Asian American History

By Licenselessrider

  • Burlingame Treaty

    "The more groundbreaking articles included measures that promised the Chinese the right to free immigration and travel within the United States, and allowed for the protection of Chinese citizens in the United States in accordance with the most-favored-nation principle. Another article gave the citizens of the two nations reciprocal access to education and schooling when living in the other country" (Office of the Historian, The Burlingame-Seward Treaty).

  • 1870 Naturalization Act

    "The Naturalization Act of 1870 put controls on U.S. immigration and limited naturalization to “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent” “whites” thus excluding all Asians from receiving citizenship" (American Immigration Center, Asian American History Timeline, 2013).

  • 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

    "The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few nonlaborers who sought entry to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. But this group found it increasingly difficult to prove that they were not laborers because the 1882 act defined excludables as “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining.” Thus very few Chinese could enter the country under the 1882 law"(Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources, Chinese Exclusion Act, 1989).

  • Formation of Japanese and Korean Exclusion League/Asiatic Exclusion League

    "The Asiatic Exclusion League was formed in San Francisco, marking the official beginning of the anti-Japanese movement. Among those attending the first meeting were labor leaders (and European immigrants) Patrick Henry McCarthy and Olaf Tveitmoe of the Building Trades Council of San Francisco and Andrew Furuseth and Walter McCarthy of the Sailor's Union. Tveitmoe was named the first president of the organization"(Japanese American Network, A Short Chronology of Japanese American History, 1993).

  • Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907

    "[A] U.S.-Japanese understanding, in which Japan agreed not to issue passports to emigrants to the United States, except to certain categories of business and professional men. In return, President Theodore Roosevelt agreed to urge the city of San Francisco to rescind an order by which children of Japanese parents were segregated from white students in the schools" (Encyclopedia Britannica, Gentlemen's Agreement, 2015).
  • Period: to

    World War I

  • 1917 Immigration Act

    "One of the key aspects of the 1917 Act was that people from what was called the Asiatic Barred Zone were restricted from entering the country. “Any country not owned by the U.S. adjacent to the continent of Asia” along specified longitudes and latitudes were restricted from immigrating" (Tucker and Creller, 1917 Immigration Act).

  • 1924 Immigration Act

    "The Immigration Act of 1924 created a national origins quota which limited the number of immigrants by country and excluded all immigrants from Asia" (US Immigration Center, Asian American History Timeline, 2013).
  • Period: to

    World War II

  • Pearl Harbor Bombing

    "That "day of infamy," December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, marked the end of an era and the beginning of another. A watershed in U.S. and Japanese history and in the relations between both nations, World War II was also a dividing line for Japanese Americans" (Okihiro, Impounded, 2006).

  • Executive Order 9066

    "December 7, 1941, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor. Two months after the attack on February 19, 9142, President FDR issued Executive Order 9066 that gave the US Army permission to exile 120,00 Japanese-Americans from the west coast and relocate them into what President Roosevelt himself called, "concentration camps""(Daniels, 2002).

  • Establishment of War Relocation Authority

    "On this day, the War Relocation Authority is created to “Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war”"(History.com Staff, War Relocation Authority is established in United States, 2009).

  • Second War Powers Act

    "The Second War Powers Act of 1942 opened naturalization to many immigrant groups, removing requirements of such as age, race and enemy alien status. The Act was created with intentions to naturalize persons serving in the U.S. military during World War II" (US Immigration Center, Asian American History Timeline, 2013).

  • Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act/Magnuson Act

    "This act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, established quotas for Chinese immigration, and allowed Chinese nationals in the U.S. to become naturalized citizens. Furthermore, due to the establishment of the quota, an increase of Chinese immigration became allowable. Chinese were allowed to enter the United States and Hawaii in numbers calculated according to Section 11 of the Immigration Act of 1924" (Manji and Utama, US immigration legislation online).

  • Korematsu v. United States

    "Korematsu had been arrested by the FBI for failing to report for relocation and was convicted in federal court in September 1942. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a sharply divided 6–3 decision, upheld Korematsu’s conviction in late 1944. The majority opinion, written by Justice Hugo Black, rejected the plaintiff’s discrimination argument and upheld the government’s right to relocate citizens in the face of wartime emergency"(History Matters, Korematsu v. United States).

  • Ex parte Endo

    "In the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision on Ex parte Mitsuye Endo in December 1944, the court ruled that "citizens who are concededly loyal" could not be held in War Relocation Authority concentration camps. The ruling led to Japanese Americans being allowed to return to the West Coast and to the closing of the camps" (Densho Encyclopedia contributors, Ex parte Endo, 2015).

  • War Brides Act

    "Enacted on December 28, 1945 the War Brides Act allowed the immigration of all non-Asian spouses, natural children and adopted children of U.S. military personal. Asians who had served in the military, excluding Japanese, during the war were given the option of becoming U.S. citizens"(US Immigration Center, Asian American History Timeline, 2013).

  • Closing of Tule Lake

    "Tule Lake became an armed camp with a prisoner curfew, barrack-to-barrack searches, and a near complete cessation of normal daily activities. Martial law was declared on November 14, leading to months of repression and hardship" (Densho Encyclopedia contributers, Tule Lake, 2015).