Imigran dan Warga Keturunan Jepang di Amerika Serikat: Sentimen-Sentimen Terhadapnya Dulu dan Kini

Abstrak Sejarah mencatat sentimen rasial yang tertuang dalam produk undang-undang Amerika Serikat seperti Chinese Exclusion Act 1882, pada masanya turut menyasar para imigran dan warga keturunan Jepang. Beragam tindakan kekerasan verbal maupun fisik dan diskriminasi dialami imigran Asia, dalam konteks ini Cina dan Jepang, ketika itu. Lebih lanjut, merebaknya Covid-19 dalam kurun dua tahun ini kembali memunculkan masalah sosial serupa bagi komunitas imigran dan warga keturunan Asia, termasuk Jepang. Isu berhembus memojokan para pendatang dan warga keturunan Asia sebagai tertuduh pembawa virus Covid-19. Dengan demikian, aksi-aksi rasis, diskriminatif, dan xenophobic terrekam pada dua konteks waktu yang berbeda. Dengan mengumpulkan data-data melalui metode studi pustaka dan kemudian mengolahnya, diketahui terdapat perbedaan dan kesamaan fenomena di tengah sentimen-sentimen yang menarget imigran maupun warga keturunan Jepang di Amerika. Perbedaan yang dimaksud merujuk pada aspek pemicu. Pada masa-masa awal kedatangannya, sentimen terhadap imigran Jepang di Amerika Serikat dipicu oleh masalah kesempatan kerja dan kecurigaan bernuansa politik. Sementara itu, pada kurun waktu pandemi Covid-19 sentimen anti-Asian dipicu oleh isu penyebaran virus Covid-19. Di sisi lain, terdapat kesamaan dalam munculnya sentimen-setimen anti-Asian dulu dan kini yaitu tersebarnya informasi palsu dan provokatif, merebaknya prasangka dan diskriminasi rasial, adanya peran tokoh publik dalam menyebarkan kebencian, dan adanya kebijakan hukum yang diambil oleh otoritas untuk merespon isu terkait. Kata Kunci: Amerika Serikat, Jepang, Imigran, Xenophobia, Covid-19 AbstractChinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was one of the US Federal Laws restricting immigration, was meant to target Chinese immigrants at that time. Being among the Asian communities in the US, the Japanese immigrants were unsurprisingly affected. Racial discrimination and hatred began to arise as the implementation of the law was going on. Various acts of verbal and physical violence suffered by the Asian (Chinese and Japanese) immigrants at that time. Further, the outbreak of Covid-19 in the past two years has raised similar social problems for the immigrant communities and people of Asian descent including Japanese. The issue of cornering the immigrants and the residents of this descent as being accused of carrying the Covid-19 virus arises. Various acts of hatred begin to target the immigrants and citizens of Asian descent. Applying the library research method and processing the relevant data, there found differences and similarities amidst the sentiments targeting the immigrants and citizens of Japanese descent in America. The difference refers to the triggering aspect. In the early days of their arrival, the anti-Japanese immigrant sentiment in the United States was more motivated by the problems of job opportunity and political suspicions. Meanwhile, during the Covid-19 pandemic, anti-Asian sentiment was triggered by the issue of the spread of the Covid-19 virus. On the other hand, there are similarities to the emergence of anti-Asian sentiments today including the spread of false and provocative information, the spread of racial prejudice and discrimination, the role of public figures in spreading hatred, and the existence of legal policies taken by authorities to respond to the related issues. Keywords: the United States, Japanese, Immigrants, Xenophobia, Covid-19

The “Phantasmatic” Chinatown in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “The Chinese Empire” and Mark Twain’s Roughing It

This chapter explores Chinatown as an ephemeral site of visual indeterminacy in the 1870s by looking at a number of Californian Chinatown accounts in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “The Chinese Empire” (1878) and Mark Twain’s Roughing It (1872). Late-nineteenth-century Chinatown as an exhibitory locus of authentic Chinese-ness for Western tourists is paradoxically characterized by its mutability rather than realism. By examining the accounts of Jackson and Twain about the Chinese in the 1870s, the decade before the passing of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the paper rethinks the “virtual” existence of Chinatown, its contested nature as a “phantasmatic site” for Western projections and visual consumption, which manifests the potential realization of national transformation in the mythic Orient of the new West.

Chinese Perceptions of American Democracy: Late Qing Observers and Their Experiences with the Chinese Exclusion Act

Analysis of the writings of Kuang Qizhao and other Chinese self-strengtheners suggests that their emphasis on promoting education before democracy and continuing to endorse classical Confucianism were not signs of a retrograde kind of conservatism, but an entirely rational decision based on the actual experiences of late Qing observers of 19th Century American democracy. Observing the U.S. Congress’s passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese officials observed the real dangers of demagogue led populism without an educated, moral citizenry and the apparent importance of Christianity to creating the moral foundation for an effective modern society. For Kuang, Confucianism was equivalent to Christianity to establish that moral basis, and not a conservative desire to preserve the old social order. Kuang would pass on his thoughts to some of China’s most important reformers and officials on his return home, suggesting he and the officials he associated with had a more realistic and sophisticated understanding of American society and democracy than is currently assumed.

Chinese Immigration to California: Welcomed Workers, Shunned Immigrants

This paper explores the complex relationship linking the collapse of the mining and railroad industries, anti-Chinese sentiment, and the passage Chinese Exclusion Act. Although difficult to tease out, the paper also explores how these immigration issues, prompted primarily by domestic concerns, were intertwined with the diplomatic relationship between the United States and China, as it evolved over the period of 1858 through 1880. this paper looks at historical newspapers written in the early Californian state in the 1850s to the 1860s to understand how changing attitudes towards Chinese immigrants affected local anti-Chinese laws and how these local attitudes shaped national laws. This paper will show that while Chinese workers were welcomed early on for providing cheap labor, overtime they would be increasingly prejudiced against and blamed for growing labor disputes between white workers and corporations. Ultimately Chinese immigration would be scapegoated as the reason for declining wages by white workers in order to pass anti-Chinese laws. The United States moved towards exclusion as a domestic policy, an apparent contradiction of its diplomatic policy of forging closer ties in an attempt to take advantage of Chinese trade.

"Chinese Girl Wants Vote"

American suffrage history is dominated by white suffragettes; however, this essay aims to bring to light another vibrant dimension of the American women’s suffrage movement. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee turned tides when she marched horseback at a women’s suffrage parade at the age of sixteen, and further entrenched herself as a prominent Asian-American suffragette as she continued to fight for women’s suffrage throughout her lifetime, although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred her and all Chinese people from voting or obtaining citizenship until the act was repealed in 1943. This article explores many dimensions of Mabel through several of her primary environmental and personal influences, from Guangzhou, China to New York City’s Chinatown, which all shaped her into an admirable, and selfless social justice advocate that claims an unforgettable chapter in American and Asian-American political history.

Toward a Historical Archaeology of the Chinese in Montana and a Transnational Lens

Chinese immigrants started arriving in Montana in 1862 to participate in the region’s growing economic growth from gold mining. Over the next 80 years, the Chinese population contributed to the cultural fabric of the state, while contending with a number of challenges, including growing anti-Chinese sentiment, collapse of their population after passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and lack of opportunity for families and entrepreneurial interests. Framing the historical and archaeological story of the Chinese in Montana in regional and transnational trends can broaden the analytical lens compared to other more site-specific narratives.