Today in History - Oct 11 - The Segregation of Japanese Students

October 11 is the anniversary of the day that San Francisco ordered The Segregation of Japanese Students in 1906. Of course this was done for absurdly racist reasons, and Chinese immigrants had been subject to this for quite some time. However, Japan was in a much better place than China at the time, and this sparked a diplomatic incident.

The US had been coveting their land for quite some time. Although Japan was forced into a relationship with the USA, they had kept their sovereignty thus far, and were a rising power. They'd signed treaties with the US that guaranteed the same rights for Japanese people as US citizens within the US. They'd recently won a war with Russia (which shocked the western world), and the US president Theodore Roosevelt of course wanted to keep the US' hooks in Japan. So he had this to say:

"To shut Japanese students out from the public schools is a wicked absurdity"

Fine words, and he did indeed put a stop to the segregation. But behind the scenes, he worked out a "gentleman's agreement" with Japan. Under the agreement, Japanese labourers would no longer be allowed to emigrate to the US, but family members of existing immigrants would still be allowed. This of course led to a massive bump in human trafficking. Over 10,000 Japanese women were imported as mail order brides. Discrimination of Japanese people was still widespread. California banned new immigrants from owning land. Congress explicitly made laws to keep non-white people from immigrating. Thus the Japanese problem was solved.

Theodore Roosevelt's cousin-nephew Franklin Roosevelt would later round up anyone of Japanese descent and put them in concentration camps.