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Period 1: Labor and Discrimination
This period is marked by the labor intensive jobs Asian americans usually held which included the building of the transcontinental railroads,lumbering, fishing, farming, working in canneries and factories, operating laundries and restaurants,and serving as shopkeepers, carpenters, houseboys, maids, and gardeners. -
Hawaii becomes a US territory
Hawaii became a US territory and in the ensuing years some 30,000-40,000 Japanese immigrants move from the sugar plantations in Hawaii to the west coast of the US. -
Segregation
The San Francisco School Board ordered Japanese and Korean students to a segregated Chinese school. -
Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907-1908
American and Japanese governments negotiated the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907-1908, in which the school board would rescind its order of forced segregation in schools and Japan would bar laborers from leaving for the United States, while allowing nonlaborers, former residents, and family members of current residents to do so. -
1919 Federal Survey of Education in Hawai'i
It was intended to provide a "firsthand study of local conditions" conducted by national education leaders to share their expertise with local authorities so that "children of all the people may be prepared for national life." School surveys, which flourished from the late 1910s to 1920s, were both an instrument of progressive educators and a reflection of the movement's values (Asato, 2003). But really it was just a way to further colonialism. -
1924 Immigration Act
The 1924 Immigration Act prohibited the entry of all Asians. The law was aimed at the Japanese because a 1917 statute had already excluded other Asians. -
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Period 2: WWII
Thousands of Japanese Americans were incarcerated in internment camps such as Heart Mountain. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is attacked by Japan, effectively bringing the US into WWII and furthering anti-Japanese sentiments, especially on the west coast. -
Incerceration
The United States Government decided to incarcerate the Japanese-American population on the west coast. The federal agency known as the War Relocation Authority (WRA) was created as the custodial authority of what it called "impounded people," to use concepts created by progressive educators in setting up the schools behind barbed wire that eventually served more than 30,000 children, almost all of them American citizens (Asato, 2003). -
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Period 3: Loosening Immigration and Naturalization Laws
This period is marked by several acts that were passed, loosening immigration and naturalization laws. While racism certainly still existed, this period also saw a decrease in the intensity of racism toward Asian groups. -
McCarren-Walter Act
The McCarran-Walter Act—partly influenced by the heroic efforts of Japanese American soldiers during WWII—allowed Japanese and other Asians to apply for naturalization. During this period, immigration restrictions were loosened and mainly Chinese and Japanese entered the United States (Tamura 2001). -
Brown V Board of Education
While generally thought of in terms of African American education, Brown v Board of education nevertheless had a profound effect on the education of children of all races. -
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Period 4: Post 1965 Immigration Act
During the early 1960s, interest in Asian American studies began to emerge. By the late 1960s, Asian American activists on college campuses-inspired by the civil rights and Black Power movements, and fueled by the anti-Vietnam war protests--demanded courses on their own history and culture. These courses later developed into programs in Asian American studies, which increased in the 1980s and spread in the 1990s (Tamura). -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
The Immigration and Nationality Act was focused on immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and gave little thought to Asia. However, because of a provision in the Act that allowed for family reunification, millions of Asians immigrated (Tamura, 2001).
