Module 2: Building Homes and Community in the Shadow of Two Empires (1885–1941)
Why did many Japanese Americans retain a strong sense of ethnic identity and community after being in the United States for multiple generations?
In 1906, as Kumemaro “George” Uno stepped off the boat in Seattle, Washington, he was both excited and a little scared. Just nineteen years old, he had come to America in search of greater opportunity at the urging of Christian missionaries. He was one of thousands of migrants from Japan who had come to either the continental United States or to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi—both before and after its annexation by the US—since 1885.
In this module, we learn about these migrants who settled in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and their struggle to make a place in America. Beyond issues with language and culture that all immigrants faced, Japanese immigrants and their American-born children also faced stinging racism and were burdened by international events that eventually saw their countries of origin and of settlement come to war.
What drove the first waves of migration to Hawaiʻi and the United States?
How did anti-Asian racism shape the lives and decisions of Japanese migrants?
What was the geography of Japanese American communities?
