PART I.

History and Extent of Japanese
Immigration

Just when Japanese began to come to this country is pretty
difficult to determine. It is certain, however, that under the rule
of the Tokugawa dynasty, emigration from Japan was prohibited
under pain of death, or more precisely since the adoption by it
of the policy of exclusion and inclusion in 1638 until 1868. In
other words, between 1638 and 1868 there was no emigration.
True, in 1854, Japan entered into a commercial treaty with the
United States, and subsequently with the various European pow-
ers, but that fact did not alter the Japanese policy in regard to
emigration. In 1868 the Tokugawa government was overthrown
and the present Imperial government was simultaneously in-
stalled. The new government was radical, indeed, revolutionary.
Thus, among other things, emigration was no longer put under
the ban. It became possible, though emigration of laborers was
not legalized till 1885.

Yet, curiously enough, we learn from the Report of the
United States Treasury Department for 1893, that between 1861
and 1870, 218 Japanese came to this country. How these Japa-
nese might have reached America may be learned from the facts
that follow. As early as 1841 three Japanese fishermen were
alown to sea and were drifted to the American coast. In America
they were said to have remained ten years. Joseph Heco, a boy
apprentice aboard a Japanese vessel plying between Osaka and
Yedo (Tokyo), which was wrecked, was rescued along with
piper members of the crew and brought over to America. That
vas in 1850. Heco had remained in the United States for more
han a decade and had had romantic experiences. These are
aterestingly told in his “Narrative of a Japanese.” The book
acidentally gives accounts of innumerable cases of Japanese cast-
ffs rescued and brought over, just as he was, to this country
tween 1850 and 1864. In 1866 there came to New York two

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