Research on Come Japanese Story

Student’s Name
Institution’s Name
Course Name
Date: 12th August 2011
Introduction
Mobility of human beings is an important social phenomenon demonstrating freedom and dynamism in a society. Social mobility is movement from one specific place to another with an aim of improving the living standards. They come with occupational mobility induced by changing industrial trends in the world. This principle also applies to human immigration from one nation to another. Following industrial revolution in Europe and America, many people considered immigration as an important social aspect (Bryan 2). “Millions of people therefore migrated to Britain, South America and North America where societies comprise of immigrants. “Most immigrants from Japan were exceptional because they illustrated labor force mobility” (Bryan 2). This research therefore presents analysis of the immigration trends and purpose of the Japanese in the early 20th century. In addition it also elucidates the characteristics and contributions made by the Japanese immigrants to the North America.”
Revealing Otsukas’s Truth
The story ‘Come Japanese’ brings an introduction of how Japanese were brought to the U.S via mail order. The women were brought in as brides for men they did not know. These “women left their husbands and families to embark on a journey without knowing their destination and time it would end” (Bryan 3). This happened is in the early 1900s and most of the women on board did not know anything about America apart from the history they learnt. From the women’s conservation whether they would like the men they are to meet and the new lifestyle they are to begin, Otsuka tries to bring the truth about their new lives in America and whether they will love their new jobs (Bryan 5).
The promised husbands and luxurious lives is total irony of what they were to get on arrival in America. Most of the textile firms in North America were both America and Japanese owned situated in San Francisco (Witsch 161). Most of the Japanese already in America were barred from becoming American citizen so the women in the boat never new the misfortune ahead of them. The Americans in the boat were sent to bring them in as slaves to the American farms and industries (Bryan 5). According to Otsuka, the anxiety of these women showed how they waited for new jobs with better living standards. In the early 20th century, Japan had several problems. This was as a result of the explosive population growth resulting from its modernization and industrialization. The Japanese government was worried of keeping the population of the country stable and thus chose to export its citizens as laborers in America (Witsch 162).
Relevant Aspects of Japanese Immigration to North America
Just before the 1900, most Japanese lived in Hawaii before the modernization of Japan. The modernization came along with unemployment and increased bankruptcy together with civil disorders which led to Japanese migrating to Hawaii. “Most of the Japanese livings in Hawaii were single men who came in as laborers and farmers” (Bryan 22). They migrated to North America as sojourners and not as settlers because the American law did not allow them to settle in America. The American legislation on contract laborers changed in Hawaii in the year 1900 when America took over the island. This led to the importation of many more laborers from Japan (Bryan 22-3).
The contract to import Japanese laborers was then voided but never stopped thousands of Japanese from entering American mainland. This however did not stop Hawaii from being the main point of concentration for most of Japanese in North America especially US (Grams and Farrell 197). Most Japanese lived in Hawaii than American mainland because there were less issues of racism as compared to mainland. Because of the significant difference in number of Japanese in Hawaii and Mainland, the government of Japan stopped issuing passports to their citizens to move to the US. This law was however ineffective in controlling the final destination of Japanese immigrations (Bryan 19).
Before 1910, the native-born Japanese were many in Hawaii than in American mainland. The native born Japanese remained numerous in number compared to the foreign born Japanese in America. This percentage rose in the year 1930 when the foreign born Japanese were now over 80% of the total Japanese living in the island of Hawaii. In the American mainland, the native Japanese number still surpassed that of foreign born Japanese (Asakawa 69).
After the federal law stopped Chinese from entering America, Japanese were imported into America to construct railroads. These immigrants came from Hawaii and Japan. “The Japanese played a major role in the construction of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Oregon Short Line plus other rail road in the Columbian River Basin” (Bryan 15). Japanese immigrants in major American cities provided housing, food and social facilities to new Chinese immigrants. Some came in to sell Japanese goods to Chinese merchants. In early 20th century, some Japanese immigrants into ...