Week 6 Reading Response

We are still finishing up "A Different Mirror" by Ronald Takaki. This week, we delved into the Asian-American experience, particularly the Chinese and Japanese (and some Filipino) and their separate struggles in the Western United States.

Chapter 8 recounted the Chinese experience in regards to the reasons behind their immigration to the U.S. and the work and jobs that they were able to procure. Planned as the main site of commerce to the trade close to the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco needed laborers to build railroads and agriculture. Differing from the experience of other immigrants such as Eastern Europeans, Irish, and, later, Mexicans, the United States welcomed Chinese immigrants and labor. During the mid-1800s, labor was needed to expand transportation across the Pacific states and the Chinese were seen as the perfect labor force due to their perceived docility. Chinese people were also seeking refuge due to hardships experienced in their home land. They experienced similar hardships as the Irish: British colonialism, poor economic conditions, high taxes, natural disasters, and starvation. The United States promised equal opportunity and the accumulation of wealth. Most of the migrants were able-bodied men sent by their families and wives to work and send money back home.

Chinese immigrants found new homes on the West Coast, particularly California and Oregon. In 1870, a forth of California's Chinese population made homes in San Francisco. It would be interesting to find out how many Chinese currently living in San Francisco are descendants of this initial wave of immigrants. Referencing the San Francisco Bay Area, Takaki put a lot of the history into perspective for me. I was able to imagine what the landscape looked like in the San Francisco of the 1800s: the beginning of Chinatown, the new railroads, the burgeoning businesses, and the gold miners looking to strike it rich.

Of course, earlier sentiments of acceptance turned sour once white Americans had to compete for gold and jobs with Chinese. Racist laws such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act were enacted and the Chinese were unable to become citizens or inter-marry. When the economy slowed at the end of the 1800s, many Chinese laborers found themselves excluded from traditional work. This led to self-employment in Chinese-owned businesses such as laundries

I found the struggle of Chinese women particularly heartbreaking. Due to Chinese culture, the men could move to the U.S. to find work and had to leave their families and wives back in China. This strategy insured that the son would send money back since he didn't have his wife with him and couldn't start a new family in the States. An 1875 law banned the entry of Chinese prostitutes but the language was such that even wives could not enter. Despite the law, many Chinese women were forced into prostitution. Chinese prostitutes. the victims of "double discrimination" (much like their Japanese counterparts), led lives of dismal prospects. Many became opium addicts, suffered from sexually-transmitted diseases, beaten by their customers or owners or committed suicide due to despair. It's easy in my modern mindset to wonder why these women didn't try to improve their lot in life, but honestly, they had no other choice. Even if they were freed from bondage, they still faced innumerable hardships due to their sex and race.

It's strange that the San Francisco earthquake could be seen as a catalyst for good, but the subsequent fires destroyed most municipal records and opened the floodgates for a new wave of Chinese immigrants. Many of these new immigrants could claim that they were U.S. citizens, born in China to American parents, and bring their wives with them. These immigrants were no longer looking to toil in the U.S. and then return to China. No, they wanted to stay for good.

In Chapter 10, Takaki outlines the Japanese immigrant experience, especially in relation to their labor in Hawaiian sugar cane fields. From 1885-1924, 200,000 Japanese emigrated to Hawaii and another 180,000 moved to the mainland. Unlike the Chinese culture, Japan encouraged the emigration of women. In Japan, women could work in heavy industrial labor such as coal mines, construction, and textile mills. They were also encouraged to seek an education. English was a required class in many Japanese schools so new Japanese immigrants mastered the dominant language prior to their move.

In comparison to the Chinese experience, the Japanese life in Hawaii almost seems ideal. Although they had to toil in the sun working on sugar plantations, they were often paid a fair wage and had the support of both their fellow countrymen and family. Their existence didn't seem as lonely as the Chinese bachelor.

It was difficult for new Japanese immigrants to find work in more specialized or skilled fields. Racism was a huge factor in the bureaucratic hierarchy of many plantation. The skilled and prestigious jobs automatically went to whites, while the menial jobs were reserved for Japanese, Filipino, and Portuguese.

Filipino and Japanese workers formed the Hawaii Laborers Association together, in pursuit of better wages and benefits, despite ethnic differences. This truce was short lived at the time since plant owners used the time-honored tradition of pitting different elasticities against each other to distract them from their common enemy.

Second-generation Japanese kids were encouraged to gain an education despite suppression efforts from plant owners to keep them ignorant. Like the Mexicans, the Japanese were encouraged to quit school before high school since educated people would seek better careers than plantation labor.

When compared to the openly racist attacks the Japanese had to endure in the mainland, Hawaii seemed like a safe haven for different elasticities. Unlike the continental U.S., it seems that from early on, Hawaii practiced multiculturalism. This spirit lives on in the present. One of my close friends that is Chinese proclaims her love for Hawaii because she isn't a minority.

I would have liked to learn more about the native Hawaiians and whether Hawaii's unique melting pot is due to the preservation of their culture or because of the influx of a vast array of Asian peoples. Takaki doesn't specify in this chapter.

Overall, I felt less angered by this week's readings. Perhaps I'm becoming used to the tools of dominant American sentiment at this time. Or perhaps there was a spread of the idea of greater acceptance of all races. I know that this had yet to be realized in the years leading up to World War II (especially the concept of internment camps) but slowly, the tide started to change towards grasping the purist ideals of the United States.