By Bill Watanabe
The Trump Administration would have you believe that hordes of dangerous immigrants (non-Anglo type of immigrants) are invading our country and ruining our economy, threatening our safety, and polluting our healthy genes. But this narrative is far from accurate – and as Japanese American descendants of immigrants ourselves (the non-Anglo type), we should inherently know this is not a true picture.
Our ancestors from Japan came to this country to seek a better life for themselves and for their families. The Issei generation who came to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s were generally from poor, rural stock and dreamt that with hard, back-breaking work and saving their meager incomes, they could send money back to families in Japan and/or save money to improve their lot here in America.
Japanese immigrants in those early days were often labeled by the dominant society as uncouth, unassimilable, dirty, and other nasty characterizations. Of course these epithets were also directed in some measure to Irish, Polish, Jewish, Russian, Chinese, and any other immigrant group that enters American borders in significant numbers – especially immigrants who are darker-skinned.
Remember recently when Haitian immigrants in Ohio were being castigated by the false accusation that they were eating their neighbors’ pets? People in Ohio became fearful of the Haitian community in Springfield, even though the governor of Ohio and the mayor of Springfield assured their constituents that the rumors were simply not true and that Haitian immigrants were, for the most part, hard-working, contributing members of society.
It’s a familiar tactic to label the immigrant who does not look like the white dominant society as the cause of America’s problems and make Americans afraid of them. Japanese and Chinese immigrants of the early 20th century were part of the “Yellow Peril,” were denied civil rights and often persecuted, and even murdered on-masse because they were seen as “different” and a threat to society.
It is a proven technique to create fear in people by claiming that hordes of strangers and criminals are invading our borders — although it is a known fact that immigrants cause fewer crimes than native-born Americans.
The ideal of the “huddled masses yearning to be free” as is stated on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty was a beacon for millions of immigrants who came to America in those early days — people who helped to make America great and strong. Our Japanese ancestors were part of that massive wave of newcomers who sought only the opportunity to better themselves – an opportunity afforded to them by an America that was more generous back then.
The Christian Bible teaches on numerous occasions we should love the foreigner (i.e. immigrant) who lives amongst us, and treat them with kindness. But this message of Christian love seems to be lost on the right wing, who claim they want America to be a Christian nation but ignore the most basic Christian message of loving your neighbors (whoever they may be) and to be charitable for the needy, the poor, and the stranger.
Jesus was very clear that we should be loving and charitable to the weak, the orphans, the widows, and the immigrant – people he called “the least of these.”
If America is to be truly great and strong, it should be measured by the treatment we offer to those who are weak and needy. Will the America of today measure up when it counts?
Bill Watanabe writes from Silverlake near downtown Los Angeles and can be contacted at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.