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A 14 year old Japanese fisherman by the name of Manjiro is considered the first Japanese immigrant to enter the doors at Ellis Island. He came by a whaling boat. -
In 1853 the main reason the Japanese had to “immigrate” to the United States was because a US naval Commodore by the name of Matthew Perry moved his gunships into Tokyo Harbor, forcing a reclusive nation to open itself up to trade with the United States and incidentally opening the Japanese people’s eyes to an alien culture.
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Between 1866 and 1911 more than 400,000 Japanese immigrants came over to the US from Japan, and 25,000 came from the Hawaiian Islands. -
The first boat to contain Japanese immigrants from Hawaii landed in Ellis Island
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On February 8, 1885, about 900 Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii. The Japanese would quickly become one of the island kingdom’s largest ethnic groups. Today, about 14% of Hawaii’s population has Japanese ancestry.
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Most of the immigrants aboard the City of Tokyo were men. They came looking for greater financial opportunities, and quickly found work in Hawaii’s enormous sugar cane plantations. Japanese women often arrived as “picture brides,” having only seen pictures of their future husbands.
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Once the Japanese Immigrants were in America, most of them would work on railroads, fishermen or work in the Oil Industry.
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¨Having met other immigrants like myself in America, I can say that a great number of us came to our same "Oriental" identity in a similar fashion. We arrived in the United States as Japanese or Korean or Filipino, but over time we became Orientals.¨ - Alex Tizon
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¨The murder of a dozen innocent people is unquestionably a human tragedy. But that is no excuse for reacting blindly by preventing hundreds of thousands of other people from defending themselves against meeting the same fate.¨ - Thomas Sowell
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On april 18 1906 a devastating earthquake hit San-Francisco. Fires swept through many neighborhoods, including San Francisco's Japan town.