Gentlemen`s Agreement of 1907 Primary Source
Concessions were agreed a year later in a six-point note. The agreement was followed by the admission of students of Japanese origin to public schools. The adoption of the 1907 agreement stimulated the arrival of “wives of images”, marriages of convenience made remotely through photos. [11] By establishing distant marital ties, women who wanted to emigrate to the United States could obtain a passport and Japanese workers in America could obtain a partner of their own nationality. [11] As a result of this provision, which helped close the gender gap within the Community from a ratio of 7 men to every woman in 1910 to less than 2:1 in 1920, the Japan-U.S. population continued to grow despite immigration restrictions under the Agreement. The gentlemen`s agreement was never included in a law passed by the U.S. Congress, but was an informal agreement between the United States and Japan enacted by unilateral action by President Roosevelt. It was struck down by the Immigration Act of 1924, which legally prohibited all Asians from emigrating to the United States. [12] From January 1909 until after World War II, anti-Japanese bills were introduced in the California legislature each year. The first law to become law was the Webb-Hartley Act (better known as the Foreign Lands Act of 1913), which limited the land leases of “foreigners who are not entitled to citizenship” to three years and prohibited further land purchases. Amendments to this Act in 1919 and 1920 further restricted land leases. Although the law does not include any mention of Asians, it is clear that “foreigners who are not eligible for citizenship” included, among others, the Japanese, a group without access to U.S.
citizenship, and the target of anti-Asian groups at the time. After the immigration issue was temporarily resolved, the two countries met to give mutual assurances about their territories and interests in East Asia. In 1908, U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japanese Ambassador Takahira Kogoro reached an agreement in which Japan promised to respect U.S. territorial possessions in the Pacific, its open door policy in China, and the limitation of immigration to the United States under the gentlemen`s agreement. The Japanese government diverted its migrant workers to their possessions in Manchuria, claiming they were not part of China. The United States, for its part, recognized Japanese control of Taiwan and the Pescadores, as well as the Japanese`s special interest in Manchuria. By repeating the position of each country in the region, the Root-Takahira agreement served to reduce the risk of misunderstanding or war between the two nations. Japan was willing to limit immigration to the United States, but was deeply hurt by San Francisco`s discriminatory law, which specifically targeted its people. President Roosevelt, who wanted to maintain good relations with Japan as a counterweight to Russian expansion in the Far East, intervened. While the U.S. ambassador was reassuring the Japanese government in February 1907, Roosevelt summoned the mayor and school board of San Francisco to the White House and persuaded them to lift the segregation order, promising that the federal government itself would address the immigration issue.
On February 24, the gentlemen`s agreement with Japan was reached in the form of a Japanese note agreeing to deny passports to workers who wished to enter the United States and to recognize the U.S. right to exclude Japanese immigrants who hold passports originally issued in other countries. This was followed by the official withdrawal of the San Francisco School Board`s ordinance on March 13, 1907. A final Japanese note dated 18 Feb. 1908 rendered the Gentlemen`s Agreement fully effective. The agreement was replaced by the Exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924. The increase in Japanese immigration, which was intended to replace partially excluded Chinese farm workers, met with concerted resistance in California. To appease Californians and avoid an open break with Japan`s rising world power, President Theodore Roosevelt brokered this diplomatic agreement, under which the Japanese government took responsibility for drastically reducing Japanese immigration, especially workers, so that Japanese-American children could continue to attend integrated schools on the West Coast. However, family migration could continue, as Japanese-American men with sufficient savings could bring women through arranged marriages (“picture brides”), their parents, and minor children. As a result, the Japan-U.S. population was more gender-balanced than other Asian-American communities and continued to grow through natural growth, resulting in increased pressure to end their immigration and further reduce residents` rights. The potential for conflict between the United States and Japan, particularly over China, prompted both governments to renegotiate.
In the 1917 Ishii Lansing Agreement, Secretary of State Robert Lansing acknowledged that Manchuria was under Japanese control, while Japanese Foreign Minister Ishii Kikujiro agreed not to restrict U.S. trade opportunities elsewhere in China. The two powers also agreed not to exploit the war in Europe to gain additional rights and privileges. Although it was not binding, Lansing saw the deal as an important step to promote mutual interests in Asia, but it proved to be short-lived. Eventually, the two nations agreed to end the Ishii Lansing Agreement after the conclusion of the Nine Powers Treaty, which they signed at the Washington Conference in 1922. This set of agreements has still not resolved all the outstanding issues. The U.S. treatment of Japanese residents continued to cause tensions between the two countries. The Alien Land Act of 1913, for example, prohibited Japanese people from owning or leasing land for more than three years and affected U.S.-Japanese relations in the years leading up to World War I. In 1915, the Japanese issued their “Twenty-One Demands” against China, in which they called on China to recognize its territorial claims, prevent other powers from obtaining new concessions along its coasts, and take a series of measures for the benefit of the Japanese economically. .
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