Japanese American history: an A-to-Z reference from 1868 to the present

Abstract

On June 19, 1868 a ship sailed into Honolulu harbor carrying 148 Japanese men, women and children. Contract laborers brought in to work American-owned Hawaiian sugar plantations, these were the first of over 300,000 immigrants from Japan who settled mostly in Hawaii and California between 1868 and 1924. Their American descendants today number over 750,000 and live in every state. Japanese Americans have played an important and largely unrecognized role in American history. Japanese American History is the first encyclopedic reference work documenting their story. The lack of an accurate historical interpretation of their experience has resulted in depictions of Japanese Americans that range from the blatantly racist (yellow peril) to the patronizing (model minority). Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, other Americans became unwilling to distinguish them from the enemy, and as a result more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes to concentration camps - a mass internment that lasted three years. Only in the last 20 years has a more complete story begun to emerge. A new generation of scholars has focused on the experience of the Japanese Americans themselves. Using Japanese-language sources, oral histories and other previously neglected material, these scholars have illuminated the world of issei labor leaders, nisei soldiers, nikkei women writers and many others. Achievements and contributions by individuals in virtually every field are noted here. Japanese American History brings this material together for the first time, in an accessible and comprehensive reference format. There are four sections: a chronology of major events in JapaneseAmerican history in historical context; more than 400 A-to-Z entries on significant individuals, organizations, events and movements; a thorough bibliography including all major works on Japanese Americans; and an illuminating historical overview by Professor Gary Okihiro, a dist