04 Migration from Japan, Korea, and South Asia

Labor, exclusion, and empire

Migration from Japan, Korea, and South Asia developed amid labor demand, racial exclusion, and empire. Employers recruited Asian workers, while laws and violence constrained immigration, citizenship, property rights, and family life. The specific circumstances differed: plantation recruitment shaped early Japanese and Korean migration to Hawai‘i, while many early South Asian arrivals came independently to the U.S. West Coast.

Japanese migration and community life

From the late nineteenth century, Japanese migrants traveled to Hawai‘i and the U.S. mainland. Plantation companies recruited workers to Hawai‘i, which was an independent kingdom until it became a U.S. territory in 1898. Workers experienced long hours, close management control, and unequal treatment alongside laborers of other nationalities. Some left plantations for mainland work in agriculture, railroads, fishing, sawmills, and mining; Japanese immigrants also established farms and businesses on the West Coast.

After the 1907 Gentlemen’s Agreement restricted Japanese labor immigration, wives and children could still join men already in the United States. Many women arrived as picture brides, in marriages arranged through photographs and family networks. Japanese communities established neighborhoods, shops, schools, and religious organizations. In Hawai‘i, Japanese workers also organized major plantation strikes.

Issei, or first-generation Japanese immigrants, were barred from naturalization. Western states used alien land laws to restrict land ownership and leasing by people classified as ineligible for citizenship. The 1924 Immigration Act effectively ended immigration from Japan. These restrictions constrained families and livelihoods, even though Nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans, were citizens by birth.

Korean migration and colonial rule

The first large group of Korean migrants arrived in Hawai‘i in 1903, recruited to work on sugar plantations. Several thousand came before migration from Korea was halted in 1905. Plantation work was difficult, but Korean migrants formed lasting communities. Churches, mutual-aid groups, and village associations provided social support and helped maintain ties among workers and families. Some Koreans later moved to the mainland.

Migration unfolded alongside Japanese imperial expansion. Japan made Korea a protectorate in 1905 and annexed it in 1910. Colonial rule and the loss of Korean sovereignty shaped the lives of migrants abroad. Korean American communities supported independence organizing, connecting local community life to the struggle against Japanese rule.

U.S. policies sharply limited Asian immigration. The 1924 law further restricted entry, and early Korean communities remained relatively small for decades.

South Asian migration and anticolonial organizing

Early South Asian migrants arrived mainly from Punjab, then part of British India, and settled in western states. Many were Sikh men, alongside smaller numbers of Hindus and Muslims. They worked in agriculture, lumber mills, and other manual jobs; some were students or political activists. Immigration officials and the public often used “Hindu” indiscriminately for people from India, obscuring differences in religion and regional background.

Racial hostility could become organized violence. In 1907, white workers attacked South Asian laborers in Bellingham, Washington, and drove the community from the city. In California, South Asian migrants also faced restrictions on land ownership and family formation. The 1917 Immigration Act barred entry from much of Asia, including British India. In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind that South Asians were ineligible for naturalization, reinforcing legal barriers to citizenship and property ownership.

South Asian migrants built religious and political institutions. Gurdwaras served as religious centers and places of community support. In 1913, South Asian activists in California helped form the Ghadar movement, which organized against British colonial rule in India through publications and political organizing. Their activism linked immigrant life in the United States to anticolonial struggles across the Pacific.

Shared patterns and distinct experiences

U.S. power in Hawai‘i, Japanese rule in Korea, and British colonial rule in South Asia formed distinct imperial contexts. Each influenced migration and community formation, while labor demand and racial exclusion affected all three histories. Exclusion did not prevent people from building durable institutions or organizing for change; it shaped the conditions under which they did so.

Japanese and Korean migrants helped build plantation economies and communities in Hawai‘i, while Japanese migrants also established farms and neighborhoods on the mainland. Early South Asian migrants worked mainly in western agriculture and industries and built religious and anticolonial networks. Across these histories, racial exclusion restricted immigration, citizenship, and property rights, while empire influenced both why people moved and the causes they pursued after arrival.