In the early 20th century, waves of Japanese immigrants started migrating toward the mainland United States, especially California. This brought about the first interactions between Japanese and American people. The first wave of migrants toward the United States was mostly of the student class and merchants. These students, seeming to have no education, seeking a higher learning opportunity and a chance to work in the United States’ workforce. Because of the exclusion law, Chinese laborers were absent and jobs opened for these young men to work in agriculture. Although many protests followed this immigration, the United States didn't seem to do much about limiting Japanese immigration in the early 20th century.

Oppression in the United States towards Japanese people was cruel and unfair and often ranged from labor discrimination to exclusion. However, while being oppressed, Japanese immigrants were able to achieve agricultural and industrial successes as well as economic benefits. There are at least two reasons why Japanese immigrants entered these fields. First, the pay was greater than what they would earn in Japan. Second, and more importantly, they had previous experience in these fields, making them aware of the lives they could achieve on the West Coast. As this shows, although they faced violence and oppression, Japanese immigrants were willing to find ways to continue in those industries in California.

Oppression by Law and Society

As Japanese immigrants progressed their way up the chain of the workforce in the early 20th century, white landowners started to become fearful, scared of the fact the Japanese workers could make enough money to buy their land. This xenophobia was the start of an attempt to oppress Japanese immigrants and limit or worse, completely erase their role in the United States’ society.  In return for racism and segregation in schools, President Theodore Roosevelt agreed with the San Francisco school board that would stop segregation, but restrict immigration. This agreement was named the Gentlemen’s Agreement, and in 1907, Japan was forced to stop issuing passports to immigrant laborers. Although immigrants already residing in the US were allowed to stay, residents of Japan were no longer able to seek a new life in the United States. This would turn out to be a regretful decision however because by the 1930’s, Japanese laborers were highly valued workers in California. This oppression didn't end after 1907 as in 1924, Japanese immigrants were banned in the Immigration Act of 1924. 

Immigration was not the only thing that the United States tried to take from the Japanese; their oppression continued in the form of labor discrimination. As Japanese laborers became more dominant in the agricultural field, white landowners feared the money these workers were making. Accordingly, landowners started paying Japanese laborers a much lower wage than they paid white workers, even though there were fewer white workers and harder-working Japanese workers. Consequently, the Alien Land Laws were passed in 1913 and Japanese workers were no longer able to own land.  

Success and Perseverance 

Although this attempt at limiting Japanese ownership seemed legitimate, there was almost no enforcement of this law. Japanese laborers started working for Japanese tenants. Even as white landowners were trying to restrict and get rid of Japanese dominance, Japanese immigrants persevered and now own the second most amount of agricultural land in the U.S. 

Japanese immigrants achieved major agricultural success that benefited their lives and the state's health. Like European immigrants, Japanese immigrants’ desire to migrate to the United States was influenced mainly by their desire to improve their economic situation. At first, Japanese immigrants were placed into undesirable jobs like working on railroads and meatpacking, giving these immigrants not a lot of economic benefit. However, because of these conditions, workers sought a job with higher pay and a job that they had previous experience in while working in Japan. This job ended up being agriculture as by 1909, over 30,000 Japanese immigrants were working in agriculture. 

Although these immigrants were finding success in the workforce, there was still a ton of social and political adversity that they had to face. One example of this presented by The Japanese Immigrants in California Agriculture is the anti-alien land laws. These laws were made official in 1913, making it so Japanese immigrants couldn't purchase or lease their land. This left Japanese immigrants no legal position in agriculture except that of a wage worker. 

Japanese people also had to face discrimination in the workplace as their wages were significantly lower than white people in the same field of work. According to The California Commissioner of Labor, Fourteenth Biennial Report, Japanese people, although the majority of agriculture workers, made about 30 cents less than white men. This proves that although Japanese immigrants were contributing more and were the majority of agricultural workers in the 20th Century, their race lowered their wages and white landowners refused to give them more money. 

Although this oppression was extremely unfavorable, Japanese workers found a way to exploit the system. Firstly, after the Gentleman's Act in 1908, Japanese workers found it much easier to gain positions as tenant workers instead of wage laborers. This made discrimination against Japanese people in the workforce nearly disappear as most Japanese workers found jobs under Japanese employers. Secondly, the Alien Land Laws were declared “dead letters” in 1934 when the Supreme Court decided it was impossible to invoke the criminal sanctions of the Alien Land laws. A white landlord was interviewed in 1935 and mentioned that “A large landowner told Strong that he had never heard of the alien land laws [sic] and that many white landowners in his district rented to Japanese tenants.” This quote explains how even though the laws were active, they were not enforced and Japanese workers still were extremely predominant in agriculture during this time. Through all of this oppression, Japanese immigrants succeeded in agriculture, becoming tenants and landowners and finding a secure place in California.

Because of the prejudice they faced, Japanese immigrants struggled to find jobs in the industrial sector. When Japanese immigrants first migrated to the US, it surprisingly wasn't white Americans who were oppressing Japanese workers, but it was Chinese immigrants. When Japanese people started looking for jobs in the industry, Chinese workers were the majority working on railroads, owning art shops, and metal and iron factories. This led to Chinese immagrants taking over most of the available open jobs and not allowing Japanese immigrants to make significant pay. White factory owners also gave Japanese workers low-paying jobs, not knowing how significant of an impact they would make on U.S. society. 

Despite facing oppression, however, Japanese immigrants did find various industrial jobs that leveraged their previous experience and determination to achieve economic success to contribute to the workforce. Like Chinese immigrants, when Japanese workers first arrived in the U.S., they started by working on railroads, sawmills, and canaries. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the number of Chinese workers was declining and in return, more jobs opened up for Japanese immigrants. This also allowed Japanese immigrants to progress in the workforce and prove their worth in the industry. By being introduced to the workforce, Japanese immigrants were later able to gain higher positions as agricultural workers and business owners, selling art and food. 

The economic benefit of those jobs was significant because Japanese workers ended up gaining higher-paying jobs in agriculture after proving their worth in the industry. As Japanese workers started to seek more economic benefits from the workforce, they looked for new jobs, ones with higher pay and were more skilled. Because, of their previous work in industrialization, Japanese workers had experience in the U.S. workforce and physically intensive jobs. This allowed Japanese immigrants to be highly valued and earn more money in their respective jobs. 

Push and Pulls

In this essay, I have argued that first, Japanese immigrants faced extreme oppression when they first migrated to the United States. White landowners and Chinese laborers made it difficult for Japanese immigrants to find jobs and benefit economically. On the other hand, Japanese workers were able to preserve and achieve success in the workforce through hard work and previous experience. 

Why, then, were Japanese immigrants willing to still join and contribute to the workforce in the U.S.? As Japanese students started migrating toward the US, they were first granted with little to no economic benefit. As they made their way through the workforce, exploiting the Gentlmans Act and the Alien Land Laws, the benefits started to become visible. By 1910, there were approximately 1,806 farm operators in California. Because immigrants persevered through the oppression they faced, economic benefits came flowing in, proving that contributing to the workforce early on, paid off. 

Works Cited

Higgs, Robert. “Landless by Law: Japanese Immigrants in California Agriculture to 1941.” The Journal of Economic History 38, no. 1 (1978): 205–25. jstor.org/stable/2119324.

Hirobe, Izumi. “American Attitudes toward the Japanese Immigration Question, 1924—1931.” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations 2, no. 3 (1993): 275–301.jstor.org/stable/23612840.

Iwata, Masakazu. “The Japanese Immigrants in California Agriculture.” Agricultural History 36, no. 1 (1962): 25–37. jstor.org/stable/3740395.

Lee, Catherine. “‘Where the Danger Lies’: Race, Gender, and Chinese and Japanese Exclusion in the United States, 1870-1924.” Sociological Forum 25, no. 2 (2010): 248–71. jstor.org/stable/40783393.

North, Hart H. “Chinese and Japanese Immigration to the Pacific Coast.” California Historical Society Quarterly 28, no. 4 (1949): 343–50. doi.org/10.2307/25156197.

Smith, Tori. 2023. “Foreign Ownership of U.S. Agricultural Land.” AAF. March 16, 2023. americanactionforum.org/research/foreign-ownership-of-u-s-agricultural-land/

Wang, Joan S. “The Double Burdens of Immigrant Nationalism: The Relationship between Chinese and Japanese in the American West, 1880s-1920s.” Journal of American Ethnic History 27, no. 2 (2008): 28–58. jstor.org/stable/40543330.