Los Angeles Issei

Abstract

An historical study of the Japanese of Los Angeles from 1900 to 1942, the volume at hand presents a novel interpretation of prewar Japanese American history. The book is, in the author's own words, “an account of the accommodation of one minority to racist America, and some of the benefits and costs implied by that minority's strategies” (p. 190). The theme is derived from an analysis of the Japanese immigrants' occupational distribution. The Issei commenced to enter southern California at the turn of the century as Los Angeles was undergoing a period of economic expansion and population growth. There they found employment in “niches” left open to them at the “fringes” of the local economy. Agriculture was the most prominent niche in which the Japanese specialized in the production of fruits and vegetables, crops that demanded intensive labor with a “high profit-to-capitalization ratio.” Of secondary importance within agriculture were horticulture and floriculture in which the Japanese also found employment. Outside of agriculture, they entered smaller niches, among them the fishing industry on Terminal Island in Los Angeles harbor. This occupational pattern is attributed to the Issei's “accommodation” to a sharp color line drawn by white Los Angelenos. A racial barrier barred the Japanese from other occupations and enforced residential segregation on them as well. Circumscribed severely by the barrier, the Japanese chose the niches instead of contesting the color line to breakdown the barrier. Stereotypes of the Japanese, according to the author, included certain “positive traits” which depicted them as an industrious, diligent, and preserving people with whom white Americans were unable to compete. Once ensconced in the niches, the Japanese exploited the “opportunities” in them by living out the positive stereotype. Through hardwork and industry, they achieved a measure of success within set limits.