transparency, recording what students already know about historical or modern Japan (K), what they want to find out (W), and what resources they might use to learn new information (L). At the end of the unit the class will revisit the chart to check whether all goals were accomplished. The period ends with the movie “Growing Up in Modern Japan,” to give students a starting point in comparing their own culture to Japan’s. Students make notes about cultural traits, which they add to the appropriate part of the iceberg. The teacher reads the first half of read-aloud, The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck.156 Topic Two: Japanese immigrants descended from a unique heritage. The goal of this lesson is to provide students who have no formal education in ancient world history, with some background on the pre-immigration history of Japan. The teacher shows students examples of ancient Japanese family crests (See Appendix B3), and tells about the origins and symbols.157 Students are asked to sketch simple graphic images that would reflect their own families, as the teacher lectures about feudal Japan. The teacher shows images from the “Virtual Tour of Edo,”158 while traditional Japanese music plays quietly in the background. Students have out their maps of Japan to consult.

156

Pearl S. Buck. The Big Wave. (New York: Scholastic Books, 1948) Japanese Family Crest, Ka-mon. http://www.familyemblem.com/ (Accessed March 25, 2005) 158 Virtual Tour of Edo http://www.us-japan.org/edomatsu/ (Accessed March 25, 2005) 157

46 The teacher selects from the following information on the period in Japanese history that coincides with the westward expansion of the United States, so that students can compare and contrast the events in the two places. Artifacts and photos from Japan will add interest. Teacher may have same-scale map transparencies of Japan and California, to compare sizes. Students are asked to note unfamiliar vocabulary, and to think about events and circumstances that might create immigration “pushes.” Lesson background: When the United States of America was 75 years old, accumulating territory west across the resource-rich continent of North America, Japan had been a stable realm for 2,500 years. Japan consists of 377,835 square kilometers (243,636.5 square miles — slightly smaller in total than the state of California) of rugged, mountainous, temperate islands. Having adopted religious, administrative, and language features from their great and civilized neighbors, China and Korea, the Japanese established as the pre-eminent and unifying goal of the state, the attainment of wa consensus and harmony. Wa, coupled with an institutionalized work ethic unified the scattered population under feudal restraint. Disciplined, educated, and meditative, all classes worked together toward common success. Unlike the American individualists who asserted “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” the communal Japanese felt “the nail that sticks up will be hammered down.”159

159

Walter LaFeber. The Clash: U.S. – Japanese Relations Through History (W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1997) 7

47 In this rigid hierarchy, farmers, artisans, and merchants followed rules that were enforced by samurai, or “ones who serve.” Samurai were empowered by a shogun, or military ruler, who dictated from his residence in Edo (now Tokyo). From a throne in Kyoto a divine and protected Emperor reigned over them all, with unquestioned mythic power derived from an ancestral relationship to the sun goddess, Amaterasu. When the first Portuguese sailed into Japan in 1542, bearing firearms and Christianity, the Japanese adapted and improved European technology. 150,000 Japanese replaced their Shinto, Buddhist and Confucian beliefs with western Christian ones. Only 45 years later, the Shogun Hideyoshi, feeling threatened by the outsiders, suddenly and violently banned all missionaries and foreigners. In a historically unique reversal of technology, he halted the production and banned the possession of all firearms, claiming that western influences had disturbed the wa, but possibly realizing that public diffusion of arms had detracted from the central power of the sword-wielding samurai.160 Not to be taken advantage of by the stronger, wealthier, and more aggressive nations who sailed the seas in search of riches and conquest, the Tokugawa shogunate in 1640 established the sakoku, or “closed country” policy. Japan abruptly blocked relations with all but a few Asian countries, and some Dutch traders. Their sophisticated shipbuilding stopped. Citizens were not allowed out, and foreigners were not allowed into the country. This vital, advanced, seafaring nation suddenly closed its doors to the world for the sake of internal peace.

160

Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999) 257

48 In 1603, the Tokugawa family began their two-and-a-half century shogunate over Japan. On the strength of loyalty and values, Japan nurtured its own economy without the influences of the rest of the world. Results of this isolation were a wholly original culture, with a unique world view. Samurai had time to become scholars and administrators. Arts and technology developed independent of western influences. The economy was sound, with a strong middle class. Sakoku created a self-sufficient, racially pure, proud, and insular society, whose inward-looking military so strengthened tiny Japan that they were able to repel intruders, and expand into much larger and stronger countries for centuries. Throughout the early 1800s this organized, independent nation was largely ignored by the Western powers — notably by Great Britain, the most aggressive and powerful country in the world at the time. Only Russia (spread thin by occupation of Siberia, Alaska, and the North American west coast) attempted to forcefully colonize Japan’s northern islands, and was thwarted repeatedly by a unified and determined Tokugawa government. (Use map to show proximity.) By the mid 1800s, while Manifest Destiny was inspiring citizens of the United States to madly crusade into every corner of the American continent, and as European immigrants by the thousands surged toward a better life in the New World, China had been successfully partitioned off by European powers. This sent a disturbing tremor throughout the nations of the Pacific Rim. (Identify on large wall map of the world.) As Chinese infrastructure collapsed, its leadership scrambled to recover and regain control, and all eyes looked toward Japan as the next trading prize in the Asian market.

49 Predictably, despite both diplomatic and forceful attempts, all efforts at opening Japan’s doors were systematically rejected. Meantime, the United States was developing an interest in the Pacific. Between 1846 and 1848 the United States acquired ports in California and began sending out expansionist “feelers” to Japan, and other Asian nations. Both military and commercial ships tried to conference with Japan, attempting to establish trade deals for expanding industrial and agricultural products, which were overflowing U.S. markets. The opportunity to negotiate came in 1851 when seventeen shipwrecked Japanese sailors were offered back to their home country in exchange for a meeting. Respectful and patient communication ensued from the United States, but to no avail. In 1852 United States Commodore Matthew C. Perry was sent with four warships across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, to the Pacific, to try again. On July 8, 1853, from the deck of a cannonstudded steamship, Perry surprised the Japanese in Edo Harbor by insisting upon an audience with someone under the direct supervision of the Shogun, and by forwarding a written offer to establish a world trade agreement, from President Millard Fillmore to the Emperor himself. Concerned that outside trade would disrupt its tightly woven economy, Japan stalled a decision for nearly a year, as its leaders disputed the pros and cons of the proposal. In March of 1854 Perry returned and succeeded in getting the Treaty of Kanagawa signed with a cautious Japan, promising eternal peace and garnering U.S. access to two Japanese ports. A commitment to trade, however, was not included in this

50 treaty, as Japan feared subservience to and dependence on foreigners, as China was experiencing.161 By 1866, Japanese opinion over trade proposals was divided. The internal tug-ofwar was having an unraveling effect over the long-quiet establishment in Japan. In a display of passive-aggressive power, and with profound disregard for the Shogunate, the Convention of 1866 provided for international traders to bypass the Japanese government altogether and deal directly merchant-to-merchant. Foreign tariffs, trades, and treaties effectively stripped the Shogun of power and removed the last vestiges of sakoku. Under a new 15-year-old Emperor, Japan established a new capitalistic, more equitable regime, paving the way for the strongest Japanese-U.S. relations between 1868 and 1900, as both nations were rebuilding their societies. For a while, the new government lived off the wealth of the previous shogunate, but eventually a taxation system arose to support the growing military and industry, that preyed heavily upon the peasant and agricultural class. Activity: Students are given six-by-six inch squares of drawing paper on which to design blue and white or black and white family crests. They are instructed to study the simple graphic forms and the symmetry of traditional compositions. While students are drafting images, the class discusses the possible reasons for family crests, and how it relates to loyalty, honor, and ancestry.

161

LaFeber. The Clash: U.S. 13

51 The teacher makes copies of haiku (See Appendix B-4) by Bashō and Buson for each student.162 After an explanation of the form of haiku, students practice reading haiku aloud. Students may volunteer to read a poem to the class. Students are each given clipboards, paper, and pencils. The teacher explains that the class will walk to the local creek, and the teacher will drop off one student at a time along the water’s edge, about ten feet apart. Silently, each student will collect words for images inspired by the place and the feeling. After fifteen minutes the teacher will collect students, return to class, and develop their own haiku. At the end of the period students are given time to note cultural traits for the iceberg, and the teacher finishes The Big Wave. Topic Three: Japanese immigrants came, first to Hawaii, then to the west coast of the United States, in search of opportunities. The goal of this lesson is to distinguish emigration from immigration, and to identify push and pull factors common to immigrants using the Japanese experience as a model. Students are introduced to the terms issei (first generation Japanese immigrant), nisei (second generation), sansei (third generation), and nikkei (any ethnic Japanese). The teacher briefly lectures about Japan’s first emigrants, then explains the difference between the terms emigrant (one who leaves his or her country or region to settle in another) and immigrant (one who enters and settles in a country or region to which he or she is not native). Students are asked to consider factors that would be

162

An Introduction to Haiku. http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/5022/ (Accessed March 25, 2005)

52 considered emigration “pushes,” and immigration “pulls.” Examples of pushes are war, famine, disease, drought, and lack of jobs or land. Examples of pulls are job opportunities, access to land, freedom of choice, and freedom from persecution. Students first orient themselves on maps, to develop a sense of location and place. They locate Hawaii on a world map, and discuss its location in relation to other countries, especially Japan and the United States. Teacher identifies the area known as “the Pacific Rim.” The teacher asks students what they think of when they imagine Hawaii. Most students envision a warm recreational tourist paradise. The teacher asks them how Hawaii might have been different, historically. Students consider the economic or military value of the location to other Pacific Rim countries. Why might Pacific Rim nations be interested in Hawaii? Students should find that Hawaii is right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, equidistant between Japan and the United States. Using the following background material, the teacher lectures the class, while showing photos from Hawaiian sugar plantations.163 Lesson background: After the fall of 250 years of sakoku, the biggest policy reversal of the Meiji dynasty was the legalization of emigration. The restored Meiji Empire (sometimes referred to as a nationalist revolution164) had re-established a strong central government, in order to deal effectively with outside influences. The reorganization was costly, and heavy taxation burdened the farming class so heavily that many lost their lands, were unable to find jobs, and suffered poverty. Tentative and 163

Hawaiian Japanese Photo Gallery http://kauila.k12.hi.us/~ebukoski/photogallery.html (Accessed March 26, 2005) 164 LaFeber Clash (30)

53 cautious, the first exodus set the tone for the high degree of control Japan would maintain over its émigrés. Landless, jobless peasants ate soup made from rice hulls, grass, and slivers of bean curd to keep from starving.165 When sakoku was finally lifted in 1868, Japan was hit by netsu - emigration fever! The first trickles of sojourners were politicians and aristocrats who impressed the citizens of New York and Washington, D.C. with their unique manners and style. Later travelers were students who excelled in Ivy League Universities. But mass immigration began in the peasant class with a call for contract laborers to work the sugarcane fields in Hawaii. The islands of Hawaii are remotely positioned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, between North America and Asia. In the late 1700s Christian missionaries followed Captain Cook and whaling ships to Hawaii to “civilize” the natives. They disparaged the Hawaiian lifestyle and beliefs, and changed their clothing, dancing, work ethic, religion, marriage, sexual mores, language, and education system, in their zeal. Descendants of these planters became American entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial Caucasian families (Ladd, Thurston, Spreckles, Dole) acquired land and power, and started the sugar industry, which required lots of manpower. The planters first hired Hawaiians as laborers, but found them unwilling to devote themselves to plantation life. Next, planters imported Chinese, then Portuguese and Spanish, who were more loyal than Hawaiians, but had ambitions beyond plantation labor. The

165

Takaki. A Different Mirror (247)

54 planters’ search for loyal, hard-working contract laborers coincided with the end of Japanese sakoku and the first Japanese mass exodus in 200 years. The Japanese men remained insular in the plantation camps, speaking their own language, and maintaining their traditions. In the second year of immigration, Japan sent women to Hawaii, mostly as traditional picture brides. (See Appendix C-6 and 7)166 Men and women issei worked hard, raised families — the nisei, and were successful within the limits of their class. They were obligated by contract to live and work on the plantations. The first Japanese to migrate to California escaped Japan with an ex-military advisor, John Henry Schnell. In the very tightly controlled emigration, no Japanese were permitted to emigrate, but farmers who’d lost their lands and samurai who had lost their status secretly joined with California-bound Schnell to start a colony in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, called Wakamatsu in 1868,167 only 15 years after Commodore Perry had paved the way for a revolution in Japanese society. Probably the white community, busy seeking gold in the hills, assumed the contingent was Chinese. Schnell bought the land where the community was established. Primarily because of several seasons of drought, the colony failed. A famous grave in Gold Hill marks the event of the first Japanese woman, Okei, to die in the United States.

166

Teresa Bill. “Field Work and Family Work: Picture Brides on Hawaii’s Sugar Plantations, 1910 – 1920” http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/hwhp/hawork/itm.picturebride.html (Accessed April 6, 2005) 167 Wakamatsu Colony http://www.directcon.net/pharmer/Wakamatsu/Wakamatsu.html (Accessed March 25, 2005)

55 The teacher distributes copies of the picture brides coming off of ships from Japan, in their traditional clothing. Using Jackdaws168 poster-size photographs from the Angel Island and Ellis Island series, students compare east coast immigrant to Japanese, disembarking. Students will work in partners to answer these questions about one photo, and prepare to present their findings to the whole group: •

Describe, in detail, how the people are dressed.

•

Describe the action in the picture. What do you think the people are doing?

•

What do you think the relationship is between these people? How can you tell?

•

Describe the facial expressions. How do you think these people were feeling?

•

What can we learn about the immigrants’ voyage from this photograph?

Partners present their findings, and make comparisons, orally. The teacher gives students copies of short oral histories to read, from The Japanese American Family Album, chapter three: “Ports of Entry.”169 From these entries the class composes a list of pushes and pulls extracted from the readings. The teacher asks students to reflect on the theme, in their folders. The teacher gives students time to make notes to add the cultural iceberg. The teacher reads first chapter of read-aloud, Samurai of Gold Hill by Yoshiko Uchida, asking students to listen for evidence of pushes and pulls.170

168

Jackdaw Publications: Hands-on Primary Resources. http://www.jackdaw.com/home.asp (Accessed April 9, 2005) 169 Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. The Japanese American Family Album. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 170 Yoshiko Uchida. Samurai of Gold Hill.

56 Topic Four: Japanese immigrants to California met much discrimination. The goal of this lesson is to have students interpret the reactions of west coast anti-immigration groups to the arrival of Japanese newcomers, and to discover the strategies used by the Japanese that allowed them to endure in the hostile environment. The teacher lectures briefly about the legislative and social restrictions on Japanese immigrants, and then has students analyze selected cartoons from Harpers171 (see Appendix C – 13 through 15), and Kiyama’s Four Immigrants Manga.172 Lesson background: In 1893 the Hawaiian Monarchy was militarily overthrown by the United States, which released many immigrant plantation workers from their labor contracts. Suddenly, a multitude of Japanese embarked for Washington, Oregon, and, primarily, California. Their arrival coincided with the height of anti-Chinese sentiment in the post Gold Rush era. White nativist labor had built up resentment toward economically competitive minorities. The Naturalization Act of 1795 had resolved that non-white immigrants were ineligible for citizenship, and a series of discriminatory laws had targeted the Chinese since their arrival during the 1850s. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred further migration of Chinese laborers, and it was onto this stage that the Japanese immigrants stepped. Japanese immigrants worked initially as migrant farm workers, as houseboys in urban areas, and in railroad-building throughout the western states. Because racism limited their economic opportunities, Japanese began to support one another in mutually 171

HarpWeek Cartoon “Features” Immigrant and Ethnic History. http://immigrants.harpweek.com/ (Accessed April 5, 2005) 172 Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama. The Four Immigrants Manga. (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1999)

57 beneficial ethnic enclaves. They achieved financial success by leasing, sharecropping, or buying unproductive land and working hard to make it fertile and profitable. They set up their own banking systems, stores, and other services that operated as a fully functional society-within-a-society. By the early 1900s westerners tried to legislate Japanese exclusion, whereupon Japan intervened, objecting to the overt hostility exhibited toward its countrymen. In order to smooth international relations, Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the Gentleman’s Agreement in 1908, where Japan conceded to severely limit its number of émigrés to the United States. A loophole in the treaty allowed laborers who already resided in the United States to admit their families, and traditional photo brides. Ironically, the Japanese population doubled in a short time, and the Japanese issei were growing a nisei population of American citizens. As ethnic enclaves grew and prospered, white Americans intensified discrimination, both through social malice, and through anti-Japanese land laws, housing subsidies, and miscegenation rules. Though some west coast communities began to bridge the racial gap, World War II and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor refocused and aggravated suspicion of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans. Activity: Students are given two or three copies of cartoons that depict experiences of Japanese immigrants from both a Japanese and American perspective. Small groups of students will analyze the cartoons, answering these questions:

58 •

Describe all the characters in the cartoon. Do they represent real people, or are they symbols (for example, Uncle Sam is a symbol of the United States.)

•

Does the cartoon make a funny statement, or does it have a message or a moral? What is the message?

•

What is the cartoonist’s opinion of immigration or immigrants?

Students read short oral histories from The Japanese American Family Album173and design their own cartoons based on the piece. Students choose a novel about Japanese American experiences from the list (See Appendix B-7), for independent reading. Students add comments to the cultural iceberg, and reflect on the theme on their Reflection Sheets. Topic Five: After Pearl Harbor, Japanese immigrants and American-born citizens of Japanese descent were subject to unconstitutional restrictions. The goal of this lesson is demonstrate the extent to which Japanese relocation and internment affected a group of people, targeted and maligned because of their race. The lesson compares Japanese internment to Italian and German relocation, and asks students to imagine the circumstances that could lead to the indiscriminate disregard of civil rights.

173

Hoobler. The Japanese American Family Album. 45-103

59 As homework the day before this lesson, students are asked to pack a bag or backpack with everything they think they would need if they had to leave home for an indefinite period of time. They may only bring what they can carry, and must be prepared to explain why they selected what they did. Lesson background: After Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States government and military personnel scrambled to assess and anticipate further danger from its Pacific Rim adversary. A celebrated cast of characters weighed their west coast security options, aware that historical anti-Japanese sentiment would exacerbate tensions. Western Defense Commander General John DeWitt, U.S Attorney General Francis Biddle, F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt debated options for reassuring the homeland population, while uneasy with the idea of singling out ethnic Japanese for particular scrutiny. Ultimately, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which excluded all “enemy aliens” (aliens being noncitizens) from a prescribed military area. While this included some non-citizen Germans and Italians, all issei were selected because they were ineligible for citizenship. The evacuation order crossed the Constitutional line (See Appendix C-8) by including Japanese American citizens in the curfew, mass relocation, and eventual internment of over 100 thousand ethnic Japanese. Activity: After a brief lecture the teacher reads a chapter describing internment camp life, from Yoshiko Uchida’s Desert Exile174 In groups of four, students create a four-point rubric, from “highly useful” to “not useful at all.” As students present the 174

Inada. Only What We Could Carry. 69

60 contents of their “all that they could carry” bags or backpacks, and the groups evaluate the choices their own group rubrics. Students will discuss the items that emerged as “most useful” in their evaluations. The teacher asks students to imagine what items got left behind in the homes of the Japanese Americans. The teacher hands out individual maps of the locations of the internment camps,175 and shows a slideshow of the photographs on the “Japanese Americans Internment Camps During World War II” website. 176 Students add notes to the cultural iceberg, and reflect on the theme. Time is allotted for reading Japanese American novels. Topic Six: A democratic society makes decisions based on the dictates of the people. The goal of this lesson is to examine post-war Japanese American assimilation, and to distinguish between the lives of the issei compared to subsequent generations. The lesson surveys the struggle for reparations and redress, and honors the success of ethnic Japanese in American society. Lesson background: Internment camps disrupted the carefully regimented lifestyles of pre-war nikkei — ethnic Japanese . Paradigms of family structure, parental authority, schedules, diets, exercise, friendship and enmity were nullified. A reinvented nisei population emerged from the experience, ready to be “more American,” ready to shed some of the Japanese traits which did not fit them. Maintaining the values of hard 175

“Internment Camps in America: Japanese Internment Camps” http://www.teacheroz.com/Japanese_Internment.htm (Accessed April 6, 2005) 176 Japanese Americans Internment Camps During World War II , Tule and Topaz. http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/9066.htm (Accessed April 6, 2005)

61 work, education, and quiet compromise, the nisei, with the support of their issei parents, established a reputation as a “model minority,” as the country recovered socially and economically from the war. The people of the United States recognized that the “military necessity” of internment had been a Constitutional breach, and was, in fact, an extraordinary capitulation to racism. In 1952 Japanese immigrants were finally given the right to become American citizens. In 1988 the Civil Liberties Act awarded to survivors of internment or relocation $20,000, and a presidential apology. Though hardly enough to repay the losses, the redress was applauded by the Japanese American community. The teacher displays the K-W-L chart created at the beginning of the unit, and reviews the questions with the class. Students point out initial misconceptions, and ask questions that are still unanswered. Following the evaluation, students view the movie “Four Times One — Four Generations of Japanese American Women and Their Art.177” Evaluation The teacher arranges students in a “Round Table” of three or four. The teacher asks students three open-ended questions. Each student writes a short answer, and then the Round Table group discusses each person’s answer. After each group has shared the

177

Maureen McGarry. “Four Times One – Four Generations of Japanese American Women and Their Art.” Arcata, California: unpublished, 1995 Video

62 class will reunite to compare ideas. Students may use their Reflection Sheet, and they may access the cultural iceberg for help and information. Following are sample questions: •

Who was to blame for the escalating injustice in the case of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans?

•

Was it the government, the American people, the Japanese Americans? If so, was it a majority of the people?

•

Was it a democratic decision to deny Japanese citizenship, land, or freedom?

•

Can you identify modern examples of racism that parallel the Japanese experience? How is it the same? How is it different?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, Tricia. Konichiwa! I Am a Japanese American Girl. New York: Holt, 1995 Buck, Pearl S. The Big Wave. New York: Scholastic Books, 1948 Cooper, Michael L.Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp. New York: Clarion Books, 2002 Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. New York: Harper Collins, 2001 Daniels, Roger and Henry H. L. Kitano. American Racism: Exploration of the Nature of Prejudice. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970 Dilauro, Michael Angelo. Prisoners Among Us. Michelangelo Productions. 88 minutes. 2003. DVD Formwalt, Lee W. “Seven Rules for Effective History Teaching or Bringing Life to the History Class” OAH Magazine of History 17 (October 2002) Friedman, Ina R. and Allen Say. How My Parents Learned to Eat. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984 Fugita, Stephen. Japanese American Ethnicity: The Persistence of Community. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991 Gutelle, Andrew. Top Secret Adventures: Japan Puzzle Book. Columbus, Ohio: Highlights for Children, 1995 Handlin, Oscar. The Uprooted. Boston and Toronto: Little Brown and Company, 1973 Higgs, Robert “Landless By Law: Japanese Immigrants in California Agriculture to 1941” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 38, No. 1, The Tasks of Economic History. (Mar., 1978), pp. 205-225

63

64 Hohri, William Minoru. Repairing America: An Account for the Movement of JapaneseAmerican Redress. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 1988 Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas.The Japanese Family Album. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995 Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki. Farewell to Manzanar. New York: Bantam Books, 1944 Igus, Toyomi. Two Mrs. Gibson’s. Boston: Children's Book Press, 1995 Inada, Lawson Fusao, editor. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Berkeley, California: Heyday Books, 2000 Ito, Robert. “Concentration Camp or Summer Camp?” Mother Jones. September 1998 James, Thomas. Exile Within: The Schooling of the Japanese Americans, 1942-1945. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1987 Kennedy, David M. Freedom From Fear, the American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 Kessler, Lauren. Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family. New York: Random House, 1993 Kikumura, Akemi. Through Harsh Winters. Novato, California: Chandler and Sharp Publishers, Inc., 1989 Kitano, Harry H. L. Japanese Americans: The Evolution of a Subculture. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1976 Kiyama, Henry (Yoshitaka). The Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco 1904-1924. Berkeley, California: Stonebridge Press, 1999 LaFeber, Walter. The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Through History. New York and London: W.W.Norton and Company, 1997 Little, Mimi Otey. Yoshiko and the Foreigner. New York: Farrar, 1996 Maki, Mitchell. Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999 March, Michael. Guide to Japan. Columbus, Ohio: Highlights for Children, 1995

65 McCoy, Karen. Kawaamoto and Carolina Yao Bon Odori Dancer. Chicago: Polychrome, 1998 McGarry, Maureen. Four Times One: Four Generations of Japanese American Women and Their Art. 45 minutes. Arcata, California (not published), 1995 Video Miyamoto, Kazuo. Hawaii: End of the Rainbow. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1968 Mochizuki, Ken. Heroes. New York: Lee & Low, 1995 Morpugo, Michael. Kensuke’s Kingdom. New York: Scholastic Books, 1999 Peterson, William. “Success Story: Japanese American Style” The New York Times, January 6, 1966 Sarasohn, Eileen Sunada. The Issei: Portrait of a Pioneer, An Oral History. Palo Alto, California: Pacific Books, 1983 Say, Allen. Allison. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 Say, Allen. Emma’s Rug. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996 Say, Allen. Grandfather’s Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993 Say, Allen. The Sign Painter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000 Say, Allen. Tea with Milk. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999 Say, Allen. Tree of Cranes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991 Schafer, Richard T. Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Upper River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001 Shillony, Ben-Ami. “The Jews and the Japanese: Cultural Traits and Common Values” JPRI Occasional Paper No. 6 (November 1995)

66 Smith, Greg. Leitich Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo. Boston: Little Brown, 2003 Sone, Monica. Nisei Daughter. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1973 Stanley, Jerry. I Am an American: The True Story of Japanese Internment. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1998 Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993 Takaki, Ronald. Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835 -1920. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983 Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Distant Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York: Penguin Books, 1989 Tamura, Eileen H. Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: The Nisei Generation in Hawaii. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994 Tamura, Eileen H. “The English-only Effort, the Anti-Japanese Campaign, and Language Acquisition in the Education of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, 1915- 40.” History of Education Quarterly Vol. 33, No.1 (Spring 1993): 37-58 Tung, Angela. Song of the Stranger. Roxbury, Massachusetts: Roxbury, 1999 Uchida, Yoshiko. A Jar of Dreams. New York: Aladdin, 1993 Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press,1982 Uchida, Yoshiko. Journey to Topaz. New York: Aladdin, 1993 Uchida, Yoshiko. The Best Bad Thing. New York: McElderry, 1983 Uegaki, Chieri. Suki’s Kimono. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Kids Can Press, 2003Wartski, Maureen. Candle in the Wind. New York: Ballantine, 1995 Watt, Paul. “Japanese Religions” Japan Digest. September 2003

67 Werlin, Nancy. Black Mirror. New York: Dial, 2001 Winkler, Allan M. Homefront U.S.A.: America During World War II. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 2000 “The History of Japanese Immigration” The Brown Quarterly, Volume 3, No. 4 (Spring 2000) -- Asian American History Month. http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/034/03-4a.htm#image1 (Accessed January 1, 2005) WWII Film Tells of Japanese in Hawaii ABC 7 News Honolulu (AP) Sunday December 05, 2004 www.wjla.com/news/stories/1204/192299.html (Accessed January 26, 2005) The Virtual Museum of Japanese Arts http://web-japan.org/museum/menu.html (Accessed February 21, 2005) Virtual Tour of Edo http://www.us-japan.org/edomatsu/Start/frame.html (Accessed February 21, 2005)

APPENDIX A

Grade Level Standards Addressed in the Lesson

68

69 Grade Four California Standards: 4.4.3 Students explain how California became an agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s. Discuss immigration and migration to California between 1850 and 1900, including the diverse composition of those who came; the countries of origin and their relative locations; and conflicts and accords among the diverse groups (e.g., the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act). 4.4.3 Discuss the effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War II on California. National Standards: 5A The student understands the movements of large groups of people into his or her own and other states in the United States now and long ago. 6A The student understands folklore and other cultural contributions from various regions of the United States and how they help to form a national heritage. 7A: The student understands the cultures and historical developments of selected societies in such places as Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Grade Five California Standard: 5.8.1 Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement patterns of the American people from 1789 to the mid-1800s, with emphasis on the role of economic incentives, effects of the physical and political geography, and transportation systems. Discuss the waves of immigrants from Europe between 1789 and 1850 and their modes of transportation into the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and through the Cumberland Gap (e.g., overland wagons, canals, flatboats, steamboats). National Standards: 2A The student understands the sources and experiences of the new immigrants. 2B The student understands "scientific racism", race relations, and the struggle for equal rights. 3A The student understands the international background of World War II. Evaluate American responses to German, Italian, and Japanese aggression in Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1941.

70 3C The student understands the effects of World War II at home. Explain how the United States mobilized its economic and military resources during World War II. Grade Eight California Standards: 8.3 Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in which citizens participate in it. 8.12.7 Students analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Industrial Revolution. Identify the new sources of largescale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to the building of cities and the economy; explain the ways in which new social and economic patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing cultural diversity; and discuss the new wave of nativism. National Standards: 2A The student understands the sources and experiences of the new immigrants. 2B The student understands "scientific racism", race relations, and the struggle for equal rights. 2A The student understands how the American role in the world changed in the early 20th century. Explain relations with Japan and the significance of the ‘Gentleman's Agreement. 3A The student understands the international background of World War II. Evaluate American responses to German, Italian, and Japanese aggression in Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1941. Analyze the reasons for the growing tensions with Japan in East Asia culminating with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 3C The student understands the effects of World War II at home. Explain how the United States mobilized its economic and military resources during World War II.

APPENDIX B

Assignments, quizzes, tests, final evaluation instrument.

71

72 1. Lesson planning chart Day

1

2

3

4

5

Lesson, lecture

Student activity

Content hook: Who is American? Stereotypes, racism We are all immigrants Intro Japanese culture Movie: “Growing Up in Modern Japan” Japan: History, religion, cultural traits. Immigration pushes

View and respond to slide show

Immigration pulls Hawaii Issei, nisei, sansei, Nikkei West coast (Wakamatsu, Angel Island) Picture Brides Nativism and antiimmigration movements.

Picture analysis. Compare to pictures of Ellis Island immigrant women

Ethnic enclaves Agriculture

Evacuation, Hawaii and west coast Roosevelt, DeWitt, Biddle Internment “Only what we could carry” Italian and German enemy aliens

6

Redress Assimilation Modern examples Generations

Maps, primary documents Large world map Individual maps of world, Asia, Japan

Discussion Input onto cultural iceberg K-W-L chart Art: family crests Poetry: Haiku

Analyze manga and other cartoons from the period. Compare white and Japanese perspectives. Select historical novel Begin book logs

Oral histories Decision-making process Map internment camps Bring backpacks of “essentials” Found poetry from diaries and oral histories. Evaluation Modern intolerance

“Cultural iceberg” individual and on bulletin board Maps of Japan Poetry by Bashō and Buson Visual Tour of Edo Virtual arts tour online Oral histories, photos, documents Maps of Pacific Rim Picture bride photos, writings Naturalization Act of 1795 Chinese Exclusion Act Cartoons from Harpers, Kiyama Four Immigrants Manga Gentleman’s Agreement. Alien Land Act Executive order 9066 Evacuation orders Anti-Japanese posters

Clips from movie “Prisoners Among Us” Movie “Four Times One – Four Generations of Japanese Women and Their Art

extensions Start timeline Highlights Top Secret: Japan Puzzle Book Read aloud:Buck’s The Big Wave Kanji writing

Read-aloud Samurai of Gold Hill by Uchida Discuss lost colony of Wakamatsu Discuss Okei Invite guests from Japanese American community. Conduct group interviews

Cooper’s Remembering Manzanar and Stanley’s I Am An American

73 2. Cultural Iceberg178

3. Japanese Family Crests179

178 179

Cultural Iceberg (http://p2001.health.org/VOL01/TRANSPA5.htm) Japanese Family Crests (http://www.netpersons.co.jp/kamon/origin.html)

74

4. Haiku by Bashō and Buson180 An old pond!

At the over-matured sushi,

A frog jumps in-

The Master

The sound of water.

Is full of regret.

The first soft snow!

Pressing Sushi;

Enough to bend the leaves

After a while,

Of the jonquil low.

A lonely feeling

By Bashō

By Buson

180

Haiku for People. http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/? Accessed March 26, 2005

75

5. Reflection Sheet

Reflection Sheet

Theme: In a democratic society, people make decisions.

6. Issei Interview Questions Name _____________________________________ Sex _________ Age ___________

76 1. How long have you lived in the United States? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 2. Where in the states have you lived and for how long? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 3. Where were you born? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 4. Why did you come to the United States? (Push, pull, or both) __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 5. Did you come alone? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 6. Has life in the U.S. matched your expectations? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 7. What do you like about living in California? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 8. What do you dislike? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 9. What do you miss about living in Japan? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 10. Do you want to go back to Japan? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 11. Are you a naturalized citizen? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

77 12. How well do you speak English? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 13. Have you encountered prejudice and/or discrimination? (Because of language, looks, or other reasons?) __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 14. What elements of your culture are most important to you? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 15. What cultural traits from Japan persist here, inside and outside the Japanese community? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX C

Photographs, maps, charts, graphs, primary documents

78

79 1. Map 1 – Pacific-centered world181

181

Arizona Geographic Alliance Blackline Maps http://alliance.la.asu.edu/maps/PACIFR~1.PDF (Accessed April 17, 2005)

80 2. Map 2 – Asia182

182

Arizona Geographic Alliance Blackline Maps http://alliance.la.asu.edu/maps/PACIFR~1.PDF (Accessed April 17, 2005)

81 3. Map 3 - Japan183

183

Pro Teacher Archive, Japan http://www.proteacher.com/090161.shtml (accessed April 26, 2005)

82

4. Map 4 - Hawaii184

184

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Hawaii Maps http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/hawaii.html (Accessed April 26, 2005)

83 5. Map 5 – United States185

185

Arizona Geographic Alliance Blackline Maps http://alliance.la.asu.edu/maps/PACIFR~1.PDF (Accessed April 17, 2005)

84 6. Japanese Picture Brides disembarking at Angel Island.186

186

Angel Island State Park website, IS Photos http://www.angelisland.org/is_photos.htm (Accessed April 27, 2005)

85 7. Photo 2 - Japanese Picture Brides being interviewed at Angel Island.187

187

Angel Island State Park website, IS Photos http://www.angelisland.org/is_photos.htm (Accessed April 27, 2005)

86 8. Document 1 – Japanese American relocation order.188

188

Picture History http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/3603/mcms.html (Accessed April 30, 2005)

87 9. Japanese Americans being evacuated from their homes.189

189

Japanese American Internment Curriculum http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/Image/uw5 26.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/photographs.html&h=605&w=768&sz=207&tbnid=r blG08UbHWsJ:&tbnh=111&tbnw=141&hl=en&start=5&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJapanese%2Bevacu ation%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-15,GGLD:en%26sa%3DN (Accessed April 30, 2005)

88 10. Japanese Americans preparing to relocate. 190

190

Japanese American Internment Curriculum

89 11. Japanese American soldiers in Italy, World War II.191

191

Japanese American Internment Curriculum

90 12. Japanese American translators, World War II.192

192

Japanese American Internment Curriculum

91 13. Cartoon 1 – Japanese cartoon depicting Japanese American solution to nativist harassment over right-to-work.

92 14. Cartoon 2 – Cartoon depicting Japanese school segregation in San Francisco, October 11, 1906.193

193

HarpWeek. http://www.harpweek.com/ (Accessed April 28, 2005)

93 15. Cartoon 3 - Stereotyping the “model minority.”194

194