The history of the Japanese American community from 1918-1950: 3D Gallery

The California Alien Land Law of 1920

A law passed in 1920 continuing the discrimination against Asian Americans, not allowing them to have any way of owning land. This law continued the earlier law made in 1913 and filled in a lot of loopholes. (Wikipedia)

Ozawa v. United States

A court case made by Takao Ozawa arguing for Japanese-Americans to be allowed to become naturalized citizens in the US. This would allow them to own land if they were citizens.This didn’t pass through, showing the blatant racism in the US. (supreme court)

Signing of the Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration act of 1924 put racial limits and quotas on most immigrants, but people of Japanese descent were effectively banned from entering the US, which led to prominent generational differences. The Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1908 had already stopped new Japanese immigrants although the wives and children of people who had already come to the US were allowed. (Library of Congress) The Issei had emigrated, the Nisei were their

children, and the Sansei was the generation after. Between the Issei and Nisei especially there was a large gap because of English language abilities and culture. Because immigration was stopped, 1924 is considered the cut-off between Issei and Nisei. (Maeda) Aliens were not permitted to own land in California after the Alien Land Law of 1913, which led to many Issei losing land owned for years prior. The law specifically targeted Japanese immigrants, leading to the Japanese Minister of foreign affairs saying it was”essentially unfair and inconsistent.” (California Alien Land Law of 1913) In California alone, Japanese Americans owned 450,000 acres of land accounting for 10% of crop value and to keep any of it they had to register it under European Americans or their American born children. (Library of Congress)

Four Japanese-American boy scouts in 1935

Although prejudice and racism against Japanese-Americans was still very much prevalent in the 1930s, there were initiatives to improve their image.(Maeda) Even in the internment camps Japanese American children joined the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, with the Girl Scouts numbering 743 members in Manzanar and Topaz. (Densho) There was an incident at Manzanar on the anniversary of Pearl Harbour when tensions were very high and some pro-Japanese internees attempted to take down the American flag. The Boy Scouts defended it by standing around the base of the flagpole, and they were successful. (Peterson) However, despite this display of loyalty and others, Japanese-Americans were often viewed badly (one stereotype was as gamblers), and although they created committees to eradicate things such as gambling there was a significant divide between them and any white neighbours.(Maeda) After the war, when children attempted to join or rejoin the scouts outside of internment camps, they faced discrimination and were told they could not rejoin. Shimako Kitano was one of them, and she spoke about how she was unable to rejoin being told that “the kids are too far advanced now.” She also tried to join the Rainbow Girls, and they said that because she was Japanese she was not accepted. (Densho)

The Bridge Metaphor: Nisei

Japanese Americans in the mid-1930s attempted to revive their ethnic economy. To do this they started to commercialize their culture. They would advertise ”little Tokyos” as places where white people could get food and souvenirs. This idea of sharing their culture actually helped the growing fear of the Japanese community. (Picturethis)

A racist propaganda poster created during the Second World War.

This racist depiction of a Japanese person shows the general consensus of how White America viewed the Japanese. This idea of viewing them as monsters and purely as the enemy caused mass racism toward and fear of the Japanese community. This extreme racism shows the continuation of racism and the declining view of Japanese people in the US. (Horne)

The posters created to notify the Japanese-American people of their internment

This mass internment shows how severe racism was in the US. There were over 127,000 Japanese American people interned, while there were about 1,200 Italian-Americans and 11,000 German-Americans. This large difference proves the racist intent of the internment. This action ripped mostly japanese people, a large amount being citizens of the US, from their homes. This action was based on racism as there was. This large disparagement between the amount of people shows the racism towards Japanese Americans (Wikipedia)

A cafeteria at Manzanar, one of the ten internment camps for Japanese-Americans.

Photo: artFido

At Manzanar, Japanese Americans families lived in single rooms. They had to go to communal bathrooms and kitchens where they would have previously had things in their homes.(Internment of Japanese Americans) Two-thirds of those interned were American citizens. The official reason for internment was suspicion of spying, but no Japanese- Americans were ever found guilty of such. (Japanese Relocation)

Takashi ‘Thomas’ Tanemori (bottom centre) with his family in Hiroshima in 1941

Photo: Kawamoto

Tanemori was less than a mile from where the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima. (Kawamoto) Like many other Japanese Americans, he spent years resenting Americans. (Tanemori) This further widened the gap between Japanese Americans and white Americans. A poll taken in 1991 by the New York Times showed that 14% of American poll takers felt the relationship between Japan and the US was ‘Very Friendly’ and a further 14% felt it was ‘Somewhat Unfriendly.’ However only 2% of Japanese felt that the relationship was very friendly and 37% thought it was somewhat unfriendly.(Weisman)

An image of Japanese-Americans returning to their home after being imprisoned in internment camps, only to find it scandalized by the locals

This image shows a family of Japanese descent standing outside of a home which has “NO JAPS WANTED” and other such propaganda written in spray paint

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The history of the Japanese American community from 1918-1950