Historical Document Analysis of "Will the Japanese Predominate?"

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One can derive a great deal concerning occurrences, opinions, and day to day life by simply analyzing relevant details within a historical document. Details such as the lives of people in the time and place discussed; the opinions and audience of the author of the document; the biases inherent in the writing and how they are affected by the times; the degree to which the document is representative of the times; and the possible answers one document can provide regarding historical periods. By examining the historical document entitled "Will the Japanese Predominate?", one can clearly see that this piece was probably written just prior to the start of World War II, reflected the biases of a population of San Francisco who were prejudiced against the Japanese of the city, and was based on information that was, at best, true only in the most general sense.

The article "Will the Japanese Predominate" argues that members of the `White Race' have good reason to be cautious of the `present danger' of the Japanese and other Asiatic cultures dominating and conquering the industrial shipping market in Hawaii and within the city of San Francisco, specifically. The author, in making this claim, points out examples of the Japanese being "in control of fully 90 percent of the industrial fields" in the Hawaiian Islands and also that businessmen of the Japanese persuasion are shipping "annually to Japan from San Francisco, Seattle, and Honolulu, over $10,000,000.00." Towards the conclusion of the article, the broad generalization is made that the Japanese are taking over the industries of groceries, laundries, etc., and focuses, to some extent, on the Japanese-American conquest of the evidently highly competitive shoemaking industry in ...

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...ile seemingly issuing a warning against the ravenous Japanese economic appetite, now seems to have been acting according to and appealing to the racist impulses underlying a number of immoral actions perpetrated by the government and people of the United States. This racism reached its culmination with the removal and internment of Japanese Americans from their homes to internment camps.

Bibliography

"Jap Town Slum Drive Growing." The San Francisco News, April 14, 1942.

"Nearly 100 Per Cent." The San Francisco News, March 4, 1942.

Rust, Clarence E. "Tolan Committee Hearings", 11254.

Shaffer, Robert. "Opposition to Internment: Defending Japanese American Rights During World War II." The Historian, Volume 61, 1991.

"Will the Japanese Predominate?", American Shoemakers in the Mission District of San Francisco; Gille Snow Printers: San Francisco.

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