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​Discrimination and Violence Against Asian Americans ​in the 20th Century 

Brief Background 
The discrimination against what is now collectively known as the AAPI population in the 19th century continued into the 20th century. In 1913, California enacted the Alien Land Law, barring Asian immigrants from owning land or renting it for more than three years. A decade later, the 1924 Oriental Exclusion Act, as part of the 1924 Immigration Act, banned all Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people from immigrating to the U.S.

Based on the 1924 Oriental Exclusion Act, except for Filipino nationals, Asian immigrants were denied citizenship and naturalization and prevented from marrying white Americans or owning land. The reason for the exception of Filipino nationals was due to the Spanish-American War. In 1898, under the Treaty of Paris, defeated Spain transferred its colony of the Philippines to the U.S., and rather than acknowledging the Philippines’ declaration of independence, the U.S. annexed the Philippines. For the next three years, Filipino nationalists fought against America, seeking independence instead of a change in colonial rulers, without success. During the 1920s, single Filipinos migrated in large numbers to the West Coast to work, providing cheap labor. However, in 1935, the Tydings-McDuffie Act was passed, limiting an annual quota of fifty on Filipino migration. 
 
In Asia, Japan continued to expand its imperialistic influence, and in July 1941, the U.S responded to the growing power of Japan by seizing all Japanese assets in the U.S. The U.S. also put an embargo on sales of oil and scrap metal to Japan. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. ​About two months after the attack, an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced into what was then called “internment camps,” where men, women, and children endured harsh conditions, discrimination, and violence. ESJF’s intern Esmé Lee-Gardner researched gender and race-based discrimination in particular that incarcerated multiracial Japanese Americans faced at the camps. Read below.​
lesson plans and resources
___________________________________________________
Treatment of Biracial Japanese Americans During Japanese American Incarceration of the 1940s 
Esmé Lee-Gardner
 
Rates of interracial marriage between white Americans and Asian Americans have continued to rise in the modern era, attributed to both the easing of white prejudices toward Asians as well as the length of time Asians have lived in the U.S. This has led to an increase in the population of multiracial Asians.[1]  However, often throughout U.S. history, those with Asian ancestry haven’t been given a choice in how they identify with or express their race.
 
During World War II, white Americans forced Japanese Americans into concentration camps based on their ancestry. While the War Relocation Authority (WRA) ordered all monoracial Japanese Americans on the West Coast into the camps, a small number of multiracial Japanese Americans were also incarcerated while the federal government figured out what to do with them. The government’s policy was confused and ambivalent; this group of individuals posed an inconsistency within the dominant narrative of a racial binary. The question was asked: Did these people ally more with their Japanese ancestry, or should they retain their freedom and human rights along with their non-Japanese parent?
 
Eventually, the WRA ruled that this could be answered by examining their “pre-war environment,” based on the gender of their Japanese parent. If the multiracial child’s father was white, they could leave the concentration camp and return to their Caucasian pre-war home. However, if their father was Japanese, they were said to be dominated by their father’s ethnicity, and while they were permitted to leave the prison camp, they could not return to the West Coast. For adult multiracial Japanese Americans, they could leave if they had fifty percent or less Japanese blood and could prove that their home was a Caucasian environment.[2]
 
This example provides evidence of white ideas that uphold the dominance and superiority of the white race, naming people of color as subhuman and undeserving of human rights. This human rights violation is also gendered, making assumptions about individuals’ lives based on patriarchal and masculine ideas.

[1] Spickard, Paul, et al. “What Must I Be?: Asian Americans and the Question of Multiethnic Identity.” Race in Mind: Critical Essays, University of Notre Dame Press, 2016, pp. 177–209.
[2] Ibid. 
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  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Social Justice Education
      • Advocacy >
        • International Community Outreach >
          • Chiba Korean Elementary Middle School >
            • Our First Advocacy
            • ESJF Student Art Competition
            • ESJF Statement: “After ‘Lack of Freedom of Expression?’” Shut Down to Suppress Freedom of Expression
            • Letter to Aichi Prefectural Triennale Promotion Office
          • Days for Girls International
        • Civil Society
    • Blog
    • Interviews and articles
  • Educator Resources
    • Sexual and Gender-based Violence >
      • Japanese military sexual slavery system >
        • Brief Historical Background
        • Lesson Plans and Worksheets >
          • ​In Their Own Words
          • Resistance & Collective activism
          • Denial of legal and historical responsibility
          • ​Remembering and honoring "comfort women"
          • Global plague
          • Contemporary movements towards justice
          • Worksheets
          • Puzzles
        • 2017 CA H-SS Framework >
          • Basic questions surrounding the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery System
        • Map of "Comfort Women" Memorials in the United States
        • Survivors' Testimonies & Legacies >
          • Korea
          • China
          • Philippines
          • Indonesia
          • Japan
          • Netherlands
        • Primary Source Documents: "Comfort Women" History and Issues >
          • Concerning the Recruitment of Women for Military Comfort Stations
          • Psychological Warfare Interrogation Report No. 49
          • Psychological Warfare Interrogation Bulletin No. 2
          • SEATIC Psychological Warfare Bulletin No. 182
          • G-3 Daily Dairy
          • C.B.I. Roundup
          • Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) No. 470
          • Research Report No. 120: Amenities in the Japanese Armed Forces
          • San Francisco Local History >
            • Resolutions >
              • Resolution 158-25A1
            • Chronology: Teaching "Comfort Women" History from the 1990s to Present
          • Images
        • Secondary Source Documents and ESJF Statements >
          • Secondary Resource References
          • ESJF Statement on the South Korea Court’s ruling, April 21, 2021
          • ESJF Statement on the South Korea Court’s ruling, January 8, 2021
          • International Joint Statement, August 14, 2019
          • International Joint Statement, March 1, 2019
          • International Joint Statement, October 6, 2018
          • International Joint Statement, January 7, 2018
        • Reflections on Collective Activism in SF >
          • Reflection and Chronology: Eric Mar
          • Reflection: Steven Whyte & Ellen Wilson
          • Reflection: Sung Sohn
        • International "Comfort Women" Day >
          • 30th Anniversary of Kim Hak-Soon Halmoni's public testimony >
            • Kim Hak-Soon Halmoni
        • 2000 Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery
        • 2015 "Comfort Women" Agreement
        • 2017 Special Task Force Report on 2015 "Comfort Women" Agreement between S. Korea and Japan
        • UNESCO and the "Voices of the 'Comfort Women'" >
          • Timeline
          • 2021 Youth Artwork Competition
          • 2021 Young Adult Online Campaign
        • Historic Lawsuits related to Japanese military sexual slavery before and during WWII >
          • Sung Sohn's Essay with commentaries and statement
        • YouTube >
          • First Video Footage of Korean "Comfort Women": July, 2017
          • First Video Footage of Mass Murdered "Comfort Women": Feb. 2018
          • Life as a "Comfort Woman": Story of Kim Bok-Dong
          • Meet Estelita Dy: A Filipino "Comfort Woman" Survivor
          • 2015 "Comfort Women" Agreement and Victims' Reaction
          • 2018 International "Comfort Women" Day
        • Wednesday Demonstration
        • Peace Statue
      • Sexual and medical violence against Black Americans >
        • Lesson Plans >
          • Medical Experimentation on Enslaved Women
          • Nurse Rivers
      • Conflict-related SGBV in Tigray and Afghanistan
      • Reports and Papers on SGBV & Gender Justice
    • History of and Issues Surrounding Asian Diaspora in the United States >
      • ESJF >
        • 19th Century >
          • Lesson Plans
        • 20th Century >
          • Lesson Plans
        • Today >
          • Lesson Plans
      • TACT >
        • K-5
        • 6-8
        • 9-12
      • Facing History and Ourselves
      • Fred T. Korematsu Institute
      • San Francisco Asian Art Museum
      • Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
    • Medical Atrocities and Use of Banned Weapons >
      • United States >
        • Lesson Plans
      • Asia >
        • Lesson Plans
        • Video Footage for Classroom
        • Primary Source Documents: Medical Atrocities and Ethics
        • Secondary Source Documents: Medical Atrocities and Ethics
      • Europe >
        • Lesson Plans
    • Resistance and Collective Activism >
      • U.S. Slavery
      • Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
  • ESJF Publications
    • "Comfort Women" History and Issues >
      • Teacher Resource Guide >
        • How to Order
      • Student Resource Guide >
        • How to Order
    • Medical Atrocities and Use of Banned Weapons
  • ESJF Professional Development opportunities
  • Get Involved
    • Join Our Email List
    • Donate
    • Contact Us >
      • Workshop and Lecture Request