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Japan
and
The California Problem
By
T. Iyenaga, Ph.D.
Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Political Science,
University of Chicago
and
Kenoske Sato, M.A.
Formerly Fellow in the University of Chicago
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1921
Copyright, 1921
by G. P. Putnam's Sons
_Printed in the United States of America_
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY 3
CHAPTER II
JAPANESE TRAITS AND PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 9
Emotional Nature--AEsthetic Temperament--Group Consciousness--
Adaptable Disposition--Spirit of Proletarian Chivalry--
Philosophy of Life--New Turn in Thought.
CHAPTER III
JAPAN'S ASIATIC POLICY 33
Korean Situation--Policy of Self-Preservation--Shantung
Settlement--Cooeperation with China--Understanding with
America--Japan's Proper Sphere of Activity.
CHAPTER IV
BACKGROUND OF JAPANESE EMIGRATION 50
Causes of Emigration and Immigration--Japan's Land Area--
Agriculture--Population--Industry--Social Factors.
CHAPTER V
ATTEMPTS AT EMIGRATION: RESULTS 64
Australia--Canada--South America--The United States--Results.
CHAPTER VI
CAUSES OF ANTI-JAPANESE AGITATION 75
Modern Civilization--Various Attitudes Towards Japanese--
Psychological Nature of the Cause--Chinese Agitation
Inherited--Local Polities--"Yellow Peril"--Propaganda--
Racial Difference--Japanese Nationality--Modern Nationalism--
Congestion in California--Fear and Envy Incited by Japanese
Progress--Summary.
CHAPTER VII
FACTS ABOUT THE JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA--POPULATION AND BIRTH
RATE 90
Number of Japanese in California--Immigration--"Gentlemen's
Agreement"--Smuggling--Birth Rate--What we May Expect in the
Future.
CHAPTER VIII
FACTS ABOUT THE JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA--FARMERS AND ALIEN LAND
LAWS 120
History of Japanese Agriculture in California--Causes of
Progress--Japanese Farm Labor--Japanese Farmers--Anti-Alien
Land Laws--Land Laws of Japan--Effect of the Initiative Bill.
CHAPTER IX
ASSIMILATION 148
Nationalism and Assimilation--Meaning of "Assimilation"--
Biological Assimilation--Is Assimilation without Intermarriage
Possible?--Cultural Assimilation--Assimilability of Japanese
Immigrants--Native-Born Japanese.
CHAPTER X
GENERAL CONCLUSION 178
APPENDIXES
APPENDIX A 198
Charts on Comparative Height and Weight of American,
Japanese-American, and Japanese Children.
APPENDIX B 201
Extracts from the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation and
Protocol between Japan and the United States of America,
of February 21, 1911.
APPENDIX C 204
California's Alien Land Law, Approved May 19, 1913.
APPENDIX D 207
Alien Land Law, Adopted November 2, 1920.
APPENDIX E 216
Crops Raised by Japanese and their Acreage.
APPENDIX F 217
Japanese Immigration to the United States.
APPENDIX G 218
Japanese Admitted into Continental United States; Arrivals
and Departures.
APPENDIX H 218
Immigrants and Non-Immigrants.
APPENDIX I 219
Distribution of Japanese and Chinese Population in the
United States.
APPENDIX J 220
Distribution of Japanese in the United States, According
to the Consular Division, as Reported by Foreign Department,
Japan.
APPENDIX K 221
An Abstract of Expatriation Law of Japan.
APPENDIX L 223
A Minute of Hearing at Seattle, Washington, before the
House Sub-Committee on Immigration and Naturalization.
APPENDIX M 230
Comparative Standing of Intelligence and Behavior of
American-born Japanese Children and American Children
Discussed by Several Principals of Elementary Schools of
Los Angeles, California.
LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECT 238
INDEX 247
Japan and the California Problem
Japan and The California Problem
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
When, during the middle years of the last century, thousands of stalwart
pioneers moved westward to California in quest of gold, they had no idea
whatsoever of the part of destiny they were playing. When, synchronously
with that movement, Commodore Perry crossed the Pacific and forced open
the doors of Japan with the prime object of securing safe anchorage,
water, and provisions for the daring American schooners then busily
engaged in trade with China, he never dreamed of the tremendous result
which he was thereby bringing about. What those men were doing
unconsciously was nothing short of preparing the way for contact and
ultimate harmonious progress of two great branches of mankind and
civilization which originally sprang from a common root, but which in the
course of thousands of years of independent development have come to
possess strikingly different characteristics.
Culture is aggressive and masculine; it craves conquest and vaunts
victory. Once let loose in the open field of the Pacific, the East and
West are now involved in a mighty tournament, the outcome of which is yet
beyond mortal imagination. The most we can hope for is the speedy
realization of Kipling's vision:
But there is neither East nor West,
Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face,
Though they come from the ends of the earth.
The Oriental problems in California, originating as they did in the
conflict of local, economic, and political interests, have in recent years
come to assume more and more the character of cultural and racial
questions. The forms and motives of the movement for the exclusion of the
Orientals are vastly diverse, often counteracting and contradictory, but
deep in the bottom of the whirl there lies the fundamental question of
race and civilization. To say the least, the present unrest in California
with reference to the Japanese problem is the intensified, miniature form
of the general struggle in which East and West are now being involved.
Says Governor Stephens of California in his letter to Secretary of State
Colby:
California stands as an outpost on the western edge of Occidental
civilization. Her people are the sons or the followers of the
Argonauts who wended their way westward ... and here, without
themselves recognizing it at the time, they took the farthest westward
step that the white men can take. From our shores roll the waters of
the Pacific. From our coast the mind's eye takes its gaze and sees on
the other shores of that great ocean the teeming millions of the
Orient, with its institutions running their roots into the most
venerable antiquity, its own inherited philosophy and standards of
life, its own peculiar races and colors.
This being the case, the magnitude of the Japanese problem in California
can hardly be exaggerated. Enveloped in a state under the guise of local
conflict, the problem is, nevertheless, a gigantic one, involving vital
questions of world destiny. Shall the races of Asia and Europe, brought
together by the progress of science, be once more strictly separated?
Cannot different races, while remaining biologically distinct, form
together the strong factors of a unified nation? Should white races
organize in defense of themselves against "the rising tide of color" and
invoke race war of an unprecedented scale and consequence? Is it not
possible to arrive at some principle by which the contact of white and
yellow races may be rendered a source of human happiness instead of being
a cause for all the evil consequences imaginable? These are some of the
questions which are contained in the Asiatic problem in California.
Already a considerable quantity of literature has appeared which sounds an
extremely pessimistic forecast of the future of Eurasiatic relationship.
Some writers erroneously divide mankind into so many races by the color of
the skin, as if each were a pure, homogeneous race, and they indulge in
the risky speculation of "inevitable" race war between the white race,
which hitherto held supremacy, and the yellow race, which is now attaining
a position of serious rivalry. Others urge the imperative need of
organizing the white nations into a supernational state in order to enable
them to weather the threatened attacks from the yellow races. All these
arguments are based on the presumption that the Asiatic races wherever
they go--in Australia, Canada, or America--create conflict with the Aryan
race. The fallacy of such arguments lies in envisaging the large problem
of East and West from its partial expression. The anti-Asiatic movement in
the new world is certainly a significant problem, but it is only an
incidental and local phenomenon of the great process under way of cultural
unification. That the California problem is not all that is involved in
the relationship of Asia and America can readily be seen by the incessant
increase, in spite of it, of close cooeperation between them. In science,
in art, in religion, in ideals, in industry, and commerce, and, last but
not least, in sentiment, the peoples of these continents find themselves
ever more closely bound together, learning to appreciate the inestimable
value thereby created, and fast widening the scope of their group
consciousness so as to embrace all mankind, thus concretely vindicating
the futility of the idle speculation of race war based on the mere
difference of skin pigmentation.
If the error of race-war theory arises from absorption in parts,
overlooking their relations with the whole--from magnifying out of
proportion the local racial conflict to the extent of eclipsing the value
and significance of vastly more important relations--it behooves us to
avoid such grievous mistakes and to view the situation in a broader
perspective. Indeed, the key to the understanding and the solution of the
difficulty of the Pacific Coast is in viewing it in the light of
friendship and cooeperation between America and Japan. Then, and only then,
does it become clear how important it is to approach the problem with
prudence and foresight, and to endeavor to solve it in a spirit of
fairness and justice. It then becomes plain, in the face of the vastly
important tasks involved in wisely conducting the relationship of Orient
and Occident, how foolish and cowardly it is to assume a negative attitude
of fear and withdrawal from the natural circumstance which time has
brought about. Whether one likes it or not, the world is already made one,
and any human attempt to divide it into air-tight compartments is
hopeless. We are bound to have yet closer contacts among all races and
nations. The way to a satisfactory solution of the California problem
clearly lies in a closer and more intimate association--in a word, better
mutual understanding between Orientals and Occidentals.
Let us then honestly seek to comprehend the heart of the difficulty and
frankly discuss the question, untrammeled by any bias, prepossessions, or
fear; with eyes steadily fixed on the larger aspects of the problem; eager
to arrive at some constructive principles of solution satisfactory to all
concerned.