After the Storm

This chapter examines the final end of formal anti-Asian policies in the Immigration Act of 1965, which gave Asian nations equal immigration quotas with all other nations in the world. An important part of this egalitarian context was Hawaii statehood because the new state’s large Asian American constituency boosted this group’s political influence in Congress. At the same time, the civil rights and anti-war movements and protests rooted in the Asian American movement during the long 1960s stirred scholarly and popular interest in the history of Asian exclusion and Japanese American internment that flowered throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries into a robust cultural memory that, curiously, occluded the significance of the egalitarian opposition to anti-Asian racism. Instead, the picture of the past was stark, emphasizing racism, injustice, victimization, and white domination.

Silver Lining

This chapter focuses on the debate over Asian immigration exclusion between the enactment of Japanese exclusion and World War II. During this time, prominent opponents of Japanese exclusion shifted tactics to clear up racial and international misunderstanding through scholarly research, educational initiatives, and campaigns to repeal Japanese exclusion. They did this mainly through the establishment of two institutions: Survey of Race Relations at Stanford University and the Institute of Pacific Relations, initially based in Hawaii. At the same time, proponents of Japanese exclusion moved on to push for the exclusion of Filipino immigrants and the repatriation of those already in the U.S. This was achieved, but only by Congress granting independence to the U.S. colony of the Philippines. Egalitarian views of Filipinos, Japanese, and other Asian immigrant groups gained support within a new and powerful national labor union, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Despite the continuation of Asian exclusion, the 1930s was a transitional period in which new opportunities and institutions emerged to combat it.

Flood Control

This chapter addresses the social forces in the U.S. that came together after World War I to pave the way for Japanese exclusion in 1924. Congress held hearings across the West Coast about Japanese immigration in 1920, which revealed the intensity of the issue as hundreds of persons testified. Many favored Japanese exclusion, but a surprising number opposed it. As it had done earlier with both the Chinese and the Japanese, California lead the way towards exclusion, in this case through approving a ballot measure the strengthened the state’s alien land law. Votes in this measure revealed splits about Japanese exclusion within the state and within various neighborhoods within Los Angeles, the state’s largest city. A cadre of political leaders and private citizens in California, including V.S. McClatchy, James D. Phelan, and Senator Hiram Johnson, led the anti-Japanese campaign. In the end, the federal government’s approval of Japanese exclusion was not a sure thing, and throughout the process its backers were never certain of their success.

Eye of the Storm

This chapter traces the growing consensus on hardening the restriction of Chinese labor immigrants, moving towards exclusion for merchants and other classes of Chinese. Such efforts took place amid the growing power of national labor unions as well as widespread concerns about the deleterious impact of immigrants on U.S. society. Concerns about U.S. imperialism through the Spanish-American War and the colonization of the Philippines introduced a new dimension to the debate over Chinese exclusion. Yet the egalitarian opposition to Chinese exclusion, continued to protect exempt classes of Chinese and to prevent exclusion from spreading to Japanese immigrants.

Conclusion

The historical marker remembering the Chinese massacre in Los Angeles discussed at the start of this book stands as testimony to the dark side of the Asian American experience. The importance of such institutional memory is obvious given the history of exclusionism as told in these pages. We, as a society, must prevent acts of violence and discrimination meted out to groups based on race, color, culture, national origin, and legal status—and this ...

Winds of War

This chapter covers the period during and just after World War II, a time when anti-Asian racism peaked against Japanese Americans while softening significantly for other Asian groups and in some ways even for Japanese Americans themselves. The destruction of Pearl Harbor led to the evacuation and internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast based on deep suspicions about the group’s loyalty. Yet faced with necessities related to war propaganda, the federal government also celebrated Japanese Americans, including internees, as loyal Americans, which culminated in the praise for triumphant Nisei soldiers. Meanwhile, Congress repealed Chinese, Filipino, and Indian exclusion, and California repealed the alien land law due to exigencies stemming for U.S. military alliances and international relations during World War II and subsequent Cold War. By 1952, through the McCarran-Walter immigration legislation, Congress repealed Japanese exclusion and for the first time all Asian nations had immigration quotas and their peoples could become U.S. citizens. This was a “great transformation” in the annuals of Asian American history.

Rising Tide of Fear

This chapter examines the growing distrust of Japanese immigrants and the increasing push for Japanese exclusion against the backdrop of Japan’s rise as a global power. President Theodore Roosevelt supported Japan during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and made clear his desire that Japanese immigrants be given naturalization rights to become U.S. citizens. He also strongly opposed calls for Japanese exclusion coming from the West Coast, which included a series of legislation that discriminated against the Japanese in California and other western states. Influential private citizens like missionary Sidney Gulick and business magnet Andrew Carnegie also came to the defense of Japanese immigrants. Yet Roosevelt bowed to political pressure and got Japan to stop sending labor immigrants to the U.S through the Gentlemen’s Agreement (1908). The outbreak of World War I proved a turning point in the exclusion debate; even though exclusionist calls were calmed given that Japan was a U.S. ally, Congress passed the restrictionist Immigration Act of 1918, which restricted a broad range of Asians, although not the Japanese.

First Downpour

This chapter examines the first policy to restrict Chinese immigration to the United States by tracing its background in broad political transformations during the Gilded Age, including the end of Reconstruction, rapid industrialization, and swings in the business cycle. It provides a close analysis of congressional voting patterns during two Congresses that approved bills to restrict Chinese labor immigrants, the first (passed in 1879) was vetoed by the president, while the second (passed in 1882) became the law of the land. The debate over both policies revealed the polarization of views in Congress and the broader society about the Chinese. The return of the Democrats to power and the Midwestern revolt against big businesses (often identified with the Republicans) combined with racial prejudice to win support for the restriction of Chinese workers.

Before the Storm

This chapter addresses U.S. policies furthering expansion to the Pacific Coast in order to establish the nation as a Pacific commercial power through trade with China. Such policies gave rise to an increasingly intense debate over the admission of Chinese immigrants. Led by Senator and then Secretary of State William Seward, Republicans maintained liberal immigration policies for the Chinese, especially through the Burlingame Treaty (1868). While leaders from California and other western states called for but were unable to gain national support for Chinese exclusion, they were able to prevent the naturalization of Chinese immigrants.

Introduction

Visitors to Los Angeles’s historic center, if they look carefully, will find information about the city’s original Chinatown not far from Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church, Avila Adobe, a monument to Latino American war veterans, and the Mexican-themed commercial district of Ol-vera Street. One sidewalk placard marks the location on Calle de los Negros where on October 24, 1871, a mob of “500 locals shot, hung, and stabbed innocent Chinese residents.” This “massacre,” the marker reads, erupted during a period when “anti-Chinese legislation and social discrimination greatly affected Chinese American families and their community life” and “left them without legal protection.”...