Matsumoto's Philosophy Of Asian-American Citizenship
Plato's philosophy towards citizenship, in simplest terms, is an implicit decision between state and resident to obey all institutions inherent in a society. "Decisively did you choose us and agree to be a citizen under us." And such is the way that Asian Pacific Americans, a term coined not more than forty years ago, choose to tackle prejudice, ignorance, and greed throughout their four hundred year history. Citizenship is defined as broadly as: "Democracy" by Manuel Buaken, "loyalty" per Mike Masaoka, and "equality" according to Amy Uyematsu. Asian Americans always resort to accepted means within American society to pursue favorable ends. Despite a stacked deck, Alien Land laws prohibited alien ownership of land, the Immigration Act
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of 1924 all but cut off the flow of Asian immigration, cases like the 1854 trial of The People v. Hall which prohibited Asian testimony in court, and blatant racism, Asian Americans in the mid-20th century to the present persist, using techniques employed by their predecessors: public interest and education, organization, and the legal system, to challenge inequality in an attempt to balance the scale and reclaim what is rightfully theirs the right to equal citizenship. Organization, whether forced into "racial enclaves" or into labor alliances, movement in numbers is a force used to combat inequality. Labor organizations have been a mainstay method of shifting inequality. During the 30's, labor leaders such as Carlos Bulosan worked organized parties such as the Filipino Workers' Association that organized successful strikes such as the Salinas Lettuce Strike of 1933; it was "something powerful growing inside me. IT was a new heroism: a feeling of growing with a huge life." Other labor leaders such as Karl Yoneda from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee of Southern California "signed over a thousand workers among Mexican, Filipino and Japanese strawberry, tomato and bean pickers and conducted strikes for 25 to 35 cents pay and union recognition" creating a consolidated power base. Labor unions like these served to solidify Asian American rights, as citizens, to equal wages and working conditions.
By organizing and creating leverage through numbers and consolidation, Asian Americans greatly increased their bargaining power. Taishi Matsumoto mourns his situation in 1937. He feels trapped in his current employ as a carrot washer with no chance of upward mobility. There are "no inspired Messias, no strong organizations to whom I can appeal not only for myself, but for others like me." As an individual he merely remains stagnant. Organization and the coming together of individuals create a strong voice, which he lacks, and therefore is unable to combat inequality or to instill change. Whereas labor unions improved wages, working conditions, and hours, the single effort of Matsumoto changes nothing. Therefore, labor organization is a key factor in Asian American history in attempting to assert the rights of citizenship. Other organizations, social organizations, such as the Chinese Six Companies (also known as the CCBA) or the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA), provided a familiar environment while consolidating capabilities as well. Whether it be a supporting causes in China, bringing Chinese news, or creating public opinions and a fundraising base, social organizations such as these were instrumental in providing …show more content…
a solid constituency for overcoming obstacles. During the early stages of the Cold War when China became Communist, the Chinese Six Companies set up an Anti-Communist League to influence American popular opinion. "The primary aim of the league was to let the American people know that the Chinese are not communists" (Liu). Indeed, the Six Companies had enough influence to not only create but also to support the League. The League was created to combat a negative stereotype. This stereotype was the root of many racially motivated policies, such as the push for deportation of Chinese immigrants, federal harassment, and the Confession Program. The fear of Communism lead to rather stringent enforcement of the Confession Program, deporting many paper sons and daughters, if one person was caught, "his whole family will be affected because probably they didn't have the proper papers either. So they'll go from you, to the uncle who brought you in, his wife, and it goes on and on." (Woo). The INS used strong-arm tactics such as court charges to solicit and drive away Chinese Americans. The CCBA worked with other organizations and the CACA throughout this period, 1957-1966, to lobby Congress and to vote and write Congressional representatives and instigate legislative reform (Zhao). Because of the lobbying effort lead by social organizations created a reevaluation of the Confession Program and reformed the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, which created a quota system based on nationally, into the 1965 Immigration Act, which was far more equal. The efforts of the social organizations not only mobilized a segment of the Asian American population, but also produced sweeping changes in immigration policy, evening out the playing field with other immigrants. This resulted in a more equal opportunity for all immigrants to come to America. Furthermore, this was one big leap for it created a just chance to gain citizenship for all. The Third World Liberation Front, a social organization formed during the 1960s, inspired by the Black, Chicano, Native American Power movements lead Asian Americans to stop focusing on assimilation and more on taking pride in your community (Shah). Taking and improving on their predecessors' legal and political course, they also began to look at all dispossessed people including elderly and other minorities. It transcended the need to fit into what was considered American to be a citizen and became a realization that Asian American were already, in a large part, citizens and just as much a part of what America is as any other ethnicity found there. This was not so much a landmark in the legal or political sense, but that of the Asian American mentality and awareness in America. Therefore social organizations possessed enough power to unite Asian Americans to create social change towards equality. Organization within the Asian community, whether social or labor oriented, have effected great changes towards creating an equal and just base for Asian immigrants, aliens, and citizens. Public sentiment and education have long been an instrument in the toolbox of Asian American public image and treatment, extending long roots from turn of the century Chinese foreign minster Wu Tingfang who was quite active in his pursuit to turn the negative tide American sentiment and policy against Chinese immigrants (Wong) to Syman Rhee's diplomatic attempts at gaining American support for Korean independence (Kim). Labor and social organizations play an important role, but individual forming informal units to appeal to American sentiment also deeply affect policy. The Golden Venture debacle exposed to underbelly of human smuggling and the exploitation of illegal immigrants. By staging a hunger strike, the detainees of Kern County jail have revealed the transgressions of human rights faced by illegal immigrant detainees such as those faced by Quing Cai, which the "prison guards had placed her in solitary confinement in an effort to force her to eat, a charge that prison officials have denied." Held for over two years in a prison, they publicize their plight through a hunger strike to generate public opinion. In fact this is very effective for it reaches national news and grabs front pages. Beyond revealing their situations, they also establish a clamor for justice and civil right adherence because of the public outcry. In the future, these events will no longer be a precedent, but a basis for future actions and policies. Amy Uyematsu illustrates in The Emergence of Yellow Power in America that racism is a psychological construct. Furthermore, inspired by the Black Power movements happening concurrently, Asian Americans must claim their minority status and be proud of not only who they are, but also to teach society to accept their influences and backgrounds as this movement was concurrent with the Third World Liberation Front. "White America justifies the blacks' position by showing that other non-whites yellow people have been able to "adapt" to the system. The truth underlying both the yellows' history and that of the blacks has been distorted." Her piece, published in 1969, is representative of the Asian movement. The coming together of the youth, brandishing signs (425) and wielding hunger strikes lead to the creation of ethnic study departments throughout the nation. This shaped the course of education and the presentation of history in America. No longer was history only the War of Independence or Little House on the Prairie, no longer was Asian American history left to footnotes in textbooks, history was the War of Independence and the importation of fine bone china. History was Little House on the Prairie and the Page Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act o f 1882, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, picture brides, Organic Law, strikes and lawsuits, internment, railroads, "boat people," lost Hmong fathers, J. Loo, and Vincent Chin. These are the changes inspired by the very public outcry from Asian Americans to the rest of America, "freedom from racial oppression through the power of a consolidated yellow people." On June 19, 1982, mistaken for a Japanese American in Detroit where anti-Japanese sentiment was going full tilt, Chinese Vincent Chin was beaten to death by baseball bats outside of a bar. With his unfortunate demise, Vincent Chin's family and friends turned his death into a crusade to educate the public about existing social inequalities. By turning this event into an image and the image into a cause, they created a wave of public sentiment concerning the failings of the legal system and everyday prejudice towards "model minorities." The fact that these men were merely slapped on the wrist and then acquitted by the justice system incited a ripple in American consciousness (Shah). People of various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds joined together in a synchronous effort to justly punish hate crimes. Thus, because Chin's family used him as an image, an idea larger than just one death, to initiate a shift in public perception and standards, they did their part in not only giving injustice a face, but fostering an environment towards balancing the unequal treatment bestowed upon him by his country of citizenship. By creating a cause, stirring up public opinion, and education Asian Americans bolster their rights as equal standing citizen in America. They legitimize their citizenship by drawing attention to injustices and appeal to others to gain ground in attaining rightful ground. The cases of the 1872 California Civil Procedure Code which overturns a former ruling that Chinese cannot give testimony and Kim Ark Wong in 1898 which set a precedent of the unstrippable birth right of those born in America are hopeful indications, though the legislation and rulings which harm Asian American equality far outnumber the positive, that through the legal system recourse is available to Asian Americans.
Never is this more eloquently illustrated than during the Japanese internment. Hirabayashi, a conscientious objector to the internment procedures utilized by the government, breaks the curfew set by Public Proclamation #1 and turns himself into the authorities and is arrested and conviction was upheld in the courts on the basis that Japanese Americans are not truly Americans because they are unassimilable and set themselves apart from mainstream society. The case of Korematsu, a man who deliberately evaded evacuation orders, despite being rejected from a previous attempt to enlist, went to the Supreme Court. The main point of contention was whether or not the evacuation was Constitutional; it was found to be legal due to military necessity and Korematsu was convicted. In the case involving Endo, who broke no laws and did not initiate her case, she was illegally detained because she was not a military threat. The day before the judgment, the evacuation was rescinded. The case of Endo passed unanimously (Shah). Asian Americans not only respected the legal
system set forth in American law, but whole-heartedly embraced the process. With every injustice, Asian Americans demonstrated a proclivity towards challenging indiscretions and attempting to right wrongs through the legal system. Though rarely successful, the successes proved to be landmark moments in the Asian American quest for their full rights as citizens. In the case of internment, no other immigrant from Axis powers, Germans or Italians, were treated as sweepingly as the Japanese. During his testimony before the House Select Committee Investigating Defense Migration, JACL representative Mike Masaoka states, "If, in the judgment of military and Federal Authorities, evacuation of Japanese residents from the West coast is a primary step toward assuring the safety of this Nation, we will have no hesitation in complying with the necessities implicit in that judgment. But, if, on the other hand, such evacuation is primarily a measure whose surface urgency cloaks the desires of political or other pressure groups who want us to leave merely from motives of self-interest, we feel that we have every right to protest and demand equitable judgment on our merits as American citizens." "Are we to be condemned merely on the basis of our racial origin?" asks James Omura in front of the same committee. Motivated by these feelings of injustice, the Japanese Americans chose to take protest through the legal system, which proved effective eventually leading to the dissolution of the internment camps. The legal system proved to be a legitimate and powerful way for Asian Americans to tip the scales back towards a course of equality. Through unity and collaboration, an appeal to educate and influence public opinion, and through legislation and the court system, Asian Americans from the mid-20th century to now have challenged unequal citizenship. Though progress has been slow, it has been steady. From being criticized by California's foremost historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft in 1890 as: "the color of their skins, the repulsiveness of their features, their undersize of figure, their incomprehensible language, strange customs and heathen religion" and denied basic rights such as naturalization and the right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to a being segregated, quotaed, and prosecuted, to now, when it is wildly unimaginable that any of the past legislation of denial of citizenship would be condoned, in the last century alone, Asian Americans have come a long way. Through the process laid by their predecessors, it can only be hoped that this course will continue steadily throughout the rest of American history. Or better yet, become a non-issue.
of 1924 all but cut off the flow of Asian immigration, cases like the 1854 trial of The People v. Hall which prohibited Asian testimony in court, and blatant racism, Asian Americans in the mid-20th century to the present persist, using techniques employed by their predecessors: public interest and education, organization, and the legal system, to challenge inequality in an attempt to balance the scale and reclaim what is rightfully theirs the right to equal citizenship. Organization, whether forced into "racial enclaves" or into labor alliances, movement in numbers is a force used to combat inequality. Labor organizations have been a mainstay method of shifting inequality. During the 30's, labor leaders such as Carlos Bulosan worked organized parties such as the Filipino Workers' Association that organized successful strikes such as the Salinas Lettuce Strike of 1933; it was "something powerful growing inside me. IT was a new heroism: a feeling of growing with a huge life." Other labor leaders such as Karl Yoneda from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee of Southern California "signed over a thousand workers among Mexican, Filipino and Japanese strawberry, tomato and bean pickers and conducted strikes for 25 to 35 cents pay and union recognition" creating a consolidated power base. Labor unions like these served to solidify Asian American rights, as citizens, to equal wages and working conditions.
By organizing and creating leverage through numbers and consolidation, Asian Americans greatly increased their bargaining power. Taishi Matsumoto mourns his situation in 1937. He feels trapped in his current employ as a carrot washer with no chance of upward mobility. There are "no inspired Messias, no strong organizations to whom I can appeal not only for myself, but for others like me." As an individual he merely remains stagnant. Organization and the coming together of individuals create a strong voice, which he lacks, and therefore is unable to combat inequality or to instill change. Whereas labor unions improved wages, working conditions, and hours, the single effort of Matsumoto changes nothing. Therefore, labor organization is a key factor in Asian American history in attempting to assert the rights of citizenship. Other organizations, social organizations, such as the Chinese Six Companies (also known as the CCBA) or the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA), provided a familiar environment while consolidating capabilities as well. Whether it be a supporting causes in China, bringing Chinese news, or creating public opinions and a fundraising base, social organizations such as these were instrumental in providing …show more content…
a solid constituency for overcoming obstacles. During the early stages of the Cold War when China became Communist, the Chinese Six Companies set up an Anti-Communist League to influence American popular opinion. "The primary aim of the league was to let the American people know that the Chinese are not communists" (Liu). Indeed, the Six Companies had enough influence to not only create but also to support the League. The League was created to combat a negative stereotype. This stereotype was the root of many racially motivated policies, such as the push for deportation of Chinese immigrants, federal harassment, and the Confession Program. The fear of Communism lead to rather stringent enforcement of the Confession Program, deporting many paper sons and daughters, if one person was caught, "his whole family will be affected because probably they didn't have the proper papers either. So they'll go from you, to the uncle who brought you in, his wife, and it goes on and on." (Woo). The INS used strong-arm tactics such as court charges to solicit and drive away Chinese Americans. The CCBA worked with other organizations and the CACA throughout this period, 1957-1966, to lobby Congress and to vote and write Congressional representatives and instigate legislative reform (Zhao). Because of the lobbying effort lead by social organizations created a reevaluation of the Confession Program and reformed the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, which created a quota system based on nationally, into the 1965 Immigration Act, which was far more equal. The efforts of the social organizations not only mobilized a segment of the Asian American population, but also produced sweeping changes in immigration policy, evening out the playing field with other immigrants. This resulted in a more equal opportunity for all immigrants to come to America. Furthermore, this was one big leap for it created a just chance to gain citizenship for all. The Third World Liberation Front, a social organization formed during the 1960s, inspired by the Black, Chicano, Native American Power movements lead Asian Americans to stop focusing on assimilation and more on taking pride in your community (Shah). Taking and improving on their predecessors' legal and political course, they also began to look at all dispossessed people including elderly and other minorities. It transcended the need to fit into what was considered American to be a citizen and became a realization that Asian American were already, in a large part, citizens and just as much a part of what America is as any other ethnicity found there. This was not so much a landmark in the legal or political sense, but that of the Asian American mentality and awareness in America. Therefore social organizations possessed enough power to unite Asian Americans to create social change towards equality. Organization within the Asian community, whether social or labor oriented, have effected great changes towards creating an equal and just base for Asian immigrants, aliens, and citizens. Public sentiment and education have long been an instrument in the toolbox of Asian American public image and treatment, extending long roots from turn of the century Chinese foreign minster Wu Tingfang who was quite active in his pursuit to turn the negative tide American sentiment and policy against Chinese immigrants (Wong) to Syman Rhee's diplomatic attempts at gaining American support for Korean independence (Kim). Labor and social organizations play an important role, but individual forming informal units to appeal to American sentiment also deeply affect policy. The Golden Venture debacle exposed to underbelly of human smuggling and the exploitation of illegal immigrants. By staging a hunger strike, the detainees of Kern County jail have revealed the transgressions of human rights faced by illegal immigrant detainees such as those faced by Quing Cai, which the "prison guards had placed her in solitary confinement in an effort to force her to eat, a charge that prison officials have denied." Held for over two years in a prison, they publicize their plight through a hunger strike to generate public opinion. In fact this is very effective for it reaches national news and grabs front pages. Beyond revealing their situations, they also establish a clamor for justice and civil right adherence because of the public outcry. In the future, these events will no longer be a precedent, but a basis for future actions and policies. Amy Uyematsu illustrates in The Emergence of Yellow Power in America that racism is a psychological construct. Furthermore, inspired by the Black Power movements happening concurrently, Asian Americans must claim their minority status and be proud of not only who they are, but also to teach society to accept their influences and backgrounds as this movement was concurrent with the Third World Liberation Front. "White America justifies the blacks' position by showing that other non-whites yellow people have been able to "adapt" to the system. The truth underlying both the yellows' history and that of the blacks has been distorted." Her piece, published in 1969, is representative of the Asian movement. The coming together of the youth, brandishing signs (425) and wielding hunger strikes lead to the creation of ethnic study departments throughout the nation. This shaped the course of education and the presentation of history in America. No longer was history only the War of Independence or Little House on the Prairie, no longer was Asian American history left to footnotes in textbooks, history was the War of Independence and the importation of fine bone china. History was Little House on the Prairie and the Page Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act o f 1882, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, picture brides, Organic Law, strikes and lawsuits, internment, railroads, "boat people," lost Hmong fathers, J. Loo, and Vincent Chin. These are the changes inspired by the very public outcry from Asian Americans to the rest of America, "freedom from racial oppression through the power of a consolidated yellow people." On June 19, 1982, mistaken for a Japanese American in Detroit where anti-Japanese sentiment was going full tilt, Chinese Vincent Chin was beaten to death by baseball bats outside of a bar. With his unfortunate demise, Vincent Chin's family and friends turned his death into a crusade to educate the public about existing social inequalities. By turning this event into an image and the image into a cause, they created a wave of public sentiment concerning the failings of the legal system and everyday prejudice towards "model minorities." The fact that these men were merely slapped on the wrist and then acquitted by the justice system incited a ripple in American consciousness (Shah). People of various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds joined together in a synchronous effort to justly punish hate crimes. Thus, because Chin's family used him as an image, an idea larger than just one death, to initiate a shift in public perception and standards, they did their part in not only giving injustice a face, but fostering an environment towards balancing the unequal treatment bestowed upon him by his country of citizenship. By creating a cause, stirring up public opinion, and education Asian Americans bolster their rights as equal standing citizen in America. They legitimize their citizenship by drawing attention to injustices and appeal to others to gain ground in attaining rightful ground. The cases of the 1872 California Civil Procedure Code which overturns a former ruling that Chinese cannot give testimony and Kim Ark Wong in 1898 which set a precedent of the unstrippable birth right of those born in America are hopeful indications, though the legislation and rulings which harm Asian American equality far outnumber the positive, that through the legal system recourse is available to Asian Americans.
Never is this more eloquently illustrated than during the Japanese internment. Hirabayashi, a conscientious objector to the internment procedures utilized by the government, breaks the curfew set by Public Proclamation #1 and turns himself into the authorities and is arrested and conviction was upheld in the courts on the basis that Japanese Americans are not truly Americans because they are unassimilable and set themselves apart from mainstream society. The case of Korematsu, a man who deliberately evaded evacuation orders, despite being rejected from a previous attempt to enlist, went to the Supreme Court. The main point of contention was whether or not the evacuation was Constitutional; it was found to be legal due to military necessity and Korematsu was convicted. In the case involving Endo, who broke no laws and did not initiate her case, she was illegally detained because she was not a military threat. The day before the judgment, the evacuation was rescinded. The case of Endo passed unanimously (Shah). Asian Americans not only respected the legal
system set forth in American law, but whole-heartedly embraced the process. With every injustice, Asian Americans demonstrated a proclivity towards challenging indiscretions and attempting to right wrongs through the legal system. Though rarely successful, the successes proved to be landmark moments in the Asian American quest for their full rights as citizens. In the case of internment, no other immigrant from Axis powers, Germans or Italians, were treated as sweepingly as the Japanese. During his testimony before the House Select Committee Investigating Defense Migration, JACL representative Mike Masaoka states, "If, in the judgment of military and Federal Authorities, evacuation of Japanese residents from the West coast is a primary step toward assuring the safety of this Nation, we will have no hesitation in complying with the necessities implicit in that judgment. But, if, on the other hand, such evacuation is primarily a measure whose surface urgency cloaks the desires of political or other pressure groups who want us to leave merely from motives of self-interest, we feel that we have every right to protest and demand equitable judgment on our merits as American citizens." "Are we to be condemned merely on the basis of our racial origin?" asks James Omura in front of the same committee. Motivated by these feelings of injustice, the Japanese Americans chose to take protest through the legal system, which proved effective eventually leading to the dissolution of the internment camps. The legal system proved to be a legitimate and powerful way for Asian Americans to tip the scales back towards a course of equality. Through unity and collaboration, an appeal to educate and influence public opinion, and through legislation and the court system, Asian Americans from the mid-20th century to now have challenged unequal citizenship. Though progress has been slow, it has been steady. From being criticized by California's foremost historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft in 1890 as: "the color of their skins, the repulsiveness of their features, their undersize of figure, their incomprehensible language, strange customs and heathen religion" and denied basic rights such as naturalization and the right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to a being segregated, quotaed, and prosecuted, to now, when it is wildly unimaginable that any of the past legislation of denial of citizenship would be condoned, in the last century alone, Asian Americans have come a long way. Through the process laid by their predecessors, it can only be hoped that this course will continue steadily throughout the rest of American history. Or better yet, become a non-issue.