CALIFORNIA AND JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1921, Page 7

CALIFORNIA AND JAPAN.

The Californian State Legislature has passed a series of drastic anti-Japanese lews forbidding, the ownership of any land, agricultural or other, by Japanese, whether native-born or not, or ownership of stock in any corporation owning land. Japan has deferred any formal protest, pending the result of negotiations with the Federal Government now proceeding at Washington. In a recent article reviewing the course of anti-Japanese agitation in California, Mr. Q. A,. Locan, a San Francisco publicist, pointed out that immigration from Japan began in 1860, when seven Japanese first entered the United States. Until 1885 there was practically no immigration from that country, but a. demand was created when, in 1884, influenced by labor agitation. Congress passed the Chinese exclusion law, barring coolies from entrance to the United States. Deprived of Chinese farm hands. Californian landowners began to employ Japanese, thus creating a desire on the part of Japanese laborers to come to America- By 1891 Japanese arrivals had reached a total of 1136. At the same time a new avenue of employment for Japanese was opened on the" railways. In 1899 Japanese arrivals had increased to 2844.

Farm labor, in the interior, had by this time become largely Japanese. Able to work in the broiling sun in such regions as the Fresno raisin lands, where white men could not work, the Japanese became a necessity, according to many farmers. White labor alleged that the Japanese were “’taking the bread from the American.” Farmers replied that “white man will not work in the sun,” and cited practical instances, but the agitation grew apace.

In 1907, under pressure from all parts of the State, the Californian State Legislature prepared to enact laws barring Japanese immigration as such. Japanese diplomats in Washington pointed out to the Administration that such legislation would be in effect a proclamation to the world that the Japanese settler was undesirable —a blow at the dignity of the entire Japanese nation. Under pressure from the President, Mr Theodore Roosevelt, the legislation was abandoned, the Administration arranging the “gentlemen’s agreement,” which thereafter ruled Japanese immigration. This provided that Japan would refuse passports to Japanese laborers who tried to emigrate, not only to the United States, but also to Canada or Mexico, whence they might he smuggled into the United States. Passports to laborers bound for the United States were to be issued only in cases where the laborers had acquired interests in the United States, and were returning from visits to Japan, or where they had relatives established in the United States, or were * the parents of Japanese domiciled in this country. Under this agreement Japanese immigration, however, continued to grow, many laborers arriving as “students”— non-laborers under the “gentlemen’s agreement.” By 1913 this immigration approximated 6000 yearly. During the (war thei anti-Jlapanese agitation was quelled, but last year it broke out with increased virulence, resulting in the drastic State legislation jvhioh is now an international iasu*