To the western mind the Oriental seems to wear a mask

anal

To thet western mind the Oriental seems to wear a mask. There is something

Inserutable about him- his face, which seems so unre sponeive, his eyes which

tell a0 ser tets meaning. To those who do not know maxx us well, all mxknax

ae

Chinses6) Japenese, or Filipinos seem to look altke. `Ye @o not have frrose

variations mx Of hair and coloring or even of features which it. is So | easy

_ tell you Occidentals apart. Gand because of this nat formi tys and | ite

~ strangeness, sometimes seems ominous to those unac(R)quaninted with us, Ed

eka (

In order to give a somewhat eteartftes a oo for the resent

S ` =. .

state of conditions, we must go back to the early immigration of pf the,

tama tet eet

ule

Japanese to America. The Japanese like most other immigrants, came at hina

|

as groups of single men yond mage a very mobile labor force - costly |

moved | about wherever it was needed, And unlike the Chinese, the Japanese

soon bagan to ee and families with them @nd) and) to set up normal Hones,

with the result that , whereas the Census of 19350 reports 594.7 men fof eo

100 women among the Chinese, it shows only 145.5 men for every 100 women am

among the Japanese. But this very characteristic of the Japanese, which

might at first glance seem perfectly normal and praise-worthy, and was indeed

a safeguard for moral charcter and good behavior, had the effect of aroud ng

new fears onl ekedeions: The Japanese birth-rate is not normally high, med

aikgm but the Japanese women who came to the United States were practically

911 of mkk child-raka bearing age. Here was an Oriental invasion from with

in which migt overwhelm the white supremacy of the Pacific Coast, for these

California-born Japanese children were citizens by birthright, regardless of

the fact that their parents could not be naturalized. Some extremists even

saw in this a subtle phot of the Japanese government to cobonize and ultimate-

ly capture the Pacific Coast.

Vl

7 lint

The Japanese who came to the United States hgsetteen wg farmers in their o

own COREE, 8074, while some a@ them found employment here as domestic servants

and some in railroad construction, the majority turned to agriculture, first

as migratory groups of seasonal very eS Lasers, Ween family life developed,

as renters and owners of farmland. They were used to intensive farming for,

Se : e a a

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Page Two

`in parts of Japan from which they came, Lhe=merercv, the place where they

fitted in best in the agricultural life sof the Pacific Coast was in

vegetable gardening, floriculture, the raising of strawberries saa ateaee as

and in the cultivation of sugar beets. Being small an lithe, they were well

adapted to the stooping-over occupations in agriculture, Ultimately they

fellowed the sugarbeet industry to Utah, poundka Idahog Colorado and event to

Nebraska,

But, while the japanese were efficient farmers, trouble arose for this

very reason, Many of their gardens and berry patches vere close to American

cities such as Seattle, Tacoma, Sacramento, Fresno and Los Angeles, The

tapanesaxakaaxnadyxxikaxenp ony nd pd {/ Ade /P

Their children appeared in shools alongside of American children, A public

already conditionec init's thought against all Orientals, began to see a

*

oS

- menace to white ownership of land and white commun ity life in the presence

of these efficent Japaese farmers with their large femilies. the first and

natural reaction was, therefore, and exclusion movement and a Japanese-

Korean Exclusion League organized for that purpose. in the centf77 early

dats a few Koreans had also come to California, but the number has been neg-

ligible. ,

When, xhaxefarax the San Francisco Board of eduction attemptec in 1906

to segregatem Japanese mildren in Oriental scheols andehis action was

protedted by Japan, the federal government had to take a hand. The result

was the prohfbition of KaJapanese immigration from Hawaii, Canada and Mexico

and the establishment under Theodore Roosevelt of the Famous "Gentlemen's

Agreement! between the American State Department and the Japanese government,

where whereby Japan voluntarily agreed to refuse passports to laborers and

going to continental United States, and likewise to exercise strict control

over those Boing to adjacent teritory like Canada and Mexico. While a

included in the erietual ge agreement, the #pa Japanese who could obtain pass-

ports under the "Gentlemen's Agreement," were Officials, tourists, business

andprofessional men students and Japanese already here, together with their i;

wives, dependent parents or children undertwenty years of age. =|

~ aa

Page Three

One mistake made at the time this agreement was adopted was that, while

a brief summary was given out, it was not completely made public. Its exact

terms did not become known until revealed in a letter to Bemk Secretary

Hughes by `ite res Oita. on April 10, 1924. Another weakness was that

this agreement was not embodied in a treaty, was never presented to ns Sen

Senate as a treaty should be , and, therefore, lacked the international, legal

status of one. It was merely an informal srrangement negotiated by only one

department of our government.

By the Japanese, however, kk it was regarded as a definitec international

understanding and its ruthless abrogation by the Immigration Bill of 1924,

without preliminary diplomatic negotiation for its revision, was something

very hard for Japanese to understand. # It was hard to explain that the

"Gentlements Agreement," while negotiated with the State Departament, was not

a treaty, and the fact that it hed never been presented to the Senate naturally

made that body very hostile to it.

In 1924,Congress passed thexmm immigration law denying admission on an

emen quota basis to all races ineligible to citizenship, and permittimsng

only the entrance of officials, tourists, students, ministers, sem n while

treir hips are in ppyrt, merchants in international trade, legally resident

Japanese returning from visits to Jmmam Japan, ad a few other minor classifi-

cations, Anti- Japanese agitation continued, however, and now took the form

of anti-alien land laws which were passed in California in 1915 and with

reater severity in 1920 and 1923, Similar laws were pas sed in 1921 by

Washington, Nebraska and Texas, and in 1925 by Oregon and Idaho. Arizona had

already led the way in x82 1912. Now the mxkxk anti-alien land laws were not

directed aginst all aliens. Without mentioning a. Japenese b" name, they

employed the naturalization regulations of the United States to effect a dis-

crimination without seeming to discriminate. d teaiteXe of the result sik

of thiscond tion was exemplified a few summers ago when I went to the iS i

t(R) work

country, during the summer vacation.

sada

In the middle of a field was a rough

}

Page Four

Ave ste

shack inhabited by a Japanese oe onge end | saederse J = a aia the and

1O(ECT

other, with a vegetable storage and packing room between. faim. Wale across

the road was an attractive modern bungalow, which had a well kept garden and

a gold-fish pond, and, behind it, a large well-painted fruit-packing house,

The two homes represent two stages of Japanese development. The first is x

where they began and the second is where they wish bggo. But there 0x00A7 acebaes

difference. In the second case the Japanese farmer owned his land, acquired

before the alien land law, ae oF therefore, build kiekmk the home he

wished, while, in the first home, he was condemned by the alien land law to

be only a transitory renter md to live in such a hovel as might be provided.

have

TA/ SASL PALA /t oaks Phdkddd/ Those who resided in small @axkfarnkx rural

where

California towns #Az7d Agriculture is the main form of sovepet ian, have

one

probably observed that the Japanese afe stuck on side of the esaoneleix

while the better element is situated `on the mEvet= *e side.

eT Tiss

We are toleratediya by the occidentals as long as we not in comep jihen

with them for the same goal or prize. In Marysville, a few years ago, the |

packing sheds for peers and plums were employing - to pick and packe

faced with

the fruit. It was during this period that California was fhpoundcentede the problem

of migratory workers from the Middle West who Bamaxkere were driven here

by the dust storms, These workers, who were white, /d7%fcent maintained thet

the Orientals should be relieved of their jobs and surplanted by Americans.

However, the companies refused to comply their demands on the grounds that

more

the Japanese were efficient in their work. The result was that the migratory

Pd

workers sgt up a picket around the snodaa offerec violence towards those

employed there, Being one of the employees at the time, J remember disticnt- A

remarks

ly some of abuses and hurled at us during this crisis. WeXintimidated and

molested becausem@ we were slant-eyed and stood in their way.

did ,

However, these persecutors were of the illiterate masses and fg not consti-

our women

tute the majoritory of the 2 but persons such these are the obstacles

ap

in the path of assimilating the anese into Americanization.

Lbhded /OA e amzimka unnimkkakinnxak

% a

-- 2

at

Once when jouneying through Fresno, I stop a modesf and neat-appear-

ing restarueant. Taking a seat, I started to glance over the Afenu while

awaiting the eetivess. After a length of pie I glanced up to notice that

every wae in the outeatd ipsa eete at me very intently. Of course I

became quite embarrassed and flustered and demanded to know why I was not

served. The manager came over to me explained that being a Oriental,

prea as not ase teas if I would kindly leave the premises,

Fre ect (ae

A similar experience was encountered when I was too young to know

the definition of prejudicism. es was on their way to a certain

distant city, when night began to fall, and wishing not to tire us by

attempting to reach our destination by driving all night, my father stop-

ped at a Auto-lodge to spend the night. We were refused lodging there and

all along the way because m@ our physical sine ae were slightiy different.

My father once bought some property in my namef//pdhenees/; however, though

we owned the property amd the house on it, the tract restrictions#amr |

forbade any Orientalssse=ny on the tract. Thus, we owned the place but

we could not live there. cP:

But all the fault does not xx lie with the cauc sean Americans. For

many of us Japanese do not go our half way toward making better friends,

but are gwemkakucontent to let things ride as they are and onak into our

little shells. Se Gaitean friends have often said; "Gosh, =xmane

I've gone more than half way towards making friend with mmm Tommy S---

but he refuses to meet me halfway, how can you make friends with a guy

like that?"

Page Five

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