Immigration

Discrimination in American immigration laws began with the Naturalization Act of 1790. After the Civil War, this act forbid any Chinese or Asian immigrant to become an American Citizen. Even though Asian immigrants could not become citizens, the Supreme Court allowed the kids that were born on U.S. territory to become citizens, even if their parents could not be.

Japanese Immigration did not begin until the late nineteenth century. Commodore Matthew Perry led an expedition to Japan to set up trade relations, and a year later he negotiated an agreement which opened American exporting (Kashima).

Image Source: A More Perfect Union

The Japanese who immigrated to the mainland United States settled on the west coast; essentially in California. In 1900 41% of the ethnic groups had settled in California and in 1940 this number reached 70%. The Alaska Gold Rush drained the Pacific northwest of laborers so they sought labor to link Seattle and Tacoma using railroads. Japanese people especially, sought work on the railrods. Japnese laborers by the 1900’s numbered 24,326, and between 1901 and 1908 there were about 127,000 Japanese immigrants that entered the United States (Kashima).