ASIANS: Japanese

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ASIANS Japanese Chinese Americans

• 1. The Anglo American ideal is that the
  non-whites cannot be assimilated, e.g., Japanese.
• 2. Japanese suffered prejudice and
  discrimination because they do not look like the
  English.
• 3. Proclaimed as a Model Minority because they
  have succeeded economically but some scholars
  consider it as a stereotype. The catch phrase
  Model Minority was coined in 1966 by
  sociologist William Petersen.

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• 4. Japanese Americans claim that their success
  story is a stereotype that deflects attention
  away from continuing discrimination against them.
  The stereotype is used to claim that the problems
  of less successful groups are due to lack of
  effort rather than discrimination, e.g., Blacks,
  Hispanics, and American Indians.
• 5. Despite non-whitefollowed the path of
  assimilation similar to the 2nd stream of
  immigrants.

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• Japanese Immigration and Native Reactions
• 1.  Anti-Asian sentiments
• (i) A Japanese victory in war with Russia,
  revived the belief in the U.S. that immigrants
  from the East may overrun the U.S.
• 2.  The hostility directed toward Chinese was
  now aimed at the Japanese.

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• Immigration Restriction
• 1.  The Chinese came to California after 1848 to
  work in gold mines and build railroads.
• 2.  In 1852 the governor of California
  recommended to stem the tide of Asiatic
  immigration.
• 3. Native workers and small businessmen
  considered the Chinese workers to the slave
  laborers of big business, and they deeply
  resented what they considered to be unfair
  competition. This resentment led to the formation
  of a Workingmans Party that campaigned with the
  slogan The Chinese Must Go!

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• 4.  The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended
  for 10 years the entrance of Chinese workers and
  also made them ineligible to become citizens.
• 5.  The Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943,
  because China and U.S. were allies in WWII.
• 6.  The Immigration Act of 1924 resulted in a
  dramatic change away from Americas open-door
  policy of immigration. The law completely cut off
  immigration from Japan.

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• Anti Japanese Protest
• 1.  A San Francisco Chronicle ran scary
  headlines like The Yellow Peril How Japanese
  crowd out the White Race, (Daniel 196925).
• 2.  The Anti-Japanese sentiment and a media
  barrage attacking Japanese immigration led to the
  formation of the Asiatic Exclusion League.
• 3. The San Francisco Board of Education ordered
  all Japanese, Chinese and Korean students to
  attend a separate school for Orientals.

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• The School Board Crisis
• 1.  After tense confrontations between the U.S.
  and Japanese governments over the San Francisco
  school segregation issue, the school board
  repealed the segregation resolution.
• 2. President Theodore Roosevelt issued an
  executive order to limit the entry of Japanese
  workers into the U.S. through Mexico, Canada or
  Hawaii.

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• The Picture-Bride Invasion
• 1.  Picture-Bride Invasionlegal proxy marriage.
  To balance the ratio of men to women-- Japanese
  Americans will marry from Japanform communities.
• 2.  In a compromise known as the Gentlemens
  Agreement, President Theodore Roosevelt limited
  the immigration of Japanese and the government
  agreed to restrict passports of immigrants to the
  U.S.
• 3. The Gentlemens Agreement permitted the
  wives of U.S. residents to immigrate.

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• 4.  Many of the single Japanese male sojourners
  in the U.S. entered into picture bride marriages
  whereby the prospective bride and groom exchanged
  pictures and were married in a legal proxy
  ceremony. The bride would then sail for America
  to join her husband.
• 5.  The arrival of so many women enabled
  Japanese Americans to establish families and
  communities. Many natives were angered because
  they believed the picture bride process was
  contrary to the gentlemens agreement.

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• The Japanese Family and Community in America
• The Japanese immigrant group in America
  experienced a marked split between 1st and 2nd
  generations because of immigration restriction.
• 1.  1st generation immigrants the
  Isseiarrived before the Legal Exclusion Act of
  1924.
• 2.  2nd generationthe NiseiAmerican-born
  citizens who reached adulthood by the outbreak of
  WWII.
• 3. 3rd generationthe Sanseiborn after the
  WWII.

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• 4.  4th generationthe Yonseichildren of the
  Sansei.
• 5.  Strong links with extended family and
  community played an important role in
  establishing and maintaining traditional Japanese
  ways of life, thereby resisting cultural, primary
  and marital assimilation.
• 6. The 1st generation want their children to
  be more Japanese.

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• Japanese Occupation and the Alien Land Laws
• 1.  The fear that the Japanese would acquire all
  of the farming land of California led to the
  passage of the Alien Land Law of 1913.
• 2. In 1922, in Ozawa v. U.S., the Supreme Court
  ruled that although Ozawa had many fine
  qualifications he was not White and therefore,
  not eligible for citizenship.

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• Exclusions
• 1.  In 1924, the immigration quota was passed,
  the Gentlemens Agreement was unilaterally
  repudiated and Japan was denied an immigration
  quota.
• 2.  The consequences the 1st generationIssei
  treated as non-citizenscould not participate in
  the American society.

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• The Second Generation Period
• The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
  represented the Niseis determination to rise in
  American society and be accepted as
  equalselecting Japanese Americans to public
  office.

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• War, Evacuation and Relocation
• 1.  The relocation program after the Japanese
  bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin
  Roosevelt issued executive order 9066 in 1942.
  the order imposed restrictions on the movements
  of persons in military areas.
• 2. Japanese Americans were arrested and
  imprisoned in relocation centers without
  trialsvery humiliating and miserable.

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• Life in the Camps
• 1.  Conditions in the camps were harsh, i.e.,
  overcrowded housing etc.
• 2. A focus of controversy for the Japanese in
  the interment camps was the loyalty oath,
  question 28 on a required questionnaire for
  military recruits. The question asked, Will you
  swear to abide by the laws of the U.S. and to
  take no action which would in any way interfere
  with the war effort of the U.S.?

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• Legal Issues
• In 1948, the Evacuation Claims Act was passed
  and internees were paid about 37 million as
  restitution for their losses. Many felt this
  amount was too small. In 1988, JACL (Japanese
  American Citizens League) pressed Congress to
  pass a bill that gave additional tax-free
  payments of 20,000 to surviving detainees. The
  bill was accompanied by a formal apology by
  President George H. Bush.

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• Japanese American Assimilation
• 1.  Cultural assimilation intergenerational
  differences 1st generation groupsIssei limited
  their contacts with people outside of the group
  except for economic matters.
• 2.  2nd generationNisei because of contacts
  with the English speaking children in public
  schools moved toward cultural assimilation.
• 3. However, the level of cultural assimilation
  by substitution is higher for the Sansei3rd
  generation than the two preceding generations.

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• Secondary structural assimilation
• A.   Organizational membership
• (i) the level of Japanese American
  participation in ethnic organizations was still
  high in comparison to most other ethnic groups.
• (ii) Sansei (3rd generation) most of them were
  not members of a Japanese organization.
• B. Residential assimilation
• (i) spatial assimilation theory basic
  assumption as ethnic groups assimilate, they
  will leave old ethnic neighborhoods, and move to
  others voluntarily (usually affluent areas).

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• (ii) higher levels of education are linked to
  higher levels of residential assimilation among
  all ethnic groups. Education has a positive
  relationship with residential assimilation.
• (iii) Denton and Massey (1988) found that Asian
  groups tended to live in neighborhoods of Anglo
  Americans. A substantial amount of secondary
  assimilation has occurred among Japanese
  Americans.
• C. Indexes of Dissimilarity sociologists use
  it to calculate and compare the extent of
  residential segregation of different groups,
  e.g., index values of 60 are considered high, 30
  as low and between 30-59 as moderate.

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• Primary structural assimilation
• A.  Nisei (2nd generation) more primary
  assimilation.
• B. Over 75 of the Nisei(2nd) and the Sansei
  (3rd) interviewed by Levine and Rhodes (1981)
  wanted their children to associate actively with
  Whites rather than just with Japanese Americans.

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• Marital Assimilation
• A.  Intermarriage rates are important because
  mixed marriages or out-marriages can be
  understood as both an indicator of the degree of
  assimilation and an agent of future assimilation.
• B.Out-marriages common among the Sansei (3rd).
• C. Parks and Gordons analyses are correct
  that complete Anglo conformity assimilation
  awaits Japanese Americans.

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• Japanese American Success
• A.  Cultural view value compatibility certain
  values are compatible, e.g., hard work, thrift,
  and achievement are character traits similar to
  the American middle class. The Nisei (2nd)
  generation succeeded.
• B. Family and community cohesion higher degree
  of family and community organization in Japanese
  American communities enforced value conformity
  and helped later generations achieve higher
  status.

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• Criticisms
• A.  Success story of Japanese according to
  Okimoto Tachiki (1971) Whites use it to put
  down other minority groups, e.g., Blacks,
  Hispanics and Indians. It also perpetuates the
  discrimination of Japanesestereotype.
• B. Steinberg (1989) contended that the
  success-values argument has been made with
  respect to every ethnic group that has achieved a
  notable degree of affluence. Culture versus
  material factor.

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• C. The structural view non-cultural
  explanations of Japanese American success are
• (i) Japanese who came with the highest education
  and wealth became the most successful.
• (ii) the Middleman Minority theory is based on
  the idea that sojourning is a necessary
  ingredient in the development of an intermediate
  economic position. A middleman minority occupies
  that intermediate position.

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• (iii) advantages of sojourners promotion of
  community solidarity provision of both vertical
  and horizontal integrationsocial mobility and
  growth of business.
• D.  Middleman minority theory Bonacich and
  Modell (1980) argued that Japanese were
  sojourners because they maintained ties with
  their own group and avoided cultivating strong
  ties with the host groupAnglos. This position
  motivated the Japanese to work hard and be
  thriftycontributing factors to their success
  story.
• E. Ethnic enclave Wilson and Portes (1980)
  argued that the Japanese success was due to their
  strong community ties, e.g., family, economic
  ties etc.

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• F.  Dual-economy theory two labor markets
  1. Primary labor marketgood jobs and 2.
  Secondary labor marketdead end jobspoorly paid.
• A.  Culture important for the Japanese success
  story.
• B. Disadvantages based on race are not
  necessarily permanent in American society.