ABSTRACT

On October 11, 1906, the School Board of San Francisco passed a special resolution which brought the anti-Japanese crisis to a white heat. There doubtless had been an economic basis for the early beginnings of the anti-Japanese movement in California and on the Pacific Coast. Despite the excellent intentions of Chinese Exclusion law, it actually stimulated the emigration of Japanese to the United States. California's attention was first attracted to Oriental labor in 1888 when a San Francisco shipowners' association manned several of its vessels with Japanese. Originally the Japanese had been invited by the Hawaiian Government to work on the sugar plantations. At the instigation of the newspaper, the leadership of the anti-Japanese movement now passed into the hands of union labor, which was at this time so firmly intrenched in San Francisco politics. In November Foreign Minister Hayashi announced that the Japanese government would itself restrict emigration to the United States—a promise which had been made in 1900.