Subverting Exclusion: Transpacific Encounters with Race, Caste, and Borders, 1885-1928 (The Lamar Series in Western History)

The Japanese immigrants who arrived in the North American West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included people with historical ties to Japan's outcaste communities. In the only English-language book on the subject, Andrea Geiger examines the history of these and other Japanese immigrants in the United States and Canada and their encounters with two separate cultures of exclusion, one based in caste and the other in race. Geiger reveals that the experiences of Japanese immigrants in North America were shaped in part by attitudes rooted in Japan's formal status system, mibunsei, decades after it was formally abolished. In the North American West, however, the immigrants' understanding of social status as caste-based collided with American and Canadian perceptions of status as primarily race-based. Geiger shows how the lingering influence of Japan's strict status system affected immigrants' perceptions and understandings of race in North America and informed their strategic responses to two increasingly complex systems of race-based exclusionary law and policy. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict COVER 1 CONTENTS 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9 NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY 12 Introduction 15 1. Caste, Status, Mibun 29 2. Emigration from Meiji Japan 50 3. Negotiating Status and Contesting Race in North America 67 4. Confronting White Racism 86 5. The U.S.-Canada Border 113 6. The U.S.-Mexico Border 138 7. Debating the Contours of Citizenship 152 8. Reframing Community and Policing Marriage 175 9. The Rhetoric of Homogeneity 194 Conclusion: Refracting Difference 203 TIMELINE: KEY MOMENTS IN JAPANESE IMMIGRATION HISTORY IN NORTH AMERICA TO 1928 210 NOTES 213 GLOSSARY OF SELECTED TERMS 291 INDEX 293 A 293 B 293 C 293 D 294 E 294 F 295 G 295 H 295 I 295 J 296 K 297 L 297 M 297 N 298 O 298 P 298 R 298 S 299 T 299 U 299 V 300 W 300 Y 300 Z 300

The Japanese immigrants who arrived in the North American West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included people with historical ties to Japan’s outcaste communities. In the only English-language book on the subject, Andrea Geiger examines the history of these and other Japanese immigrants in the United States and Canada and their encounters with two separate cultures of exclusion, one based in caste and the other in race.

Geiger reveals that the experiences of Japanese immigrants in North America were shaped in part by attitudes rooted in Japan’s formal status system, mibunsei, decades after it was formally abolished. In the North American West, however, the immigrants’ understanding of social status as caste-based collided with American and Canadian perceptions of status as primarily race-based. Geiger shows how the lingering influence of Japan’s strict status system affected immigrants’ perceptions and understandings of race in North America and informed their strategic responses to two increasingly complex systems of race-based exclusionary law and policy. Concerned With People Called Variously: Eta, Burakumin, Buraku Jumin, Buraku People, Outcastes, Or The Lowest Of The Low, This Book Examines How Their Experience Of Caste/status-based Discrimination In 19th Century Japan Affected Their Experience Of Race-based Discrimination In The West Of The Us And Canada In The 19th And Early 20th Centuries. Caste, Status, And Mibun -- Emigration From Meiji Japan -- Negotiating Status And Contesting Race In North America -- Confronting White Racism -- The U.s.-canada Border -- The U.s.-mexico Border -- Debating The Contours Of Citizenship -- Reframing Community And Policing Marriage -- The Rhetoric Of Homogeneity -- Conclusion: Refracting Difference -- Timeline: Key Moments In Japanese Immigrants' History In North America To 1928 -- Glossary. Andrea Geiger. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.