Japanese Americans Exposed In 'No-No Boy'

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In society, the Japanese had to face propaganda of white supremacy where they were publicly humiliated and degraded. The use of propaganda is one of the many things that influenced people to develop such a negative perspective of the Japanese minority. “Examples of newspaper incitement to racial violence appeared daily… In addition, during the period that the Japanese Americans were still at large, the press literally abounded with stories and, above all, headlines, which made the already nervous general public believe that military or paramilitary Japanese activists were all around them (Okihiro, 1983, p. 67). Richmond Pearson Hobson titled his article, “JAPAN MAY SEIZE THE PACIFIC COAST” (Okihiro, 1983). Articles similar to this were created to instill fear into the public the Japanese were a …show more content…
The Japanese were viewed with hostility for a few main reasons: anti-immigrant prejudice, California politics, economic competition, segregation and racial stereotypes, and Japanese American international relations (Miyamoto, 1973). Japanese Americans suffered because of their different races and cultural disparities. Several of them came to America to find opportunities for profit, just as Ichiro's parents did in the novel No-No Boy. Japanese immigrants were hard, tough working individuals who worked at a much lower cost than white workers. This upset white workers because they believed Japanese Americans were competing unfairly with White Americans, which eventually led to the exclusion of Japanese Americans. The Immigration Act of 1924 is what put a stop to Japanese