Social sciences; United States -- Politics and government -- 1909-1913
These are the principles upon which the people of the United States
should act as regards the question of the immigration of the Japanese
into this country. The Japanese are a highly civilized people of
extraordinary military, artistic, and industrial development; they are
proud, warlike, and sensitive. I believe that our people have, what I
personally certainly have, a profound and hearty admiration for them;
an admiration for their great deeds and great qualities, an ungrudging
respect for their national character. But this admiration and respect
is accompanied by the firm conviction that it is not for the advantage
of either people that emigrants from either country should settle in
mass in the other country. The understanding between the two countries
on this point should be on a basis of entire mutuality, and therefore
on a basis which will preserve unimpaired the self-respect of each
country, and permit each to continue to feel friendly good will for
the other. Japan would certainly object to the incoming of masses of
American farmers, laborers, and small traders; indeed, the Japanese
would object to this at least as strongly as the men of the Pacific
Coast and Rocky Mountain States object to the incoming in mass of
Japanese workmen, agricultural laborers, and men engaged in small
trades. The Japanese certainly object to Americans acquiring land in
Japan at least as much as the Americans of the far Western States
object to the Japanese acquiring land on our soil. The Americans who
go to Japan and the Japanese who come to America should be of the same
general class――that is, they should be travelers, students, teachers,
scientific investigators, men engaged in international business, men
sojourning in the land for pleasure or study. As long as the emigration
from each side is limited to classes such as these, there will be no
settlement in mass, and therefore no difficulty. Wherever there is
settlement in mass――that is, wherever there is a large immigration of
urban or agricultural laborers, or of people engaged in small local
business of any kind――there is sure to be friction. It is against
the interests of both nations that such unrestricted immigration or
settlement in mass should be allowed as regards either nation. This
is the cardinal fact in the situation; it should be freely recognized
by both countries, and can be accepted by each not only without the
slightest loss of self-respect, but with the certainty that its
acceptance will tend to preserve mutual respect and friendliness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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