Cultural Taboos : The Japanese Culture

In the late 1800’s European, Chinese, and Japanese immigrants traveled To the United States. The Europeans came looking for opportunities while Japanese were recruited from Hawaiian planters as for the Chinese immigrants they came for many reasons some were attracted to the gold rush, while the others came to work for the railroads, farmed or became domestic servants. While immigration and urbanization was beginning to unfold they began creating social, political, and economic problems. These problems made life hard for immigrants but one race that seemed to be affected was the Chinese not only was it because they became successful but also because they increased in a big amount and as technology started improving labor was not needed as much. Chinese arrived between 1851-1882, 300,000 Chinese arrived on the west coast When the Chinese immigrants first came to work in the gold mines , agriculture , and railroads the Chinese were very instrumental in building railroads and at the time Chinese immigrants started to grow successful but as they increased so did the strength of anti-Chinese sentiment among other workers wanting to limit the amount of Chinese immigrants.

A large number of Japanese initially migrated to Hawaii in the late 18th and early 19th century as a result of enormous boom in Hawaiian sugar industry. They also entered

Near the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, over 80,000 Japanese immigrants sailed to America with the dream of a better life. Most of these immigrants entered the United States near Los Angeles. Some worked in the fishing industry; some found jobs in farming, while others worked with the flower and nursery businesses. By the year of 1920 they were able to produce 10 percent of dollar volume of California Agriculture (class lecture).

Prior to World War II, there were quite a bit of Japanese descendants living along the west coast. The Japanese traveled to America hoping to better themselves like starting new jobs and perhaps get a good education. Some immigrants

Japanese first generation immigrants started to come to the United States when there was a high demand for immigrant workers around 1880.

Many Asian Americans were painted as evil villains or downright dangerous in the early 20th century (1900-1940s). Often they were stereotyped as "inscrutable" and often speaking in the broken English. During early 1900's, there were abudance of vicious images of Japanese being shown as forward and buck-toothed popped up in the media. The infamous journalist, Wallace Irwin, made mockery out of Japanese by publishing "Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy". He produced various of anti-Japanese stereotypes such as switching letters "L" with "R" and continuing mocking them with broken English speech "Engrish". The White leaders spoke against the Japanese Americans regarding their alleged immorality, even they liken them to the ape-like imagery just like

escaping the country they once knew. They head out to America a ticket to freedom. Or

The things that were done to the Japanese Americans were unfair and misunderstood as far as making it look like these innocent citizens were a issue in American society. I will be discussing this issue in my opinion and what i think the issue really is, I will support this with information and evidence that i collected from various websites, to follow up with textual evidence that will support my claim and example showing different perspectives of the issue.

The first wave of Chinese immigrants came because of the great economic depression. Great Britain and china have just finished a 4 year war that devastated china economically. The Chinese people had

The action taken by the U.S. government has shaped the migration of the Japanese. Between the late 1800s and early 1900s and agreement was passed, where thousands of Japanese immigrants came to the United States. To employers, this was ideal; as we know employers benefitted from labor immigration, therefore they supported the immigration of Japanese citizens. However, white workers opposed their immigration in fear of lack of jobs. This trend can also be seen with the Mexican immigrants that migrate into the United States. Because of the fear of Japanese immigrants overpopulating and seizing white Americans of their job opportunities, there was a prohibition of immigration in the 1900s, which stopped the flooding of Japanese

The Japanese immigrated to the US. In the 1880s. The Japanese Americans constructed the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Oregon short line. And other railroads in the Columbia River Basin. The Japanese constructed about 40% of Oregon’s railroads (Mercier, L n/d). The Japanese started to immigrate to the U.S. in small groups decades after the civil war. By 1930 about 70% of Japanese population lived in California (Morris, E. 1943, pg. 120).

Factors that caused the Japanese people to immigrate to the United States were the promises of peace and prosperity. In 1868 Japan underwent a massive urbanization causing farms to be destroyed and farmers to be out of work. Japan also isolated themselves from trade to Europe and other nations, so there wasn’t a lot of work to be found in Japan at this time. As news of the economy rising in the United States, so did the temptations of the Japanese people to immigrate to this prosperous land. They boarded ships going east to the archipelago of Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.

After 1868, urbanization and industrialization in Japan led to drastic changes in society and agriculture, which prompted many of the farmers to leave their homeland in search of better prospects (Historical Overview). A prosperous American economy showed promising results and attracted many Japanese who survived on minimal wages to fulfill their family needs. Initially there was illegal migration of Japanese to the United States reported in 1868; approximately 148

Many religions are popular within the Japanese culture. Two of the most influential religions, Shinto and Buddhism that help shaped a lot of Japanese values are Shinto and Buddhism, played a large role in shaping Japanese values. Numerous similarities and differences run between these two religions; nonetheless, the Japanese often believe in more than one religion at the same time. This is possible due to the polytheistic nature of most popular religions in Japan. It is not hard to say that religion is a big part of Japanese culture because a lot of religious beliefs can still be seen in their everyday lives.

In many ways, Japan has been looked upon as a strangely homogeneous society for much of its modern history. And for some, it stands as one of the most homogeneous nation in the world. However, when looking at Japan as a whole, and considering whether or not it homogeneity is a problem, or just another cultural phenomenon, one must look towards the root cause of homogeneism in Japan. In Japan’s past, it has has been questioned, as well as assumed, that the growth of Japans homogeneous viewpoint was put forward by the government of Japan, and was done so by circulating false accusations of its lineage. Which these false stories of lineage, Japan has grown in its ethnocentric views and ways. Ethnocentrism, or