Takaki-Chapter 10

Chapter ten of Takaki, “Pacific Crossings: Seeking the Land of Money Trees,” is, for the most part, an informative chapter. The main ideas expressed are how Asians were treated in America and Hawaii. The chapter’s primary focus is on the Japanese in America, and Takaki’s spends the majority of the chapter discussing the racial discrimination of this group of people and their unsuccessful attempts at assimilating into the American culture.

The chapter begins by stating that by 1890 there was a new group of immigrants flooding into America. This group was the Japanese. They came from Japan in order to escape the economic hardships of their native country. Plantation laborers were able to make six times more in American than in Japan. The immigration of the Japanese was different than the Chinese due to the fact that the Japanese promoted the immigration of families and women whereas the Chinese did not. Most of these immigrants ended up on the sugar plantations in Hawaii. Here they faced unfair labor practices and discrimination. Oftentimes, other ethnic groups from Asia were paid more for doing the exact same work at the exact same rate. Planters pitted these different groups against each other in order to prevent strikes. This worked to a certain extent, but when the different groups finally decided to strike together they were able to gain better wages. Women worked in the fields as well and were often paid less than men for doing the same work. Takaki discusses in great detail the horrible working conditions and the ways in which these people were treated. He also explains how the Japanese were unsuccessful at assimilating into American culture. Although many went to school and became well educated, they were not given a fair chance to work. They also tried to establish themselves as farmers, but were still unable to gain respect. Takaki concludes by stating that many Japanese born in America were split between the two cultures and didn’t want to fully give up their Japanese heritage. He finally states how the attack on Pearl Harbor ended this hope.

What consequences are we facing today as a result of the information Takaki presents in this chapter? There are many consequences that our nation is still dealing with due to what Takaki presents in chapter ten. The racial discrimination that the Japanese suffer today is because of this time period and the way that the Japanese were treated in the past. This is also true of discrimination based on sex. Women were paid far less than men were for doing the same job on the sugar plantations. This persists to this day. Studies show that women are still being paid far less than men for doing the exact same job.

I became quite interested in the material as I was reading this chapter. I haven’t learned much about Japanese immigrants or the sugar plantations in Hawaii at all in the past. It was interesting to find out where the discrimination against the Japanese all stems from, and this chapter helped a great deal in presenting a potential source of that hatred.