PART L-THE JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Special emphasis was placed upon Japanese immigration by the agents of the Commission attached to the western office maintained in San Francisco. Every industry in which the members of that race have extensively engaged has been investigated, and the results are set forth in the various reports in this volume. Among the industries investigated and in which the Japanese have been extensively employed are the growing of fruit, vegetables, sugar beets, and hops, the canning of salmon in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, and the canning of vegetables in California, railroad work, and coal mining. An investigation was made also of Japanese engaged in city employments and in business in the more important cities of the West. Independent farming by the members of that race was investigated in all of the States in which it has become extensive. Special investigations were made of farming by Japanese in nine localities in California, in several localities in northern Colorado, in northern Utah, in Oregon, and in Washington. Moreover, agents attached to the eastern office investigated Japanese farming in the States of Texas and Florida. The detailed results of these special investigations have been set forth in reports dealing with each city and with each agricultural community. In the present report the more general results have been brought together with the personal data obtained for 13,307 Japanese for whom schedules were taken. Of the 13,307 Japanese 12,905 were foreign-born, 402 native-born. The representative character of the personal data is indicated by the following table, which shows by industry the number of foreign-born Japanese for whom information was obtained.

TABLE 1.-Total number of foreign-born Japanese for whom information was secured, by sex and by industry.

TABLE 1.-Total number of foreign-born Japanese for whom information was secured, by sex and by industry-Continued.

It is the opinion of the agents of the Commission that in point of accuracy the data secured in the schedules taken for the Japanese are superior to those collected for most other races investigated in the Western Division of the country. In making the investigation the Commission has had the fullest cooperation of the Japanese consular officers stationed in the different Western States and of the Japanese press. In fact, everyone has given the Commission every assistance in its efforts to secure the information desired. The Commission is placed under special obligation to four Japanese students who at different times have served it as interpreters and translators. It must be added, however, that the investigation of Japanese immigration was made at an inopportune time. Direct emigration from Japan for the continental United States had been greatly restricted by the Japanese Government for approximately a year before the work of the Commission was begun. As a result of this fact it has been impossible to ascertain with a satisfactory degree of certainty the normal workings of an unrestricted immigration of that race. Because of the restrictions made, the differences between the wages of Japanese and of white men, which had obtained, had tended to disappear, while changes had been brought about in the position and work of the Japanese labor contractors, boarding houses, and emigration companies. It has not been possible to deal with a number of vital points with the same degree of certainty as would have been possible had the investigation been made when emigration from Japan was without great restriction.

CHAPTER II.

FORMATION, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, AND COMPOSITION OF THE JAPANESE POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

The number of Japanese in the continental United States has about quadrupled since the Census of 1900 was taken. At that time the number of Japanese reported, excluding Alaska, was 24,326. Estimates made by the agents of the Commission from all available sources from the numbers engaged in various occupations, from the numbers reported as living in different places, from the censuses made in Oregon, Colorado, and parts of California by Japanese associations, and from the annuals published by Japanese newspapers printed in different cities-would give a total for the summer of 1909, including the native-born, of between 95,000 and 100,000.

Until after 1890 the number of Japanese immigrants to the United States was small. One Japanese is reported to have immigrated to this country in 1861, 7 in 1866, 67 in 1867, 14 in 1868, 96 in 1869, and 55 in 1870. The Census for 1870, however, reported only 55 persons of that race as residing in this country. The number reported in 1880 was 148, in 1890, 2,039. The number of Japanese ("immigrants" and "nonimmigrants ") arriving at the ports of the United States and Canada have been separately reported in the annual reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration since 1893. The figures presented in the following table have been compiled from that source and show the number of Japanese or of Japanese "immigrants" admitted to the continental United States, excluding Alaska, in so far as they have not come to the mainland from the Hawaiian Islands.

TABLE 2.-Number of Japanese (exclusive of those coming from the Hawaiian Islands) admitted to the continental United States,a fiscal years 1893 to 1910.

Year ending June 30

1893.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

1898.

1899.

1900.

1901.

a Not including Alaska.

b These figures for the years 1893 to 1899 Include "immigrants" and "other allen passengers" of the Japanese race, the two classes not being separately reported previous to 1900. Since 1900 "other alien passengers" have been excluded from the figures given. Since 1901 the number given has been obtained by deducting from the total number of immigrants the number giving their destination as Hawaii or Alaska. The number of "alien passengers" other than immigrants were 268, 311, 191, 195, 248, 794, 511, 612, 1,591, and 319 for the years 1900 to 1909, inclusive, respectively.

This direct immigration has been greatly augmented by an indirect immigration by way of Hawaii. A large number of Japanese who went there to work on the sugar plantations have later come to the mainland seeking higher wages or better opportunities for independent farming or business than were offered in the islands. Still others, when the Japanese Government discouraged emigration to the continental United States, emigrated to Hawaii as a stepping-stone to the Pacific coast. It has been reported that 20,641 Asiatics, of whom perhaps 300 were Koreans and less than 75 Chinese, departed from Hawaii for the mainland during the four years January 1, 1902. to December 31, 1905. The figures, by shorter periods, are as follows: TABLE 3.-Departures of orientals from Hawaii to the mainland.

The number of Japanese who came during the years 1906 and 1907 also was large. According to the Hawaiian Board of Immigration the number of Japanese departing from that Territory to the mainland during the year 1906 was 12,227. The corresponding figure for 1907 was 5,438, of whom 5,149 were adult males, 198 adult females, and 91 children. As a result of the President's order of March 14, 1907, issued in accordance with section 1 of the immigration act approved February 20, 1907, excluding from the continental United States "Japanese or Korean laborers, skilled or unskilled, who have received passports to go to Mexico, Canada, or Hawaii, and come therefrom," the corresponding number for the calendar year 1908 was only 69. Thus the number of Japanese coming to the mainland from Hawaii during the seven years, 1902– 1908, was more than 37,000, as against 46,779 who immigrated from Japan or other countries during the seven years, July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1908. A third element is found in those who crossed the Canadian or the Mexican border without permission of the officials connected with the Bureau of Immigration—a matter discussed later in this report.

The great majority of the Japanese immigrants have come to this country when young men, a smaller number when they had become older but had failed in business or found their prospects as farmers

a Third Report of the Commissioner of Labor on Hawaii, Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 66, September, 1906, pp. 378-379. These figures, with those to follow, cover fairly accurately Japanese immigrants regularly admitted to the continental United States since the last census was taken, save those who came from Honolulu during the six months July 1 to December 31, 1901.

First Report of the Board of Immigration to the Governor of the Territory

of Hawaii, 1908.

Second Report of the Board of Immigration to the Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, 1909, p. 17.

¿ Ibid.