Asian Americans Part 7

The “Yellow Peril”: The Anti-Japanese Movement

Anti-Japanese Movement

A broad political, social, and legal campaign in the U.S. (mainly 1890s–1924) aimed at restricting, excluding, and controlling Japanese immigrants.

Context:
It grew after Japanese immigration increased and after Japan became a world power. Unlike earlier anti-Chinese racism, this movement combined fear, law, and pseudoscience to stop Japanese settlement permanently.

Xenophobia

Fear or hatred of foreigners.

Context:
Xenophobia intensified on the U.S. West Coast when immigrants were blamed for:

• Job competition

• Cultural change

• “Racial decline”

Japanese Americans were viewed as outsiders no matter how long they lived in the U.S.

Eugenics

• fear of the “colored race”

• Selecting the best stock of immigrants to pass on their natural traits: intelligence, identity, and morality…

• Improve the genetic quality of the population

• Charles Benedict Davenport:

• Defend the purity of the “American race”

• the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory → Contributed to study of eugenics

“Yellow Peril”

A racist idea portraying Asians as a civilizational threat to the West.

Context:
It framed Asian immigration as:

• Invasion

• Colonization

• Racial danger

This idea justified exclusion laws by presenting fear as self-defense.

“Die Gelbe Gefahr”

German for “The Yellow Danger.”

Context:
Popularized in Europe in 1895 through propaganda images showing Asians threatening Western civilization.
The idea spread to the U.S. and influenced American racial thinking.

German Kaiser Wilhelm II’s nightmare in 1895 on the Eastern menace

The “Die Gelbe Gefahr”, published in The Review of Reviews in 1895

The painting popularized the fear of an Oriental invasion, the “yellow peril”:

The painting was sent to European leaders and to Pres. William McKinley

Published in the London The Review of Reviews on December 12, 1895

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

The first U.S. law banning immigration based on race.

Context:

• Targeted Chinese laborers

• Set a precedent for racial exclusion

• When Chinese immigration stopped, Japanese immigrants became the new target

This law paved the road for anti-Japanese policies.

Native Sons of the Golden West (1875)

A white nativist organization in California.

Context:

• Claimed California belonged to white Americans

• Used religious and racial language

• Spread fear that California was being “Japanized”

They helped normalize racial exclusion as patriotism.

Japanese-Korean Exclusion League (1905)

A San Francisco-based anti-Asian organization.

Context:

• Demanded total exclusion of Asians

• Later renamed the Asiatic Exclusion League

• Influenced politicians and public opinion

This group turned street racism into organized political pressure.

Asiatic Exclusion League

The expanded version of the Japanese-Korean Exclusion League.

Context:
Its goal was explicit:

Preserve the “Caucasian race” by excluding Asians from America.

This language later appeared almost word-for-word in immigration laws.

Executive Order of 1907

Signed by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Context:

• Prevented Japanese laborers from entering the U.S. via Hawaiʻi, Canada, or Mexico

• Aimed to reduce immigration without directly insulting Japan

This was a quiet restriction, not a public ban.

Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1908

• Japanese workers wishing to emigrate to the U.S. were not granted visas

• Japanese Government agreed to voluntarily limit the number of passports issued to laborers; only issued to former residents, parents, wives, and children under 20

• In exchange, the United States Government agreed not to formally restrict Japanese immigration

• The California Oriental Exclusion League: Founded in Sacramento in September of 1919

  • Objectives:

    • Cancelling the Gentleman’s Agreement

    • Exclusion of picture brides and Japanese immigrants

    • Barring Asiatics from American citizenship

Japanese Immigration (data)

Key numbers:

• ~380,000 Japanese immigrated between 1885–1924

• ~20,000 picture brides (1908–1920)

Context:
Small numbers nationally, but exaggerated as a demographic threat.

Homer Lea

The Valor of Ignorance (1909)

• Predicted a Japanese invasion of the U.S.

• Claimed immigration was a military strategy

This book fused military fear with immigration panic.

Madison Grant

The Passing of the Great Race (1916)

• Claimed white Europeans were superior

• Rejected the “melting pot”

• Influenced lawmakers directly

Grant shaped immigration law more than most politicians.

Theodore Lothrop Stoddard

The Rising Tide of Color (1920)

• Divided the world into racial zones

• Warned that non-white populations threatened white dominance

• Viewed Japanese as dangerous because they were capable, not inferior

This fear made Japan especially threatening.

Naturalization Acts (1790–1875)

Defined who could become a U.S. citizen.

Context:

• Citizenship limited to white persons

• Later extended to people of African descent

• Asians excluded entirely

Citizenship laws made Asians permanent outsiders.

Ozawa v. United States (1922)

Supreme Court case denying citizenship to a Japanese immigrant.

Context:

• Takao Ozawa lived in the U.S. for decades

• Spoke English

• Practiced Christianity

• Still denied citizenship

The Court ruled that “white” meant Caucasian, and Japanese were not.

Alien Land Laws

States passed laws to stop Japanese success.

California Alien Land Act (1913)

• Japanese could not own land

• Only short leases allowed

Alien Land Law (1920 & 1923)

• Closed loopholes

• Prevented land ownership via children

• Restricted guardianship

These laws targeted Japanese specifically

Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)

Immigration Act of 1921

• First quota system

• Based on national origin

• Favored Northern Europeans

Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)

• Even stricter quotas

• Asians excluded entirely

• Japan received zero quota

This officially ended Japanese immigration