Quick Review of the History of Asian-American Immigration

*19th century Chinese Immigrants were Primarily Male Sojourners

*Gender Imbalance in Chinese-Americans communities was Locked in by 1884 Chinese Exclusion Act Which Banned Future Immigration-- Favored in part by (white) unions who feared Chinese labor competition in the West

* Japanese Immigration also made up of Sojourners, but primarily Farmers

*Developed a niche in vegetable and fruit farming in California

*Immigration Control Act of 1924 bans all future Japanese migration.

*As a Result, Issei-Nissei Generation Gap exacerbated by lack of new immigrants continually reinforcing and updating homeland culture

*At the same, racial discrimination made it difficult for U.S. born Japanese Americans to pursue economic opportunities outside the Japanese community or other wise assimilate into American culture.

*Then comes the internment, all Japanese-American residents (including infants) of West Coast declared to be enemy aliens and subject to internment.

*120,000 Issei (immigrant aliens denied the right to naturalization by the 1790 Naturalization Act) and Nissei (first generation-born citizens) evicted from their homes and businesses, stripped them of their U.S. citizenship, and confined them in prison camps.

*The Japanese-American Political Response:

The Position Majority (led by the Japanese-American Citizens League-- JACL): Earned Citizenship, Join Military to demonstrate loyalty; insist that assimilation into American is sole legitimate community response. The JACL did not seek reparations for the internment until the late 1970's and 1980's.

Minority Response: Some Accept Repatriation to Japan; Others of Draft Age become No-No Boys-- refusing both being drafted into the U.S. military or repatriation to Japan on the basis that the internment was a violation of their constitutional rights. Some mount unsuccessful Civil Rights Challenge to the internment.

*The Third Major source of pre-1965 Asian Immigration: Filipinos agricultural workers-- colonial subjects of the emerging American Empire "recruited" to low-paying farm labor under immigration restrictions that made it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue other opportunities