Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

200 • ORIENTAL EXCLUSION ACT
Japanese exporting corporations could acquire in the U.S. market.
Japan accepted the use of U.S. corporations for building urban infrastructure,
sewage systems, and highways in Japan. See also
U.S.–JAPAN TRADE CONFLICTS.
ORIENTAL EXCLUSION ACT (1924). The United States Congress
in May 1924 debated a prohibitive immigration law aimed squarely
at Japanese citizens. Passed in July 1924, it was dubbed the Oriental
Exclusion Act, and remained a sore point in Japan–U.S. relations up
until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The law provided for immigration
based on national quotas: the number of immigrants to be admitted
annually was limited to 2 percent of the foreign-born individuals of
each nationality living in the United States in 1890. On the grounds
that Asian nationals were ineligible for citizenship, the law entirely
prohibited Asian immigration. Because Congress had previously prohibited
all non–Japanese Asian immigration, the new law left little
doubt as to which nationality was being targeted. Unsurprisingly, the
Japanese government protested the new law, with Japan’s ambassador
to Washington Hanihara Masanao expressing his fear that the exclusion
act could have “grave consequences” for Japanese–American
relations.
What then were the consequences of the law for Japanese–American
relations? Certainly it was out of step with the cooperative and friendly
spirit established at the Washington Conference of 1921–1922. Recognizing
this, Secretary of State Charles Evan Hughes worried about
“what the reaping will be after the sowing of this seed.” His fears were
well founded. Foreign Minister Kijūrō Shidehara, who predicated his
diplomacy on the spirit of the Washington Conference, found himself
later in the decade under sustained attack for his “weak-kneed diplomacy.”
Although the Oriental Exclusion Act was not the sole reason for
these attacks, it did have a decisive effect in turning Japanese public
opinion against the United States. This augured poorly for those Japanese
diplomats and statesmen who sought to overcome—or ignore—
the animosity engendered by the racism of the United States Congress.
As one perceptive commentator has noted, the law left a permanent
scar on Japanese–American relations. See also IMMIGRATION; IN-
TERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS DURING WORLD
WAR II.