Japanese Pride, American Prejudice: Modifying the Exclusion Clause of the 1924 Immigration Act (Asian America) - Hardcover

Hirobe, Izumi

 
9780804738132: Japanese Pride, American Prejudice: Modifying the Exclusion Clause of the 1924 Immigration Act (Asian America)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0804738130 ISBN 13: 9780804738132
Verlag: Stanford University Press, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

Adding an important new dimension to the history of U.S.-Japan relations, this book reveals that an unofficial movement to promote good feeling between the United States and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s only narrowly failed to achieve its goal: to modify the so-called anti-Japanese exclusion clause of the 1924 U.S. immigration law.

It is well known that this clause caused great indignation among the Japanese, and scholars have long regarded it as a major contributing factor in the final collapse of U.S.-Japan relations in 1941. Not generally known, however, is that beginning immediately after the enactment of the law, private individuals sought to modify the exclusion clause in an effort to stabilize relations between the two countries. The issue was considered by American and Japanese delegates at almost all subsequent U.S.-Japan diplomatic negotiations, including the 1930 London naval talks and the last-minute attempts to prevent war in 1941.

However, neither the U.S. State Department nor the Japanese Foreign Office was able to take concrete measures to resolve the issue. The State Department wanted to avoid appearing to meddle with Congressional prerogatives, and the Foreign Office did not want to be seen as intruding in American domestic affairs. This official reluctance to take action opened the way for major efforts in the private sector to modify the exclusion clause.

The book reveals how a number of citizens in the United States-mainly clergy and business people-persevered in their efforts despite the obstacles presented by anti-Japanese feeling and the economic dislocations of the Depression. One of the notable disclosures in the book is that this determined private push for improved relations continued even after the 1931 Manchurian Incident.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Izumi Hirobe is Associate Professor at Nagoya University.


Izumi Hirobe is Associate Professor at Nagoya University.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Adding an important new dimension to the history of U.S.-Japan relations, this book reveals that an unofficial movement to promote good feeling between the United States and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s only narrowly failed to achieve its goal: to modify the so-called anti-Japanese exclusion clause of the 1924 U.S. immigration law.
It is well known that this clause caused great indignation among the Japanese, and scholars have long regarded it as a major contributing factor in the final collapse of U.S.-Japan relations in 1941. Not generally known, however, is that beginning immediately after the enactment of the law, private individuals sought to modify the exclusion clause in an effort to stabilize relations between the two countries. The issue was considered by American and Japanese delegates at almost all subsequent U.S.-Japan diplomatic negotiations, including the 1930 London naval talks and the last-minute attempts to prevent war in 1941.
However, neither the U.S. State Department nor the Japanese Foreign Office was able to take concrete measures to resolve the issue. The State Department wanted to avoid appearing to meddle with Congressional prerogatives, and the Foreign Office did not want to be seen as intruding in American domestic affairs. This official reluctance to take action opened the way for major efforts in the private sector to modify the exclusion clause.
The book reveals how a number of citizens in the United States—mainly clergy and business people—persevered in their efforts despite the obstacles presented by anti-Japanese feeling and the economic dislocations of the Depression. One of the notable disclosures in the book is that this determined private push for improved relations continued even after the 1931 Manchurian Incident.

Aus dem Klappentext

Adding an important new dimension to the history of U.S.-Japan relations, this book reveals that an unofficial movement to promote good feeling between the United States and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s only narrowly failed to achieve its goal: to modify the so-called anti-Japanese exclusion clause of the 1924 U.S. immigration law.
It is well known that this clause caused great indignation among the Japanese, and scholars have long regarded it as a major contributing factor in the final collapse of U.S.-Japan relations in 1941. Not generally known, however, is that beginning immediately after the enactment of the law, private individuals sought to modify the exclusion clause in an effort to stabilize relations between the two countries. The issue was considered by American and Japanese delegates at almost all subsequent U.S.-Japan diplomatic negotiations, including the 1930 London naval talks and the last-minute attempts to prevent war in 1941.
However, neither the U.S. State Department nor the Japanese Foreign Office was able to take concrete measures to resolve the issue. The State Department wanted to avoid appearing to meddle with Congressional prerogatives, and the Foreign Office did not want to be seen as intruding in American domestic affairs. This official reluctance to take action opened the way for major efforts in the private sector to modify the exclusion clause.
The book reveals how a number of citizens in the United States mainly clergy and business people persevered in their efforts despite the obstacles presented by anti-Japanese feeling and the economic dislocations of the Depression. One of the notable disclosures in the book is that this determined private push for improved relations continued even after the 1931 Manchurian Incident.

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Japanese Pride, American Prejudice

MODIFYING THE EXCLUSION CLAUSE OF THE 1924 IMMIGRATION ACTBy Izumi Hirobe

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2001 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-3813-2

Contents

Abbreviations............................................................xA Note on Japanese Names.................................................xiiiIntroduction.............................................................1Part I: The Missionary Initiative1. The Immediate Aftermath...............................................212. The Origins of Pro- and Anti-Quota Movements..........................673. The Clergymen's Political Campaign....................................804. The Long Quiet Battle.................................................99Part II: The Business Initiative5. New Movements from the Pacific Coast..................................1216. Japanese Imperialism and the Immigration Question.....................1497. Howard's Pro-Quota Campaign...........................................1738. The Declining Impetus of the Pro-Quota Forces.........................1919. The Final Collapse: Toward Pearl Harbor...............................210Conclusion...............................................................224Epilogue: The Japanese American Initiative...............................233Notes....................................................................243Bibliography.............................................................291Index....................................................................313

Chapter One

The Missionary Initiative

The Japanese Response

The immigration bill which included the exclusion clause was passed on April 12, 1924 in the House of Representatives, and, in the Senate, a similar bill with the exclusion clause was passed on April 15. Without waiting to see whether the president would sign or veto the bill, Japan reacted to the passage of the law almost at once.

Initial Japanese reaction was universally hostile. From the government on down, everyone maintained that the law was based on racial discrimination and stained the prestige of Japan. According to a report made by Ambassador Cyrus Woods in Tokyo to the Department of State, protests came from "groups and organizations of varied character[:] educational, religious, social, political, commercial, industrial, financial, et cetera."

The Japanese media led the charge. Many editorial writers viewed the issue from the perspective of race and argued that the law was not only a national challenge to Japan, but also an insult to the yellow race in general. The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun proclaimed that a great race war was imminent. The Teikoku Daigaku Shimbun, the newspaper of the Imperial University of Tokyo, published an article by Hikomatsu Kamikawa, an associate professor, in which he argued that the immigration law symbolized white ethnocentrism and marked the onset of a race war. To emphasize this aspect of racial affront, some newspapers published the anti-exclusion views of non-Japanese Asian intellectuals, who advocated the solidarity of all Asians on this issue.

While some newspapers regarded the law's passage as an insult to Asians as a whole, others revealed a different kind of prejudice. The law, they argued, was an insult especially to Japan because Japanese were superior to other Asian nationals, whose immigration was already banned. The Osaka Asahi Shimbun, for example, not only declared the immigration law to be a product of incorrigible racial prejudice, but further argued that it could not accept the law because the Japanese were not inferior but superior to other peoples. Even the Chugai Shogyo Shimpo, a newspaper that specialized in commerce, declared that the law would not only cause great losses to countries in the East but would also lead to racial tensions. On April 21, 1924, fifteen major newspapers in Tokyo published a joint declaration about the exclusion issue. Since they still hoped that the law would be vetoed, the declaration was not radical. It read: "It is very clear that the anti-Japanese bill which was passed in both houses is unfair and immoral.... If the bill becomes a law, there will be no recourse other than to regard it as the defined will of the American people, and, as a result, it will injure deeply the traditional friendship between the nations."

American diplomats in Japan experienced the Japanese indignation firsthand. Immediately after Congress passed the bill, a staff member of the American embassy in Tokyo found a leaflet on his car from the Taibei Mondai Yukoku Seinendan (Patriotic Young Men's League Regarding the Japan-American Question), which was an offshoot of Nihon Rikkokai (the Japanese Strenuous Efforts Society), a Christian organization founded by Hyodayu Shimanuki to assist Japanese students who wished to study abroad. The leaflet urged Japanese patriots to "punish the hypocritical and cruel America." The leaders of Suihei-sha, an anti-discrimination league, handed Ambassador Woods a note of protest, which said that it was unreasonable for the United States, which had been an advocate of liberty, an emancipator of slaves, and a promoter of peace, to take an anti-Japanese attitude.

Mass rallies against the exclusion clause took place throughout Japan. As early as April 20, a national convention was held in Tokyo under the leadership of Ryohei Uchida, head of Kokuryu Kai, a major patriotic organization interested in foreign affairs. Kokuryu Kai had been organized by Uchida in 1901, at a time when there was a strong sense of the impending danger of Russia's seizing Manchuria. Mitsuru Toyama, an influential rightist activist, became its adviser. The organization preached pan-Asianism and Japanese expansion onto the Asian mainland. After World War I, Kokuryu Kai expanded its interests, expressing alarm at the uncomplaining acceptance of the Washington Treaty and the exclusion of Japanese immigrants by the United States and Australia. It also worried about social turmoil in Japan, especially the development of Taisho democracy. Kokuryu Kai's agenda included promoting harmony between the East and West and making Japan the leader of East Asia. On April 22, the Kokumin Shimbun sponsored an evening of speeches on U.S.-Japanese relations. According to a report by the Metropolitan Police, the event attracted as many as three thousand people. The speakers ranged from moderates to radicals, but radical views were the more numerous. Among the invited speakers was Kiroku Hayashi, president of Keio University, who emphasized that the immigration law was against the spirit of peaceful cooperation. Other speakers endeavored to stir up nationalistic feelings among the Japanese; Jiro Hayasaka, a reporter for the Kokumin Shimbun, proclaimed that if the United States did not heed the protests from Japan, the Japanese must prepare to respond to this racial affront, and Koki Hori, a professor at Tokyo Commercial College, argued that the American law was unwise because propagation of the Japanese was for the good of mankind.

A compilation of these speeches was published within a month of the meeting. The preface examined the history of U.S.-Japanese relations and highlighted the inconsistency in U.S. policy toward Japan. The United States had opened Japan seventy years earlier by force, yet now persecuted the Yamato race by barring immigrants from entering the spacious territory of America. The book insisted that Japan's voice was being...

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Verlag
Stanford University Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2001
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0804738130
ISBN 13 
9780804738132
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
343
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Mare Nostrum Group B.V.
gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk

Doelen 72
Breda
4831 GR
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