The “Gentlemen’s Agreement”

The “Gentlemen’s Agreement”

Chinese immigration • Itinerant workers • The “yellow peril” • Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Japanese immigration--reasons • Meiji Era (1868-1912) • political • economic • social changes

The passage • Labor contractors • Steamers

Work • Groups (lower wage) • Mining, agriculture, railroads

The “yellow peril” • Social attitudes toward Asians, esp. on the West Coast. • Driving down wages, buying “prime” land, populating

Calls to stop immigration • The Sons of the Golden West, the Anti-Asiatic League, American Legion • Hostility toward “picture brides” and calls to ban Japanese, cir. 1905.

Japan in the world • Industrialization • Sino-Japanese War 1895 • Russo-Japanese War 1905

Teddy Roosevelt • Fear of armed conflict (Former assistant Secretary of Navy) • Economic incentives (“Open Door” Policy in China) • Personal affinity

Annoyed with California They cannot behave worse than the State of California, through its Legislature, is now behaving toward the Japanese . . . . and at the same time . . . . they expect to be given advantages in Oriental markets; and with besotted folly are indifferent to building up the navy while provoking this formidable new power—a power jealous, sensitive and warlike, and which if irritated could at once take both the Philippines and Hawaii from us if she obtained the upper hand on the seas. Most certainly the Japanese soldiers and sailors have shown themselves to be terrible foes. There can be none more dangerous in all the world. But our own navy is respectable in numbers and more than respectable in the efficiency of its units. If we act thus we need not fear the Japanese . . . . In any event we can hold our own in the future….only if we occupy the position of the just man armed…

Terms of the agreement • Japan to prevent laborers from leaving. • Two types of visas • Hawaii

Execution of GA • Japanese Association of America • Administrative tasks • Lifestyle campaigns

Discriminatory legislation • Alien Land Law, 1913 • “Picture bride” ban, 1920 • Perception of the G.A. not working

Exclusion Act of 1924

The “Gentlemen’s Agreement”