Japanese Texans are
Japanese Americans
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
living in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
.
History
In 1902, the Houston Chamber of Commerce requested help from Japanese Consul General
Sadatsuchi Uchida was a Japanese diplomat. Assigned to postings in the United States and Brazil, Uchida was instrumental in facilitating improved Japanese trade relations and emigration to both countries. Uchida also served as the first consul in Korea.
Early life ...
in improving
Texas rice production
Rice production in Texas began in 1853 in southeast Texas. By 1903, the acres of cultivated rice in Texas was second only to Louisiana and together accounted for 99 percent of rice production in United States. While other states have surpassed Te ...
techniques.
At least thirty attempts were made by Japanese to grow rice in the state at this time, with two of the most successful colonies being one founded by
Seito Saibara in 1903 in
Webster
Webster may refer to:
People
*Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname
*Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name
Places Canada
*Webster, Alberta
*Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario
United State ...
, and another by
Kichimatsu Kishi
Kichimatsu Kishi (岸 吉松 ''Kishi Kichimatsu'', ?–1956) was a Japanese immigrant to the United States who worked as a farmer and businessman. Along with fellow immigrants from Japan, his impact on rice farming in the southern United States wou ...
in 1907 east of
Beaumont.
Within three years of Seito's farm being established, area rice harvest nearly doubled. By 1910, the Japanese population was around 300.
A second wave of Japanese began arriving in 1920, some moving from California to avoid discrimination there. Although conditions were better than some other states, Japanese families attempting to move to Texas were turned away by a hostile mob in 1921, and the Texas legislature, following the precedent set by the
California Alien Land Law of 1913, passed its own law restricting Japanese ownership of land.
The
Immigration Act of 1924 severely limited Japanese immigration to the country, and most Japanese moving to the state during this period were
second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
or
third-generation members of the
Japanese diaspora
The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (日系) or as Nikkeijin (日系人), comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan (and their descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded as ...
.
In 1940, there were around 500 Japanese living in Texas. In response to
anti-Japanese discrimination following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Jingu family which maintained the
Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio were evicted and the garden was renamed the Chinese Tea Garden. (The name was restored in 1984).
During World War II,
camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans in Texas included the
Crystal City Internment Camp, the Kenedy Allen Detention Camp at
Kenedy, Texas
Kenedy is a city in Karnes County, Texas, Karnes County, Texas, United States, named for Mifflin Kenedy, who bought and wanted to develop a new town that would carry his name. The population was 3,473 at the 2020 census, up from 3,296 at the 2010 ...
, the
Federal Reformatory for Women in Seagoville,
Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...
in El Paso, and
Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. The
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
offered classes to some internees.
Japanese Texans
*
Frank Fujita
*
Conan Gray
*
John Ishiyama
John T. Ishiyama is an American political scientist. He is a University Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science and the Piper Professor of Texas at the University of North Texas. He studies comparative politics, particularly the par ...
*
Riki Kobayashi
Riki Kobayashi (1924–2013) was a chemical engineer and a long-time professor of chemical engineering at Rice University. A native of Harris County, Texas, he attended Rice University (then known as Rice Institute) and earned the Bachelor of ...
*
Jay Kochi
*
Naoko Shibusawa
Naoko Shibusawa is an Associate Professor of History and an Associate Professor of American Studies at Brown University.
Biography
Shibusawa was born in Japan in 1964. She moved to the United States in her youth, growing up in New York, Texas and ...
*
William Tsutsui
See also
*
History of the Japanese in Houston
This article discusses Japanese Americans and Japanese citizens in Houston and Greater Houston.
As of the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 3,566 people of Japanese descent in Harris County, making up 1.3% of the Asians in the county. In 1990 there w ...
*
Japanese School of Dallas
The Japanese School of Dallas (ダラス補習授業校 ''Darasu Hoshū Jugyō Kō'') is a part-time Japanese educational program for Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The school office in Dalla ...
*
Further reading
*
References
{{Japanese diaspora
Japanese-American history
Japanese-American culture in Texas