Kristen Hayashi
speaker
189 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Kristen Hayashi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
Just, you know, the labor that they were providing, the hours that they were working, their pay. But what was interesting is that a portion of their salary was withheld for return passage to Japan, which sort of shows that their labor was seen as temporary. But, you know, it wasn't the case that all, you know, Japanese immigrants could return to Japan for various reasons.
And so many of them did end up continuing to live in the United States. Yeah.
I have an interesting number here, Kristen. It's 1886 to 1911, 400,000 Japanese leave their homeland and go to the United States. By 1900, 24,000 or so are living in America. Not all who traveled see it as a permanent move. So you see this mass amount of people, actually only a small sector of them actually end up living here. And only 410 of these 24,000 are women. Isn't that interesting?
It really is, yeah. Yeah, that comes later. I mean, this is the phenomenon we're talking about. It's really a labor force being imported in and all the repercussions of that happen.
Yeah, I think that really just illustrates the point that it was sort of overblown when you think about how many just remain permanently in the United States. And yeah.
Yeah. And we have to understand Hawaii at this time isn't a state. This is a set of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, very easily accessible to Japanese populations. And therefore, you know, they can be going back pretty easily from there permanently. You know, by ship in those days. But anyway, California was another matter. It was a long distance.
And by that time, it becomes a very problematic process to get home to Japan. It's a lot easier to stay, especially after 1907, when there's an agreement for families to come. And that really that's the root of this right now. This is the beginning of the settlement.
Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of these Issei were recruited from prefectures in Japan that were known for agriculture. And so they come to states like California and they're, you know, they're working in agriculture. And so we talked about the gentleman's agreement being passed in 1907.
Just a few years later, by 1913, California and other states in the West, they passed the alien land law, which means that aliens ineligible for citizenship, which in this case are Japanese immigrants and other immigrants from Asia. that they're unable to purchase land. And this is a way to really hinder the economic and social mobility of these Issei, Japanese immigrants.
So they're able to lease land, but the legislation becomes more stringent in the 1920s to the point where sometimes they're not even able to lease land.
I want to understand how much of what had happened to the Chinese, and that goes back to 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, is now being projected upon these Japanese. Is it really as simple as that? Or are there certain issues to do with Japan that these Californians are worried about?
Well, I think in the early part of the 20th century that we're talking about, I think it really is that there's a very, you know, hostile social climate here in California. You know, I think when we talk about the U.S. and we talk about racism, prejudice, segregation, we think of that as being, you know,
in certain parts of the country not in the west but i think it really illustrates that you know los angeles was a very discriminatory and and you know racist place so i think it's the same forces that are sort of against both chinese immigrants and japanese immigrants at that time but then you know i do think that geopolitics does play a role especially like kind of leading into world war ii as japan becomes more aggressive in asia i think that does also have an influence
over how Japanese immigrants and their descendants are sort of treated in the United States.
Yeah, there's a big sidebar. I mean, it's the Russo-Japanese War, which Japan wins. Teddy Roosevelt oversees the negotiations, and that treaty is settled. But that war has everything to do with Japan expanding its role in the world, wanting to be taken seriously globally. This begins that movement forward. But interestingly, I want to plant a seed here.
So much of this pushback that happens as a result of this expansion and this prejudice and fear begins to energize a certain sector of Japan society politically. That begins this sort of militaristic attitude, doesn't it?
I guess so, yeah. And here in the United States, there probably were some Ise who kind of supported that as well.
But it's the beginning of a lot that, you know, flowers later on down the road. It's really interesting and important to understand and identify what really laid the groundwork for what happens later on. When we talk about this land issue, very few Japanese actually owned the land. I mean, it was 2%, I believe, is the percentage of how much land in California was owned.
And yet it was so productive.
Yeah, I mean, in the early part of the 20th century, kind of leading up to World War II, if you ate a piece of fruit or a vegetable, it's very likely that a Japanese grower grew that vegetable or fruit. Japanese Americans really shaped the landscape. They were leasing agricultural land, but as you say, they didn't own the land. And what does that mean when you don't control or own the land?
Showing 41–60 of 189 · page 3 of 10
← Previous
Next →