Takaki Chapter 10

Thesis: America is the land of opportunity and America has a lot to offer its residents. This article is about immigration and people wanting to come to America because of all it has to offer. They felt it was a way to escape their old lives and try and start fresh.

It first starts off talking about how by the nineteen twenty’s majority of the immigrants were women. The women who came over were considered “picture” brides. This meant that marriages were arranged. Also majority of the women that came over from Asia were Japanese rather than Chinese. Immigrants were used as cheap labor because they were willing to work at low prices. Both men and women worked. They had little to no rights, and considered not full humans. Because they were treated so poorly they went on strike and rebellions. Plantation owners preferred married men over single men because they were dependable and built nicer homes for the families of the married men. Plantations became like small neighborhoods where ethnic groups would set up temples and traditional events. Plantation owners were kind of upset because the kids were learning and they wanted another generation of workers. On the mainland Japanese immigrants began to create their own farms. Women played a role in helping with the farm stuff, but also mainly did house work. Japanese hoped that their hard work would help them to be accepted into the new country. The children of the immigrants that were born into America would have a better life than what they had but that was not how it went.

1. Why would the immigrants keep coming over to America if they new what hard times awaited them?

2. Did the plantation owners try to prevent these ethnic neighborhoods or did they just let them be?

I found this article to be interesting because the immigrants worked so hard to try to fit into the new world even when they kept on getting put down. I guess if they had not gone through the hard times then today’s people may not even be hear or they might not have the success or opportunities that are presented today.