Monday, June 29, 2009

A Book "Poem of San Mateo" - 4

Now I feel like writing a little bit of Japanese immigration history. The policy of immigration first appears in Japanese Government Policy in 1869. The policy was in summary the one promoting people to go abroad to help themselves. US and Brazil were 2 major destination recommended. The background of this policy was the fact that Japanese Government that time found that self-sufficiency of food was not enough for feeding all Japanese.

Always there are irresponsibility of the government involved in this kind of policy. The policy written in square old style Japanese was basically saying that "Hey, look, Japanese government cannot be sure it feed all population. So, those who want to survive should get out of Japan and find the way to feed yourself."

It does not look like the picture taken on
Post Street, San Francisco

1869 was the first time when Japanese Agricultural Mission of Immigration arrived Gold Hill, Colma, California. 20 Japanese were engaged in agriculture. They were welcomed as an industrial growth after Gold Rush faded. Due to some bad decision in agricultural promotion, the land dried up and all of them were gone but 2.

It still set fire to the ambition of young Japanese people. They are young enough to ambitious to try their luck to be successful in foreign countries. They felt that Japan was too small for them, just like I did. There are 3 major destination. US, Brazil, and China. After a while the Foreign Adaptation Policy was continued, the countries where these Japanese people had immigrated started to be annoyed. Then US tried to control or restrict Japanese immigration around 1910. This change of policy course backfired and illegal immigration became dreams of young and ambitious Japanese people.

Teijiro, the father of Fujie was one of them.


Related posts:
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-poem-of-san-mateo-3.html
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-poem-of-san-mateo-2.html
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-poem-of-san-mateo-1.html

Check my websites to find out what I am doing:
http://vur.me/shawfunami/main
http://vur.me/shawfunami/SF
http://vur.me/shawfunami/zi


Feel free to contact me:
shaw@zhenintl.ws
Shaw Funami
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4 comments:

Marketing Unscrambled, Home edition said...

Shaw,
we had a problem with illegal immigration even back that far. This is a place that others have had dreams of coming to for a long time.

We did not know the things that you told us about, so thank you for the new knowledge. Keep it coming it is fun to learn about other places and things.

Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

Unknown said...

Hi Dan & Deanna,

I am glad you having fun knowing my ethinicity side of the story related with US. Yes, US has been always my dream. And it is so for many people in Japan. Many historical facts were the ones I did not know either. It is interesting to learn about them.

Thank you for your comment!
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Shaw .. interesting historical background to the Japanese policy .. I'm surprised to learn that Japanese were 'kicked out' to take their life elsewhere. I suppose we did the same ..shipping out the criminals, and unwanted to the new world .. look what we've all got - America, Australia etc!!

All the best
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters

Unknown said...

Hello Hilary,

It was a sad historical fact that Japanese were sent to foreign countries because Japan did not have enough self sufficiency. Import was not enough to feed all people. And then, there were issues with the countries where immigrants were sent. It was vicious circle that time.

Thank you for your comment.
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link