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Immigration & Citizenship - United States

[edit] General

"The history of ethnic minorities is characterized by adversity, hard work, community initiative, heartache, triumphs, indomitable spirits and hope for the future. People of color in the United States have often been depicted as helpless victims of discriminatory practices with little appreciation of their strengths and their struggle with adversity. Like other minorities, Japanese Americans, attempted to establish themselves in the United States economically, educationally, socially, religiously and politically."
"Overseas Migration History: Japanese who migrated to the United States."
Includes interactive timeline of Japanese migration into the U.S., and a Flash animated map showing patterns of migration.
"Welcome to the Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive (CRBEHA), a project of Washington State University Vancouver, the Idaho State Historical Society, Oregon Historical Society, Washington State Historical Society, and Washington State University Pullman. Funded by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the collaborative project sought to create a database with thematic coherence that would engage online researchers in thinking more deeply about the significance of the rich primary resources available in museums, libraries, and historical societies."
On-line collections include texts, oral histories, photographs, ephemera and artifacts related to Japanese communities in the Columbia River Basin.
Incomplete version of a learning resource produced by the People of America Foundation.
"The Japanese American History Archives is an extensive, growing collection of books, periodicals, documents, maps, photographs, art and film relating to the Japanese experience in the United States from the mid-1800s, when the first Japanese pioneers set foot on American soil, to the present."
Reprint of "Shoki Zaihokubei Nihonjin no Kiroku (Memoir of early Japanese in the North America)", which compiled memoires of Japanese who lived in North America between 1902-1940. There are 36 volumes in total; 26 titles in 25 volumes of Continental North American Edition, and 10 titles in 9 volumes of Hawaiian Edition.
This article originally appeared in "O-JAPAN" (a Japanese monthly magazine, published in Vienna, Austria from 1978-1986) between 1981-83. Includes various themes, such as minorities in the United States, Sensei identity, social movement in the sixties, redevelopment of Japan towns, bilingual education, and new immigrants.
Wide-ranging bibliography of materials in all media and genres -- web sites, articles, books (fiction and non-fiction), films and videos -- on Japanese Americans.
Searchable database of genealogical data on Japanese immigrants.
"In 1924, the National Origins Act effectively closed all immigration from Japan to the United States. The "Japanese Immigration to the United States 1882-1924" web site begins the process of creating an available record of these immigrants. The site is organized around the original immigrants, usually male, their wives and children. The initial geographical focus of the site is Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, where information has been collected from manuscript censuses, cemetery records, obituaries, and local historians from the Japanese American community."
  • Ryan Minato, "Japanese Americans" (State of Washington Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs)
Includes a summarized history of Japanese migration to the United States. Based on information in Gwen Yeo (et al.), Cohort Analysis As A Tool In Ethnogeriatrics: Historical Profiles of Elders From Eight Ethnic Populations In the United States, published by the Stanford Geriatric Education Center.
"KQED EdNet, in partnership with the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation and the National Asian American Telecommunications Association, has produced an educational video short about the San Francisco Angel Island Immigration Station, with accompanying lesson plans and web-based content resources. These resources will assist teachers in understanding the issues of immigration and citizenship in a global context of migration history, identity politics, and globalization."
Part of the Progressive Era: 1890-1920s section of the Museum's web project, Picture This: California's Perspectives on American History, which teaches visual literacy through use of primary source images.
Examines the transition of Japanese American culture from the nisei to the sansei and yonsei generations.
"The passing of the nisei - children of issei, or the pioneer generation that emigrated from Japan - is epochal for a community largely defined by its immigrant roots and unique wartime experience."
Stanford University news release announcing the publication of Making and Remaking Asian America Through Immigration Policy by legal scholar Bill Ong Hing.
"Hing's book examines six communities - Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and Asian Indians - who together are nearly 90 percent of the U.S. Census classification of Asian and Pacific Islanders. He traces each group's immigration and demographic history from 1850 to 1990."
"At the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, disagreements between U.S.-born and Japanese-born members have developed into uncharacteristic confrontation."
"Before World War II, Japanese immigrants--or Issei--forged a unique transnational identity between their native land and the United States. Whether merchants, community leaders, or rural farmers, Japanese immigrants shared a collective racial identity as aliens ineligible for American citizenship, even as they worked to form communities in the American West. At the same time, Imperial Japan considered Issei and their descendants part of its racial expansion abroad and enlisted them to further their nationalist goals. Azuma shows how Japanese immigrants negotiated their racial and class positions vis a vis white Americans, as well as Chinese and Filipinos at a time when Japan was conquering their countries of origin. Utilizing rare Japanese and English language sources, Azuma stresses the tight grips, as well as the clashing influences, the Japanese and American states exercised over Japanese immigrants and how they created identities that diverged from either national narrative."
A summary of Azuma's argument was published to the Internet by the Asian Pacific American Collective History Project.

[edit] John Manjiro (Manjiro Nakahama)

[edit] Joseph Heco (Hikozo Hamada)

[edit] Arizona

The Japanese Americans in Arizona (JAAZ) Oral History Project is a joint project with The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) - Arizona Chapter, The Japanese American National Museum, Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Arizona State University, Asian American Faculty and Staff Association at Arizona State University, Arizona Historical Society and Museum and the Tempe Historical Society.
PowerPoint Presentation
Detailed census, with annotations, of the Nikkei-related holdings at the Arizona State University Hayden Library.
(Contributed by ASU APAS in their role as a Discover Nikkei Affiliate.)
This survey contains detailed information about holdings in Arizona libraries and archives related to Nikkei in Arizona. The institutions surveyed include: Arizona Department of Library and Public Records, State Archives Division; Arizona Historical Society Library, Central Arizona Division; Arizona State University Collections (includes Arizona Room, Az Historical Foundation, and stacks); Casa Grande Valley Historical Society; Glendale Arizona Historical Society Sahuaro Ranch/Manistee Ranch; Sharlot Hall, Prescott, Arizona; and the Tempe Historical Museum.
(Contributed by ASU APAS through their role as a Discover Nikkei Affiliate.)


[edit] California

[edit] Colorado

"In Colorado’s Japanese Americans, renowned journalist and author Bill Hosokawa pens the first history of this significant minority in the Centennial State. From 1886, when the young aristocrat Matsudaira Tadaatsu settled in Denver, to today, when Colorado boasts a population of more than 11,000 people of Japanese ancestry, Japanese Americans have worked to build homes, businesses, families, and friendships in the state."
"Simpson has served as the cultural and spiritual hub of Colorado's Japanese-American community for 100 years."

[edit] Florida

Images of the Yamato Colony from 1906-1950. The Florida Memory Project utilizes selected original records, photographs and other materials from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida.
Brief history of the Yamato Colony in Florida, founded in 1905.


[edit] Hawai`i

[edit] Idaho


[edit] Illinois

[edit] Chicago

The report provides data of those of Japanese descent by geography, gender, and median age for the entire state of Illinois, based on the census 2000.
Collection of images from the Japanese American community in Chicago. Festival & celebration; business; picnic, wedding & personal events.
"This book of more than 200 vintage images reveals for the first time aspects of Japanese-American life in Chicago over four generations, through the eyes of those who lived it."
  • Lesson plan: Pacific Crossings: Japanese Americans in Chicago
Created by By Diane Deckert, Baker Demonstration School, National-Louis University, Evanston, Illinois.

[edit] Indiana


[edit] Montana

"The Mansfield Foundation has produced an Emmy-nominated historical documentary about the thousands of Chinese and Japanese who came to Montana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to describing why they left their homeland and what drew them to Montana, the video features diaries, original photographs, newspapers of the day and contemporary interviews with historians and descendants to show what these Asian immigrants did in Montana, the hardships they faced, and the contributions they made to the American West."
Video oral histories of five World War II liberators, conducted by high school students at The Urban School in San Francisco. Among the subjects is George Oiye, a Nisei, who describes at length his childhood in Mountain Creek, Montana.

[edit] New Jersey

  • Ellen Nakamura, "Resettlement in Seabrook, New Jersey" (Balch Institute)
  • Seabrook at War: A Radio Documentary. Narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Written and Produced by Marty Goldensohn and David Steven Cohen. A co-production of WWFM/WWNJ, Trenton and the New Jersey Historical Commission, Department of State, 1995.
    • Review: Meg Jacobs, "Seabrook at War". The Journal for MultiMedia History vol. 2 (1999).
Includes full audio of the documentary.
"Charles H. Harrison has written a compelling study of the Seabrook Farms global village. Combining the technological history of agriculture and the social history of its labor force, Growing a Global Village offers a heartening and enlightening look at an important but little known episode in America's past."
Includes images and documents supplied by the Seabrook Educational & Cultural Center.
Profile of John Fuyuume, whose family was interned at the Gila River (Arizona) camp, and eventually resettled at Seabrook.
Brief profile of Ellen Noguchi Nakamura, the first Japanese American woman to settle in Seabrook.

[edit] New Mexico


[edit] New York

"'Issei,' or Japanese immigrants, are cultural refugees drawn to New York's creative clamor and in search of freedom for their spirits."

[edit] Oregon

Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, a Discover Nikkei affiliate, developed the history of Nikkei in Oregon from 1880 to today. Annotated bibliographies are also available.
William G. Robbins, "Political and Economic Culture, 1870-1920: Japanese in Oregon". (The Oregon History Project, 2002)
William Toll, The Self-Promotional Metropolis: Changes in Chinese and Japanese Immigration". (The Oregon History Project, 2003)
Brief summary of The Hood River Issei by Linda Tamura
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Exhibition catalog, In This Great Land of Freedom
Terry Dillman, Book Review (Newport News Times, 3/18/2005)
Kyle Odegard, Book Review (Gazette-Times, 4/7/2005)
"This web site is to preserve the story of Asians and their contributions in Western Oregon. Often these immigrants could only come, work and then be forced to leave. Almost nothing has been written about them. Yet, their labor created the network of roads and railroads that made the timber industry grow."
Personal web site devoted to the history of Asian immigrants to the Mohawk Valley region of western Oregon. Includes information on the Japanese colony on Shotgun Creek, and the Hayden Family of Ping Yang who befriended two Japanese immigrants.



[edit] Pennsylvania


[edit] Texas

"The 15,172 Japanese-Texans counted in the U.S. census of 1990 represent less than one tenth of one percent of the state's population. But through various fields, from architecture to agriculture, the physical and cultural landscape of Texas has been changed by their contributions."
Links to several family stories of Japanese Texans.
  • Thomas K. Walls, The Japanese Texans (Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas San Antonio)
  • The Photo Archive Catalog of the Institute of Texan Cultures at the University of Texas, San Antonio, includes over 150 photographs related to Nikkei in Texas; try the keyword search "Japanese" to see a selection, including many from the camps at Crystal City and Kenedy.
Web site constructed to commemorate the 100th anniversaty (in 2003) of the arrival of Seito Sabara in Houston. Includes links to numerous family histories of Nikkei in Texas.
Includes as "group r." the Japanese Texans.
"More than a hundred of the descendents of early 20th-century Japanese Texan pioneers gather on a brilliant March Sunday afternoon in the small cemetery of League City, Texas. They have come to this oak-lined cemetery to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Seito Saibara."
Profile of the Kishi Colony, founded by rice farmer and rancher Kichimatsu Kishi in 1906.

[edit] Controversy over street names: "Jap Road" and "Jap Lane"

Controversy arose in 1993 over the use of the term "Jap" in connection with various roads in Texas: "Jap Road" near Fannett, in unincorporated Jefferson County (eventually renamed "Boondocks Road"); "Jap Road" near Orchard, in Fort Bend County (eventually renamed "Moore Ranch Road"); and "Jap Lane" in Vidor, Orange County (segments renamed "Duncanwoods Lane," "Japanese Lane," and "Cajun Way" respectively). Efforts to have the names changed eventually involved the Japanese American Citizens League, the Japanese American Veterans Association, and the Anti-Defamation League.

Useful summary of the history and controversy surrounding the renaming of Jap Road, near Fannett, Texas, in 2004.
Gives historic context for the controversy surrounding the name "Jap Road," including extensive history of the Mayumi family and their foundation of the Mayumi Colony near Fannett, Texas.
  • "Texas Roads" (Japanese American Citizens League, Houston Chapter)
A collection of web links documenting efforts to rename the various Texas roads that include the word "Jap".
Web site of Thomas Kuwahara, with numerous links to articles and resources in support of the effort to rename "Jap Road" near Fannett, Texas.
The JACL site includes press coverage and other documents related to the controversy, including a useful map showing the relative locations of the two streets in southeast Texas involved in separate name disputes.
Text of the resolution adopted by the National Council of the JACL on August 13, 2004, commending the commissioners of Jefferson County for removing "Jap Road" as a place name, and supporting efforts to rename "Jap Lane" in Orange County.
Detailed account of the 12-year battle by Sandra Tanamachi to have the name of "Jap Road" near Fannett, Texas, changed.
Includes the full text of Inouye's letter to the Commissioners, included in the witness testimony heard at their meeting on July 19, 2004.
Excerpt: "In this paper I will look at a recent controversy over the renaming of 'Jap Road,' located in a small country town in East Texas. I argue that this controversy led to the creation of different communities, and that those communities produced different scales, 'local' and 'national'. From 2004 to 2005, three streets named 'Jap' in Texas all had their names changed in response to actions taken by several Japanese American and other civil rights organizations and activists. This paper will focus on the first case, which occurred in Jefferson County. This case attracted the most attention from the national media and led to the other two street names also being changed."

Newspaper coverage - Articles, listed in chronological order, may refer to any of the three streets in Texas.

Places the Texas controversy into broader perspective as one among many instances of racist place names.
The JACL confers its Edison Uno Civil Rights Award to Sandra Tanamachi for her 12-year effort to rename Jap Road near Fannett, Texas.

[edit] Utah

  • Nancy J. Taniguchi, "Japanese Immigrants in Utah". In: Allen Kent Powell (ed.), Utah History Encyclopedia. Provo: University of Utah Press, 1994.
  • Helen Z. Papanikolas and Alice Kasai, "Japanese Life in Utah". In: The Peoples of Utah. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1976.
Lengthy essay reviewing the history of Japanese immigrants to Utah, to 1975. Republished in the Utah History to Go website of the Utah State Historical Society.
"Working Together: A Utah Portfolio was a photodocumentary exhibit that was created from four years of documentary work conducted in Utah's Black, Greek, Jewish, Japanese, Mexican/Hispanic, Chinese, Italian, and Ute communities. Working Together grew out of the Oral History Institute's (OHI's) 'Ethnic and Minority Documentary project.' The purpose of the project (started in the spring of 1982) was to document the experiences, contributions, and life-styles of eight of Utah's ethnic and minority communities. Using oral histories and documentary photography by George Janacek and Kent Miles, OHI worked with the elderly of the state's above mentioned communities to preserve and present their experiences and contributions during the years 1920-1985."
Includes three photographic portraits of members of the Nikkei community in Utah.
A study of the socio-historical background of the Japanese community and its newspaper in Utah. Revision of a paper presented at the 19th Annual Conference of the Association of Asian American Studies at Salt Lake City, Utah, April 26, 2002.

[edit] Washington

  • Stan Flewelling, Shirakawa: Stories from a Pacific Northwest Japanese American Community. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.
Synopsis at Amazon.com
Excerpt: "Chapter 2. Transplants". White River Journal, October 2001.
June Arima Schumann (Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center), Book review. Oregon Historical Quarterly 104, no.4.
Jim Hirabayashi, "Jim Hirabayashi's pick: Shirakawa" (Japanese American National Museum Store)
From the Editor's Note: "[F]or Asian Pacific American Heritage Month we profile a local effort to retain the fading history of the Japanese-American community in Seattle. Through the hard work and determination of a group of activists, the area will boast a new Japanese American Cultural Center, where Japanese-American history, culture and arts will be taught to new generations. And to help ensure that the teachers of the history are preserved forever, the Seattle-based Densho project works to create oral histories from first- and second-generation Japanese Americans and share the research with the world through their Web site www.densho.org. Through this project, these stories create a living history of the optimism and then the devastation experienced by the first Japanese immigrants, who lived through pre-war racism and then the misery of the internment."
A new community resource being established by the Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington.
"The Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington, through its project, the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington, is proud and honored to present this first edition of 'Pioneering Washington Issei: 1879-1899.' ... The individuals profiled in this special Issei edition are just a few of the more than 2,000 people of Japanese descent who made their way to Washington State by 1900."
Among those profiled are the Aoki family, the Beppu family, Kyuhachi Nishii, Kojiu Kuniyuki, Masahei Watanabe and his grandson Dale, Kakuzo Kawakami, Takuji Yamashita, and Yoshio Fujimura.

[edit] Wyoming

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