Japan and the California ProblemIyenaga, T. (Toyokichi)
History
Japan and the California Problem
Iyenaga, T. (Toyokichi)
Japan -- Emigration and immigration; Japanese -- California
This being the case, our second query--"Is intermarriage
desirable?"--appears superfluous. Indeed, had it not been for the
dangerous dogmatism inculcated by some willful propagandists that the
result of intermarriage between Americans and Japanese is "the germ of the
mightiest problem that ever faced this State; a problem that will make the
black problem in the South look white,"[43] the subject would be purely an
academic one. To allow this sort of baseless assertion to go unchallenged
is extremely dangerous, because it exaggerates an unimportant point to
misrepresent maliciously the whole question of the Japanese in the United
States.
The conclusions of able observers, such as Dr. Gulick and Professor
Millis, invariably confirm the fact that, as far as the ordinary means of
observation go, the offspring of a Japanese and American couple is in no
respect inferior to those of either American or Japanese unmixed descent.
Professor Millis states:
So far as experience shows, there is nothing inherently bad in race
mixture, if it takes place under normal conditions, and neither race
is generally regarded as inferior and the offspring therefore given
inferior rank, as in the case of the negro.[44]
From his extensive association with Japanese, Dr. Gulick has been able to
make some valuable observations on this topic. He states in his important
book, _The American Japanese Problem_:
The offspring of mixed marriages are oftentimes practically
indistinguishable from Caucasians. The color distinction is the first
to break down. The Japanese hair and eye exert a stronger influence.
So far as the observation of the writer goes, there is a tendency to
striking beauty in Americo-Japanese. The mental ability, also, of the
offspring of Japanese and white marriages is not inferior to that of
children of either race.[45]
These observations are valuable in refuting the kind of vile allegations
we have quoted. But because of the limited number of cases observed, and
the necessarily unscientific character of the observation, the utilization
of these studies must be confined to pointing out the absurdity of the
opposite extreme dogmatism and not extended to the constructive argument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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