As I walk down the sidewalk of Jackson street in downtown San Jose, I look to my left and see the temple, the temple of the Buddhist church. I look in the koi pond in front of the church, and I see the beautiful and strong koi glide gracefully beneath the surface of the water. Their movements are fluid and often they jump and raise their heads above the water. I watch their movements as I walk around the edge of the pond, and finally I reach a bench on the other side. As I sit down, a woman, old and hunched over, walks by. She takes small labored steps, and she reminds me of my Obachan (great-grandmother). She looks over, and sees me sitting alone watching the koi. She smiles and bows, I return the gesture, and then she slowly continues on her way down the sidewalk. I look down the road ahead of her, and I realize that for as many times as I had walked down the sidewalk of Japantown, I had never taken time out to look around and "enjoy the beauty of downtown San Jose." I am Japanese- American and as a child, I spent much of my time in the Japanese community. I developed lasting friendships in the Japanese social childrens groups, joined church groups, and played with the well known Taiko group. I danced in a traditional Japanese dance group and performed in most of the Japanese festivals; I attended Japanese school in the summers during my childhood, but I never really explored the place where I had spent a majority of my time, San Jose's Japantown.
Japanese Immigration to America
People migrated from Japan to America for many reasons. Some Japanese immigrants came to America to escape poverty, while others came for the opportunity to begin a new life, thus ensuring a better future for their posterity. According to Professor Choi, of San Jose State University, in Japan most people farmed so that they could feed their families. Unfortunately, most of the farmers in Japan were living in poverty. The farmer's poverty was caused by a heavy tax on the land which was implemented by the Emperor of Japan . Those who wanted to escape poverty and develop a new and exciting life immigrated to America.
Examples of discrimination against Japanese-Americans
From the time Japanese immigrants arrived in America, they experienced harsh discrimination. According to Ronald Takaki, author of Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans , the population of Japanese-Americans in the United States was approximately 138,834 in 1902. Most Japanese-Americans were "concentrated in the Pacific Coast states, especially California, where 42 percent of the total continental Japanese population lived in 1900, and 70 percent thirty years later." The fact that most of the Japanese-American population was living in California caused even more hostility to be felt toward them. Japanese-Americans were competing with other Americans for jobs in canneries, sales in businesses, and profits in farming. Even though Japanese Americans were the largest Asian group in California, at the time, they "totaled only two percent of California's population...whites generally scorned their very presence and white workers waged hostile and sometimes even violent campaigns to keep the Japanese out of the labor market" (Takaki, 180).
In 1908, the Gentleman's Agreement was made between the Emperor of Japan and President Roosevelt. The agreement was an "understanding that Japan would not permit the emigration of laborers to the United States" (Takaki, 203). However, the Gentleman's Agreement "contained a loophole," it still allowed picture brides and family members of Japanese-Americans to enter the United States. The Sacramento Bee newspaper commented on the "loophole" saying, "As soon as a Jap can produce a lease, he is entitled to a wife. He sends a copy of his lease back home and gets a picture bride and they increase like rats. Florin (a farming town) is producing 85 American-born Japs a year" (Takaki, 204). The Gentleman's Agreement caused a great deal of controversy, and was yet another example of discrimination against the Japanese.
Although the Gentleman's Agreement brought the immigration of the Japanese to an end, the Japanese-Americans already in America were still working hard to succeed in their new home. According to the Immigration Commission, by 1909 there were "3,000 Japanese-owned establishments in the Western states, most of them in major cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Sacramento...and there were approximately 68,000 Japanese living in the Western States." By 1910, Japanese-Americans had developed many ways to "obtain land to farm." According to Takaki, "in 1910... Japanese utilized four methods to obtain land to farm- contract, share, lease, and ownership...of the total Japanese farm acreage, 37,898 acres were under contract, 50,400 under share, 89,464 under lease, and 16,980 under ownership." In 1910 Japanese farmers "produced 70 percent of California's strawberries, and by 1940 they grew 95 percent of the state's fresh snap beans, 67 percent of its fresh tomatoes, 95 percent of its spring and summer celery, 44 percent of its onions, and 40 percent of its green peas"(Takaki, 189). Japanese-Americans were becoming successful in farming and were beginning to find their niche in American society.
Unfortunately, for Japanese farmers, in 1913 the Alien Land Law was passed. According to Takaki, "Support for the anti-Japanese legislation was overwhelming--thirty-five to two in the Senate and seventy-two to three in the Assembly" (203). The Alien Land Law "declared the ownership of "real property by "aliens ineligible to citizenship" unlawful... it also stipulated that such aliens would be allowed to lease agricultural land for terms no longer than three years." The State Attorney General Ulysses S. Webb "explained that the legislative restriction targeting the Japanese was based on a concern for "race undesirability." The law sought to limit their presence by curtailing their privileges... they would not want to come in large numbers and stay if they could not acquire land"(Takaki, 204).
Though the Alien Land Law posed a great threat to the Japanese-American farmers way of life, the farmers yet again found "loopholes in the 1913 law" (Takaki, 205). Japanese farmers were able to own and lease land under their childrens names. My grandfather, Richard Ogami, recalls that as a child his parents were strawberry farmers. After the Alien Land Law was passed they could no longer lease the land, so as the oldest son, my grandfather leased the land so that his parents could continue to farm. For his book, Takaki interviewed, Mr. I.K. Ishimatsu. Mr. Ishimatsu, who lived in San Jose, recalled " If you wanted to lease or own land for any purpose you had to use your children's name... A set of books had to be set up for inspection by the state authorities in order to prove that you were an employee working for wage"(205).
By 1920, "Japanese farmers had increased their lands under lease from 155,488 to 192,150 acres and their lands under ownership from 26,707 to 74,769 acres." Unfortunately, the United States passed another law which made "aliens, ineligible to citizenship, were not allowed to lease agricultural land nor to acquire agricultural land under the names of native-born minors or stock in any corporation owning real property." This forced many Japanese-Americans out of farming because many had their land under their children,who were minors, names. Those who had children over the age of eighteen continued farming. However, in 1923, the law was "amended making it illegal for aliens ineligible to citizenship to " acquire, possess, enjoy, use, cultivate, occupy, and transfer real property"(205). This amendment forced many Japanese farmers off their land. My grandfather remembers that when the amendment to the law was passed he could still lease the land, but his parents were forced to move into a shack across the street from the farm land because they could not longer "occupy" the land. According to Takaki, "between 1920 and 1925, Japanese owned lands declined from 74,769 to 41,898 acres and Japanese leased lands from 192,150 to 76,397 acres" (206). It was obvious that the American government was doing everything they could to rid themselves of the Japanese-Americans.
In 1924, the United States passed the National Origins Act which "prohibited all Japanese immigration while permitting the annual entry of 17,853 from Ireland, 5,802 from Italy, and 6,524 from Poland." The National Origins Act was unmistakably discriminatory and it stopped all Japanese immigration.
Though Japanese-Americans faced injustice and overt discrimination they were optimistic for their futures. According to Takaki, in a "1920's survey of Nisei (second generation Japanese-Americans) found that although 65 percent of the Japanese in California lived on farms, less than 10 percent of the Japanese children reported that they intended to stay there." Most of the children planned to go to college, to take advantage of the opportunities their parents had suffered for, to provide to them. Sadly, many did not get the opportunity to go to college because of internment. My grandmother, Mrs. Chiyo Ogami, remembers that before the United States declared war on Japan she had plans to go to college. She was in her beginning years of high school when the United States formally entered the war. Though my grandmother came from a large family who had to work hard just to support their children, she had hoped to further her education. Unfortunately, her dreams were shattered once war was declared and all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were sent to relocation camps. Though my grandmother was able to continue her high school education during internment, due to discrimination, loss of possessions, property, and money during the internment, college was no longer an option.
Internment during World War ll
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States declared war with Japan. After the bombing, the discrimination Japanese-Americans faced increased dramatically. They were seen as the enemy, even though most Japanese Americans living in the United States were naturalized citizens and many were born in the United States. According to Takaki, "two thirds of the 120,000 internees were American citizens by birth" (15). Sadly, the fact that they were as much citizens as anyone else no longer mattered. The country was at war and paranoia was running rampant.
My grandmother remembers the painful weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She and her brothers and sisters tried to continue to attend school but were harassed and teased by fellow classmates. They were seen as the enemy and were treated as such. They were called all kinds of horrible names and they were told "Go home Jap, we don't want you here!" At that time my grandmother had never even visited any other country. She was born in the United States (Nisei) second generation Japanese-American and had never been to Japan. Despite the fact that she and her brothers and sisters were full blooded Americans, they were treated as though they had personally dropped the bomb on Pearl Harbor -- they were seen as the enemy.
A few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor,on February 19, 1942, following the advice of the Western Defense command head Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Executive order 9066 allowed the military to "exclude anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings." On February 25, 1942 the Navy informed Japanese American residents of Terminal Island near Los Angeles Harbor that the must leave within 48 hours. They were the first group to be moved and many of the older men and women died during the move. On March 18, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9102 which established the War Relocation Authority. Milton Eisenhower was the director, and the War Relocation Authority, the group that was in charge of the relocation, was allocated $5.5 million. In all, approximately one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese-Americans were separated into the camps. Members of families were usually kept together, but at the most, they were only given a week to prepare to leave.
They were not told where they would be taken, so they could only guess what type of clothes and supplies to bring: They were only allowed to take what they could carry. The rest of their possessions were sold to greedy merchants who bargained prices for lower prices because they knew the Japanese Americans were desperate to sell what possessions they could. Many people chose to burn their treasured possession rather than sell them for insultingly low prices. Some tried to bury their things, and others asked friends to keep what they could not carry in storage. However, most of the things people left behind were lost, stolen or vandalized while they were in camp. Those who were placed in camp lost their land, possessions, and businesses. Everything that they had ever worked for was taken away. They were the enemy in their own country.
Ten concentration camps were set up, and the Japanese-Americans were taken to the camps by train. The camps were built in remote deserts -- "Topaz in Utah, Poston and Gila River in Arizona, Amache in Colorado, Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas, Minidoka in Idaho, Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, and Heart Mountain in Wyoming" (395). In camp the Japanese-Americans were "assigned to barracks, each barrack about twenty by one hundred and twenty feet, divided into four or six rooms. Usually a family was housed in one room, twenty by twenty feet. The room had a "pot bellied stove, a single electric light hanging from the ceiling, an Army cot for each person and a blanket for the bed" (395).
Although most families were kept together in the camps, some people were separated and taken to different camps. Religious leaders, teachers, community leaders, and anyone with authority within the Japanese communities were isolated from the rest. They were seen as a "threat to national security" because they had the power to influence other Japanese-Americans. Those who were separated were taken away from their families and questioned by the FBI. Many of them spent four years, the duration of the war, exiled in the two camps in Arkansas, Jerome and Rohwer.
After the war, Japanese-Americans were released from the concentration camps, and they began the long process of rebuilding their lives. Most had no homes to return to; their communities had shunned them, they had no money, and nowhere to go.
Many Japanese-Americans settled in major cities after the war. They rebuilt Japanese communities, and began rebuilding their lives. Many organizations, churches, and Japanese groups assisted in the resettlement of Japanese Americans who were interned during the war.
A primary organization which assisted in the resettlement of Japanese-Americans to San Jose was the San Jose chapter of the JACL, the Japanese American Citizens League. The JACL "assisted evacuees in finding housing and employment." The JACL office "became the coordinating center for all Japanese organization in the Japanese American community and (after the war) it published a weekly news bulletin" (JACL, 11). Eichi Sakauye and Shig Masunaga, members of the JACL, helped "establish hostels at the old annex to the San Jose Buddhist Church as well as the Wesley United Methodist Church on North Fifth Street" in Japantown (11). The San Jose JACL also helped Japanese-Americans get health insurance and "in 1946 the San Jose Chapter instituted Blue Cross hospitalization plans for its members" so that they could receive health care when they might otherwise have been discriminated against and denied medical treatments.
The San Jose Buddhist Church played a key role in the settlement of Japanese Americans in San Jose after the war. The church which is located on North First street was founded in 1902 and the temple which exists today was built in 1937. In 1942, when the Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps, the San Jose Buddhist church was cared for by Ben Peckham who lived next to the church. For years following the war, the church served as a hostel for Japanese Americans who were trying to settle and restart their lives in San Jose. The church assisted over one thousand four hundred Japanese Americans settle in San Jose after the war.
Redress
In 1988, Congress passed, and President Regan signed HR 442, a redress bill, which Congressman Norman Mineta, a resident of San Jose, worked to pass during his years in office. The redress was an apology signed by the President which was sent to each person who was interned during the war. Along with the apology, was a check for twenty-thousand dollars. For those who were interned, no amount of money could make up for the pain they suffered in the camps. Also, it is estimated that Japanese-Americans who were interned during the war lost millions of dollars, including the loss of property, belongings, land, and businesses. Sadly, for many the apology came too late. Many Japanese-Americans who were interned during the war had passed away by the time the Redress was signed.
Today, as I walk down Jackson Street in San Jose's Japantown and I look around and I can see more than just the beauty which surrounds me. Today, I see a community formed through the love and strength of its members, who have joined together to support one another in times of joy as well as times of pain. Today, I can see the beauty of San Jose because I have taken the time to see with more than my eyes. Today, I can see the true beauty of San Jose because I have opened my heart to the history and the loving community which exists in San Jose's Japantown.
References
Choi, J. Interview. 12 Feb. 1997.
Egami, Hatsuye. The Evacuation Diary of Hatsuye Egami. Pasadena: International Productions, 1995.
Faragher, John, Mari Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, Susan Armitage. Out Of Many: A History of the American People, vol. 1. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Englewood Cliffs, 1994.
Faragher, J, et al. Out Of Many: A History of the American People, vol. 2. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell To Manzanar. New York: Bantam, 1973.
Ishigo, Estelle. Lone Heart Mountain. Santa Clara: Communicart, 1972.
Japanese American National Museum. Quarterly. Los Angeles, 1994. 1-25.
Ogami, Richard. Personal interview. 4 Nov. 1996.
Ogami, Chiyo. Personal interview. 4 Nov. 1996.
San Jose JACL. For the Sake of the Children. 1993.
Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York: Penguin, 1990.
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