ABSTRACT
The history of the Japanese in the United States is relatively brief compared to that of other immigrant groups, but their presence had a powerful influence on political and social developments in the country over the course of the twentieth century. Although there were some Japanese living in the United States and Hawaii in the mid-nineteenth century, the first significant immigration occurred in the 1880s. Japan’s rapid modernization during the Meiji period (1868-1912) took land out of cultivation and displaced thousands of people, prompting the government to lift emigration restrictions and allow Japanese laborers to work on Hawaiian plantations in 1884. Businesses on the U.S. mainland also encouraged Japanese immigration after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped the influx of much-needed workers. Labor agents recruited Japanese workers to sign limited contracts for agricultural employment in the United States. Most contract labors were “sojourners,” or young men intending to work overseas temporarily and return to Japan with their earnings.
