ABSTRACT
As previously noted, the Japanese Americans are a tiny population of about one-half million (including Hawaii), thinly spread across the United States. Figure 4.1, based on U.S. Census data, shows that in 1900 only five states on the mainland (Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California) had 1,000 or more Japanese American residents, and only California had 10,000 or more. By 1920 the Japanese Americans were still largely located in the Pacific Coast states, but they had branched out in large numbers into three additional states (Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado) and into one Eastern state (New York), each reporting from 1,000 to 10,000 Japanese American residents. Twenty years later, in 1940, the Japanese American population had diminished to less than 1,000 persons in the states of Montana and Wyoming, but had increased to over 10,000 in Washington, which thus became second only to California in the number of Japanese American residents within the continental United States.
