Is the Japanese menace in America a reality?

Reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,

Philadelphia, January, 1921.
Publication No. 1490.

N. AMES]

Is the Japanese Menace in America a Reality?

By Kiichi Kaiszaki
General Secretary, The Japanese Association of America, San Francisco

IN recent years, and particularly the object of the discussion that is to

during the past twelve months, a follow,
very great deal has been said concern- First of all, it must be fully recog-

ing a Japanese menace in America, nized that there is a real distinction

Does such a menace in fact exist? To between the Japanese question in the

find the answer to this question will be Far East and the Japanese question in

♦

2

The Annals of the American Academy

America; and that the latter, being
entirely domestic, is wholly separate
from and independent of the former.
Comment on the alleged militaristic
and bureaucratic form of government
of Japan and discussions of Japan's
policy toward China and Korea, the
Shantung and Siberian questions and
the Korean problem, should by no
means include, as being in any way
related to, the Japanese question in
America. It is regrettable, therefore,
to observe that the anti-Japanese
propagandists have deliberately inter-
mingled the Far Eastern question with
the domestic one, with resultant con-
fusion and misunderstanding. How-
ever, the student and the statesman
appreciate that as these two questions
are separate and distinct in magnitude
and significance, each must be ap-
proached with a different attitude and
met with a different policy of solution;
for the Japanese in America have
begun to develop a distinct social
consciousness, and have commenced
to solve their problems here with the
aid of the American people and in
conformity with American spirit and
ideals.

Recognition of the Japanese prob-
lem socially and politically began in
America about the year 1900. The
typical attitude of that day finds ex-
pression in the retiring message of
Governor Gage of California, which
gave warning of an incoming of Japa-
nese immigrants who were similar in
the quality of inferiority with .the
Chinese, and who maintained the same
low standards of wages and living. But
that attitude soon changed, and with
Japan's successful emergence from the
war with Russia, America commenced
to recognize the different and superior
qualities of the Japanese as compared
to the Chinese. President Roosevelt,
in a message to Congress, made special
mention of this matter, and although he

by no means favored a rapid mingling
of the American and Japanese races,
he remarked the advantages that
might accrue from mutual contact and
friendly relations.

Thus, the attitude toward the Jap-
anese has changed with the passing of
time, and since the new outburst of
an ti- Japanese agitation, and particu-
larly since early in 1919, a new position
has been taken, namely, that the
Japanese are unassimilable, and hence,
undesirable, despite their generally
admitted good qualities. Thus we
find a lack of rationality in anti-
Japanese criticism because of the
radically different and contradictory
arguments that have been advanced.
This changing and contradictory ten-
dency to a considerable extent reflects
the superficialness and weakness of the
argument and attitude of the anti-
Japanese agitators who, in their ca-
pricity and to influence the indifferent
and uninformed public, have used
different arguments at different times
and for different occasions. For ul-
terior purposes which, being usually
political, have been designed to ad-
vance their own personal selfish ends,
these individuals have sought to prej-
udice the public against the Japanese.
Such being true, it is vitally impor-
tant that the arguments of anti-Japa-
nese propagandists be carefully ex-
amined; and for the sincere student of
the Japanese question a scientific
consideration of all the facts must
precede any final conclusions. In the
following statement, for the benefit of
those who are honestly interested in
the Japanese question, I shall endeavor
to present the true facts and treat them
in a scientific manner.

For the purpose of discovering what
the actual degree of the so-called
menace may be I will treat of the
population, birth-rate and economic
activities of the Japanese in this

Is the Japanese Menace in America a Reality?

3

country; and as two-thirds of all the
Japanese in continental America live
in California, I will use California facts
and statistics as typical of the whole
situation.

Japanese Population

In an attempt to prove that in the
Japanese population there is ground
for alarm, much eloquence, great
exaggeration and ridiculous miscalcula-
tion has been indulged in, but when the
subject receives the careful analysis
that is its due, nothing is found to
occasion alarm. The census of 1910
gives the Japanese population of
California as 41,356, and according to
the census of 1920, it is now 70,196, an
increase of about sixty-five per cent.
Meanwhile, the total population of the
state has increased about fifty per cent,
or from 2,250,000, approximately, in
1910, to 3,426,000 in 1920. It is true
that the California State Board of
Control has estimated the present
Japanese population of the state as
87,279, but this is admittedly only an
estimate, while the figures of the
Census Bureau are based upon actual
and accurate enumeration and must,
necessarily, be accepted as official.
However, even admitting the estimate
of the Board of Control to be correct,
the increase of Japanese population in
California is in no sense alarming for,
with no abnormal influences at play,
the total state population has increased,
as we have seen, approximately fifty
per cent during the same period. Upon
the other hand we find that abnormal
conditions prevailed among the Jap-
anese in 1910, for at that time men
above the age of maturity greatly pre-
dominated, and women and children
were comparatively few in number,
the actual figures showing that the
men were more than five times as
numerous as the women. Since then,
and up to the year 1919, approximately

13,000 women have been added, so
that only today is the Japanese popu-
lation approaching a normal condition.
In other words, the increase in popula-
tion since 1910 has been due principally
to the increase of wives, hence, of
children. With Japanese population
approaching a normal state, and with
the strict observance of the "Gentle-
men's Agreement," which practically
bars any increase through new arrivals,
growth of Japanese population will be
slight and will furnish no just ground
for fear.

Birth-Rate

The high birth-rate among the
Japanese in California has furnished
one of the main arguments of the
anti-Japanese agitators. Mr. V. S.
McClatchy, for example, has by fool-
ishly conceived figures sought to show
that a continuance of the present
birth-rate will mean that in the near
future the Japanese in California will
outnumber the whites. Such argu-
ments, being almost wholly imagina-
tive, have no practical relation with
actuality, and are designed only to
appeal to the more ignorant masses by
arousing fear and excitement. Neces-
sarily, they are valueless to the scien-
tific investigator. Even the report of
the State Board of Control which shows
the Japanese birth-rate to be 46.44
and that of the whites to be 16.59,
respectively, per thousand population,
has furnished no scientific basis for
comparison. Such elementary facts as
sex distribution, marital conditions, age
group and age composition, intellectual
status and social environment, have
not been supplied; nor has there been
made any comparison between the
birth-rate of the Japanese and that of
other immigrant races, or that obtain-
ing among the whites of the same age
group, intellectual status and financial
condition. It is obvious that before

4

The Annals of the American Academy

any authoritative comparison can be
made the foregoing data should be
assembled and carefully examined;
and in this connection, the State
Board of Control virtually disclaims
its own comparison in the following
pertinent statement:

"If it were possible to select, for more
accurate comparison, those white married
women who were on a social, economic and
intellectual status similar to that of the
Japanese, the disparity in birth-rate would
undoubtedly be less marked."

But granting for the sake of argu-
ment that in the past the Japanese
birth-rate has been high, there is still
nothing unnatural or abnormal about
it, for history of all immigration shows
that the birth-rate and death-rate of
every new immigrant group have at first
been high, but that as prosperity and
higher standards of living have come to
prevail, as the immigrant group has
adapted itself to the new environment
and different conditions of life, the
birth-rate has steadily declined. Also,
nearly all immigrants come from large
families and hence their first generation
is biologically prolific. Furthermore,
the Japanese immigration, Jike that of

joined by, their wives. In this con-
nection, the statistics show that by the
end of 1919 there were approximately
10,000 more Japanese women in Cali-
fornia than there were in 1910. In
other words there are now about 15,211
Japanese wives here, most of whom
came here at the age of the greatest
fecundity. Under these circumstances,
a comparatively high birth-rate was
natural and could have been avoided
only by unnatural methods of birth
control. And there must be consid-
ered, also, the influence of the new
environment, the different physical,
social and economic conditions, all
of which have made for an easier life
and have, therefore, tended to increase
the birth-rate. Even so, it is by no
means as abnormal as has been claimed,
and the mendacity of the frequently
repeated assertion that Japanese
women in California have given birth
to a child each year, on the average,
is established by the following table
appearing in the report of the State
Board of Control.

Moreover, a high birth-rate is not a
racial trait of the Japanese, and as
those in this country emerge from
their present status, as they are doing

Percentage of births to the total births

in California

Year

No. of Women

Births

Japanese

Whites

1910

6,362

719

2.24

96.13

1915

10,000

3,342

6.95

91.26

1916

11,500

3,721

7.35

91.38

1917

13,500

4,108

7.87

90.59

1918

14,500

4,218

7.54

91.17

1919

15,211

4,378

7.82

90.86

all other nationalities, was at first
almost wholly of men who, having
pioneered in the new land and set up
homes there, have sent for, and been

very rapidly, their birth-rate will
undoubtedly recede to the normal.
At any rate, we can not with reason or
propriety judge the future by the

Is the Japanese Menace in America a Reality?

5

past; and with the productivity of the
Japanese women decreasing with their
increasing age, and with new arrivals
practically stopped through the cessa-
tion of picture-bride immigration, it is
not too much to say that in the very
near future there will be a marked
decline in the Japanese birth-rate.

Agricultural Activities of the
Japanese

The agricultural activities of the
Japanese have been widely commented
upon and made the basis of an effort
to prove that farm land in California
is rapidly passing into Japanese owner-
ship or control. The actual facts in
this regard are particularly illuminat-
ing, serving as they do to refute an-
other of the favorite accusations of the
anti-Japanese agitators. The total
land area of California amounts to
98,000,000 acres, of which 28,000,000
is farm land. Of this, the Japanese
own or are buying on contract, indi-
vidually and through American-Japa-
nese corporations, 74,769 acres, and
lease, or operate under crop contracts,
383,287 acres. Thus it appears that
the total farm land occupied by the
Japanese is no more than 1.6 per cent
of the total, and that the amount
owned by them and, hence, controlled,
is less than one-third of one per cent
of the vast farm land area of the state,
relatively nothing more than a mere
handful. As to the character of the
farm land owned by the Japanese,
without going into detail, suffice it to
say that it is rich and productive — as
has been charged— but that it has
been made so by the incessant toil of
the Japanese who, in most instances,
took land either abandoned or regarded
as practically useless by others, and
made it highly productive.

Assimilation and the Inner Quali-
ties of the Japanese

In bringing this discussion to a

consideration of the social and inner
qualities of the Japanese in America,
we come to the most important phase
of the Japanese problem, namely, the
question of assimilation. The allega-
tion that the Japanese are non-assim-
ilable is the central argument of all
of the an ti- Japanese propagandists; it
is, in truth, almost their sole gospel.
Nevertheless, they have never yet
even explained what it is that they
mean by assimilation, nor have they
given reasons for their assertions.
Even Governor William D. Stephens,
of California, in a recent public letter
was content to speak of the "ethnolog-
ical impossibility of assimilating the
Japanese people," without giving any
reasons to support such a contention.

Assimilation may be defined, for
practical purposes and without much
emphasis upon its dogmatic phases, as
that art or process by which one is
brought into a resemblance, harmony,
conformity or identity with regard to
others. More specifically to our case,
it means adjustment to the new con-
ditions and adaptation to the social,
political, industrial and cultural in-
stitutions, both traditional and actual,
of America. If this is what assimila-
tion really implies, then the whole
question boils itself down to how far
and to what degree the Japanese have
been and can be assimilated. Indeed,
nothing final can be said on the ques-
tion for it is one of relativity not of
absolutism and a perfect assimilation
can only be measured by Father Time.

Physical Assimilation

The whole question of assimilation
naturally divides into two phases,
namely, physical and cultural. The
physical assimilation of any race is
difficult to measure or to definitely
determine, but the fallacy of such an
assertion as that "the Creator made
the two races different, and different

6

The Annals of the American Academy

Japanese Children in Japan and America
Comparative Study of Weights Between the
Children of American Born Japanese and Jap-
anese Children in Japan.

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JAPANESE CHILDREN IN AMERICA — *-*— BOYS GIRLS

JAPANESE CHILDREN IN JAPAN — i— I— BOYS GIRLS

AMERICAN CHILDREN BOYS GIRLS

they will remain," has been convinc-
ingly demonstrated even by the Immi-
gration Commission. It is now fully
recognized that the social, economic
and political conditions of America
have gradually changed the habits,
living customs and modes of thought of
the European immigrants who thus
become Americans. Even physical
changes affecting height, weight, the
cephalic index, color of hair, etc., have
been definitely established. These
changes now are taking place also
among the Japanese immigrants.
Their hair, formerly jet black, is toning
toward the brown and their skin is
losing its darker pigment, while in
stature and weight there has been a
marked proportional gain; and al-

though there has been no such careful
study as would permit of announcing
a final conclusion, certainly it can be
postively stated that such racial differ-
ences as exjst between the Japanese
and the whites, even if they do tend to
discourage a rapid amalgamation, by no
means prevent even physical assimila-
tion, and that in this connection the
Japanese immigrants are in no different
position from all other immigrants.
The charts here shown, based upon and
comprising figures obtained from the
Children's Bureau of the United
States Department of Labor, the
Japanese Educational Association of
America, and the Educational Depart-
ment of the city of Tokio, Japan,

Japanese Children in Japan and America
Comparative Study of Heights Between the
American Born Japanese Children and Japanese
Children in Japan.

XAGE

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JAPANESE CHILDREN IN AMERICA — *—*— BOYS GIRLS

JAPANESE CHILDREN IN JAPAN — I — 1 — BOYS GIRLS

AMERICAN CHILDREN BOYS GIRLS

Is the Japanese Menace in America a Reality?

7

serve to graphically portray the physi-
cal changes taking place in the Japa-
nese in America.

Cultural Assimilation

As to the cultural assimilation of the
Japanese in America the results are
more thoroughly apparent. For in-
stance, take the American-born Japa-
nese children. They speak English
almost entirely, and in their customs,
spirit and mode of thought are far
more American than Japanese. They
have little desire even to visit Japan,
for America is indeed "home" to them,
and their love for America and ad-
herence to its ideals is established by
the eagerness with which they have
joined and are joining the Boy Scouts
of America and kindred organizations.

During the Great War the American-
born Japanese young men of the
requisite age admirably demonstrated
that through them runs a devout love
for the stars and stripes and America.
Highly encouraging results are found
also among the adult Japanese resi-
dents, who, by their ideas — social,
economic, political and cultural — have
demonstrated their complete conver-
sion to the American ideal. No better
proof of this can be found than the
almost unvarying tendency of those
who go to Japan to soon become dis-
satisfied there and return to America,
and of the firm determination of al-
most all of the parents to educate
their children in America as Americans,
useful for America's future. Again,
their mode of living, their ideas, in fact
their entire philosophy, are being
Americanized so profoundly that they
find no difficulty in performing their
new civic duties and conforming to the
American legal system. Their devo-
tion to America is further evidenced
by the willingness, yes the eagerness,
with which they bought their full quota
of liberty bonds, war savings stamps,

etc., and made their generous contri-
butions to the Red Cross and other war
charities. The Japanese are also
rapidly conforming to the spiritual
ideals of America for, except in rare
instances, the observance of Sunday is
part of their life, and their homes and
home customs are rapidly improving.

The foregoing short survey furnishes
generous proof of cultural assimilabil-
ity, and that the Japanese are racially
as assimilable as any other people
is abundantly evidenced by the rapid-
ity with which Japan has adopted and
adapted herself to modern Western
civilization. Asserting that the Jap-
anese are assimilable, that, indeed, they
have proved it, we must explain why
the process of assimilation has been so
slow. With no desire to deny fault on
our own part, it nevertheless must be
stated that the main reason for the
slowness of the process is to be found
in the barriers that prejudice and
intolerance have set up against the
Japanese. Social discrimination, such
as excluding Japanese from certain
residential districts; legal discrimina-
tion, such as the various land laws and
the denial of the privilege of citizen-
ship; the inhibition of intermarriage, —
all these are barriers that certainly
most seriously retard the process of
assimilation, and unless they are dissi-
pated and the doctrine of exact equality
is established, the whole question of
assimilation will be difficult of per-
manent solution. That the Japanese
,are not really an undesirable people,
that they are in truth worthy to
be assimilated finds indisputable proof
in the very statements of the anti-
Japanese agitators who preface their
adverse arguments by admitting freely
that the Japanese are sober, orderly,
peaceful, industrious and enterprising,
and in no way inferior to the Caucasian
race. Are these not desirable quali-
ties? Are they not those things which

8

The Annals of the American Academy

are commonly called virtues? And,
admittedly possessing these character-
istics, are not the Japanese wholly
worthy of being assimilated? Then
why not take a positive step in this
direction? Why not make them a
desirable integral part of American life
and transform them into a valuable
asset instead of permitting mistreat-
ment and discrimination to make of
them a liability to themselves and to
the whole American people? Let ra-
tionalism rather than foolish senti-
mentalism rule.

Intermarriage
In considering the important ques-
tion of intermarriage it is well to
emphasize that, though closely related,
it is not an absolute condition of
assimilation. Beyond doubt there is
intimate relationship between them,
but that assimilation is entirely possi-
ble without intermarriage is fully
evidenced by the Japanese students in
America. The physical and mental
characteristics, of the progeny resultant
of intermarriage shows the complete
biological possibility of it; in fact the
results are in no way dissimilar to
those occurring from the ordinary
inter-racial marriage. On the whole,
however, the question of marriage
between Americans and J apanese is one
largely of the attitude of the people
directly concerned, and through social
expediency it will gradually solve
itself.

Working Hours and Wages

That the Japanese are willing to
work longer hours and accept lower
wages than the whites is by no means
a true statement. Figures gathered
in twenty-two counties show that
while in some instances the Japanese
accept a lower wage, in others they
demand a higher one, and that the
general average of the hour and wage
scale is practically the same between

the Japanese and the whites perform-
ing the same kind of work. In this
regard there is often a failure to dis-
tinguish between Japanese farm hands,,
and Japanese who own their own farms
and who, like many American farmers,
work as long hours as they desire.

Standard of Living
The Japanese standard of living,
although it may have been low in the
past on account of economic conditions,
is not generally so today. As the
Japanese in America have prospered
they have steadily raised their stand-
ard of living, for their natural tendency
is to enjoy life as much as possible, and
a low living standard is not a racial
trait. In other words, the standard of
living is directly connected with the
earning power of the Japanese, and as
the latter increases, the former rises
proportionately, and compares more
than favorably at all times with the
standard prevailing among other immi-
grant groups. With the dissipation of
prejudices and the removal of restric-
tive and discriminatory environmental
barriers, the Japanese standard of
living will rise until it equals that
obtaining among average Americans.
In any event the question must be
measured relatively, not positively, and
to deal justly with it, comparisons, if
any, should be made with the new
immigrant groups and not with the
higher developed and more refined
peoples.

Japanese Language Schools

The Japanese language schools have
occasioned a great deal of misunder-
standing and aroused much adverse
criticism: misunderstanding has arisen
because the public has not known their
purpose; and adverse criticism, because
the agitators have claimed that such
institutions teach only Japanese ideas
and customs, and loyalty to the
Empire of Japan. The real purpose of

Is the Japanese Menace

these schools, however, is to teach the
Japanese language to children who
show a marked preference for and
adaptability toward English, in order
that the connecting tie between the
parents (who naturally have difficulty
in speaking and understanding Eng-
lish) and the children may not be
destroyed. Sever this tie, and the
parent must suffer, for it is mainly
through the child that he becomes
acquainted with and agreeable to the
customs and institutions of American
life. It is upon this basic idea that
the Japanese language schools exist.
The fact that many of them employ
American teachers for the smaller
children and that they are revising
their text-books to conform to Ameri-
can principles furnishes proof that their
teaching and precepts are not other
than loyal to America, and evidences
the fact that these schools, far from
being a bar, are of genuine aid to the
" process of Americanization. The aver-
age attitude of the Japanese parent
is to so bring up his children that
they will make the best of American
citizens, participating in American life
and contributing their distinct share to
this cosmopolitan civilization.

Religious Training

The religious training of the Japa-
nese is not being neglected, and in this
there is a well-recognized tendency
toward the Christian religion, Bud-
dhism being rapidly on the wane among
the second generation, particularly.
There are only twenty-five Buddhist
Temples in all of continental America,
while on the Pacific Coast, exclusive of
Canada, there are sixty-one Protes-
tant Japanese churches, besides a num-
ber of Catholic churches, and all of
them are gaining in membership and
strength. Also, few of the Japanese
born here accept other than the Christ-
ian faith.

in America a Reality? 9

The Japanese Association of
America

An organization that is devoted to
raising all. of the standards of the
Japanese in this country and of gen-
uinely aiding Americanization is the
Japanese Association of America with
headquarters at San Francisco, which
has been in existence since 1900. It
has a membership of 16,000 Japanese,
all of whom recognize and approve the
principles and purposes of the organiza-
tion. It has taken the lead in all
movements designed to promote a
better understanding between the Am-
ericans and the Japanese here, and to
inculcate in the hearts and minds of
the latter a devotion to and an under-
standing of the spirit of America. .

Immigration

The question of Japanese immigra-
tion is one that should be considered
carefully, but not confused with ques-
tions which concern the treatment and
the Americanization of the Japanese
already here. With picture brides
barred and the practice of yoshi
adoption discontinued, and with the
"Gentlemen's Agreement" functioning
satisfactorily, Japanese immigration is
really nothing to worry over. The
increase of the Japanese, through
immigration, since the adoption of the
"Gentlemen's Agreement," has been
slight and due, even then, to the abnor-
mal condition of the Japanese com-
munity. With conditions in that re-
spect rapidly approaching the normal,
there is no occasion for alarm. Even
so, the Japanese people and the Japa-
nese Government are willing to make
honest and reasonable concessions to
the end that the immigration problem
may be solved.

In concluding, let me say that if we
study the question of the Japanese in
America along the lines of this discus-
sion, the actual situation will not be

10

The Annals of the American Academy ,

found to constitute a menace of any-
kind to America; and, moreover, on
account of careful regulation of immi-
gration, there is no possibility of a
menace ever arising.

In spite of the criticisms of the anti-
Japanese agitators, and the prejudices
thereby aroused, the Japanese in
America, heeding the teachings of their
leaders, are most sincerely endeavoring
to so order their lives as to conform to
the economic, social and spiritual ideas
and institutions of America. There-
fore, the real and fundamental problem
is how to make the Japanese already
here an integral part of American
society. In this regard, the attitude
and program of the anti-Japanese
agitators would furnish nothing that
would work to the ultimate good of the
commonwealth. Instead of such agita-
tion, America should meet the prob-
lem with an attitude predicated on the
policy of how to Americanize and
assimilate the Japanese that are here,
so that they may not be left as a
foreign and isolated group in America.

This, of course, means granting to
those who are qualified the rights and
privileges of American citizenship.

The Solution

In suggesting a solution we must
distinguish between the question of
future immigration and the matter of
the treatment of the Japanese now
here. As to immigration, it may be
advisable to impose further restrictions
either by revising the "Gentlemen's
Agreement" or adopting some method
similar in principle to the Gulick plan;
or the whole matter might be left to
the action of a Joint High Commission.
But whatever the method, it should be
frank and friendly and free from dis-
crimination. As to solving the ques-
tion that particularly concerns the
Japanese now here, that can only be
done, as I have already stated, by
granting to those thoroughly quali-
fied therefor, by virtue of length
of residence, character and education,
the full rights of American citizen-
ship.