Title: History of Japanese Americans - Wikipedia
Headings: History of Japanese Americans
History of Japanese Americans
Contents
Japanese American history before World War II
Immigration
Anti-Japanese sentiment
Farming
Internment
World War II service
Post-World War II and redress
Timeline
See also
References
Further reading

Content: However, there is evidence to suggest that the first Japanese individual to land in North America was a young boy accompanying Francisican friar, Martín Ignacio Loyola, in October 1587, whilst on Loyola's second circumnavigation trip around the world. Japanese castaways Oguri Jukichi and Otokichi are among the first Japanese citizens known to have reached present day California and Washington in the early nineteenth century. Japan emerged from isolation following Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan, where he successfully negotiated a treaty opening Japan to American trade. Further developments included the start of direct shipping between San Francisco and Japan in 1855 and established official diplomatic relations in 1860. Japanese immigration to the United States was mostly economically motivated. Stagnating economic conditions causing poor living conditions and high unemployment pushed Japanese people to search elsewhere for a better life. Japan's population density had increased from 1,335 per square in 1872 to 1,885 in 1903 intensifying economic pressure on working class populations. Rumours of better standards of living in the “land of promise” encouraged a rise in immigration to the US, especially by younger sons who (due in large part to the Japanese practice of primogeniture) were motivated to independently establish themselves abroad. Only fifty-five Japanese were recorded as living in the United States in 1870, but by 1890 there had been more than two thousand new arrivals. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had a significant impact for Japanese immigration, as it left room for 'cheap labour' and an increasing recruitment of Japanese from both Hawaii and Japan as they sought industrialists to replacement Chinese labourers. '