Japanese Communities

JAPANESE COMMUNITIES Japanese communities began forming in the United States during the late nineteenth century with immigration largely in Hawaii and on the West Coast. From 1885 to 1924, some 200,000 Japanese emigrated to Hawaii and another 180,000 arrived in the mainland United States. The early arrivals of Japanese were mostly male laborers who were sojourners of fortune hoping to save their earnings and return to their homeland in three to five years. There were hardly any permanent settlements developed during these early years, as the laborers moved to different workplaces seeking better wages and working and living conditions. A major change occurred in the early twentieth century, however, that prompted the formation of insulated Japanese American communities, sometimes called “Japantowns.”