Mr. Nabeshima to Mr. Hay.
Washington, July 12, 1900.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the communications from yourself and the honorable Acting Secretary, of date the 6th instant and the 29th ultimo, respectively, regarding the quarantine regulations enforced in California and Colorado.
The Imperial Government will undoubtedly be gratified by the assurance contained in the latter note that “the Government of the United States desires to observe and’ protect all the treaty rights of the Japanese subjects resident in the United States.” But while reposing in that assurance the profound confidence which is its due, my Government, I am certain, will think it desirable to have a clearer and more perfect understanding regarding the subject-matter of this correspondence than has yet been reached.
This feeling will in all probability be strengthened by the quotation in your note of the 7th instant from the answers of the governor of Colorado and the secretary of the State board of health to the representations I have had the honor to make concerning the treatment of Japanese subjects enjoined by authority of that body in the quarantine regulations it recently promulgated. Although the Imperial Government will naturally be pleased to note that Governor Thomas and Dr. Tyler disclaim any intention of establishing racial discrimination by means of the regulations in question, I fear that the facts which those gentlemen cite in explanation of the action of the board will not be regarded as adding force to their declaration of impartiality.
They claim, in brief, that because it was supposed that cases of bubonic plague have occurred in the Chinese quarter of San Francisco, which, in Dr. Tyler’s words, “is made up of both Chinese and Japanese,” because, as he further alleges, “these two races are the only ones known to have been exposed to this disease,” and because (quoting Governor Thomas) “the Chinese and Japanese residents of the country have been more exposed to the ravages of the plague than any other people, and so far all who have died or have been reported as infected have, been of those nationalities,” therefore it was necessary to impose restrictions upon all Japanese travelers, no matter whence they came or whither they were going.
Without considering for the moment whether this was an exercise of competent authority, the necessity and reasonableness of such a sweeping interdiction may be seriously doubted if these are the only reasons which can be adduced in its support. Its efficiency as a protective measure appears equally open to question when the foregoing statements are carefully examined.
The supposed occurrence of cases of bubonic plague in the Chinese quarter of San Francisco is given by Governor Thomas and Dr. Tyler as primarily the reason for the adoption of the Colorado quarantine regulations. That quarter is not occupied exclusively by Japanese and Chinese, however, as might be inferred from what Dr. Tyler says. A comparatively small number of the Japanese residents of San Francisco live there, it is true, but so, also, do some Americans, as well as persons of other nationalties. If, therefore, that particular locality could properly be regarded as the breeding place of the disease, and if residence there was a reasonable cause for suspicion, it is difficult to [Page 754] understand why the Colorado board of health did not subject all persons coming thence to the restrictions it imposed upon two nationalities exclusively. Speaking for my countrymen only, and confining my remarks to recent events in San Francisco, I am confident that it can be asserted without fear of refutation that there is not the slightest proof that Japanese subjects resident in that city have been exposed, either as a community or as individuals, to infection from the plague to any greater extent than any other class of residents.
Governor Thomas is also mistaken when he intimates that any Japanese subject died or was reported as infected during the recent excitement concerning the plague in San Francisco. The only case of the kind that ever occurred there, to my knowledge, was that of the two stowaways on the steamer Nippon Maru, who were drowned in an attempt to escape from that vessel when she was quarantined in June., 1899. After a confessedly superficial examination the local health authorities stated that they had discovered “bacilli resembling the bacilli of bubonic plague,” but this statement was not treated seriously by the expert of the Marine-Hospital Service stationed at San Francisco, and he did not hesitate to publicly declare disbelief in the assumption that the deceased had been afflicted with bubonic plague.
This review of the facts seems to me to demonstrate that nothing which has occurred in San Francisco justifies the action of the Colorado board of health or adequately explains the discrimination it imposed upon Japanese subjects. Moreover, as already stated, the discrimination extended not only to Japanese travelers from San Francisco, but also to those from all other points. Without intending any disrespect to Dr. Tyler, I beg to say that his explanation of the danger to be apprehended from persons afflicted by the plague traveling to Colorado by circuitous routes lacks reasonable probability, and only serves to accentuate the apparent intention of the board of health to exclude all Japanese subjects from Colorado except upon conditions not made applicable to Americans or Europeans. This, I respectfully submit, is most distinctly racial discrimination.
The question whether it was competent for the State of Colorado to discriminate in any manner against Japanese subjects, no matter upon what pretext, is one upon which I have no desire to enlarge further than to again call attention to the treaty stipulation which guarantees to Japanese subjects in the United States the same liberty of travel as is enjoyed by its citizens. Acts, however originating, which abridge or abrogate that right are, it seems to me, violations of the stipulation guaranteeing it, and to that extent unlawful so long as the treaty remains in force.
Governor Thomas remarks, in the communication from which you do me the favor to quote, that the authorities of Colorado have no desire to do anything which is contrary to their powers, but that they must insist upon their right to establish quarantine regulations to protect the people of Colorado against the invasion of the plague. Permit me to say in reply that the Imperial Government has no wish, and certainly claims no right, to express an opinion regarding quarantine measures adopted by the State of Colorado for the protection of its citizens when such measures do not interfere with the exercise of rights guaranteed to Japanese subjects by the Government of the United States. It is not out of place, however, in this connection to ask the attention of Governor Thomas to the decision rendered by the circuit court of the [Page 755] United States in California with reference to the quarantine regulations recently enforced at San Francisco, for that decision proceeds upon even broader grounds than that upon which my representations rest.
The Imperial Government, I hardly need add, has no intention of demanding any privilege for Japanese subjects which will endanger the safety of the citizens of Colorado, and asks for them no other or more favorable treatment than is accorded to citizens of the United States and to aliens generally. But the Imperial Government will unquestionably consider that through the action taken by the Colorado board of health a right guaranteed to Japanese subjects has been rendered temporarily inoperative for unsatisfactory reasons and upon insufficient authority. And although the present cause of complaint may have been removed, it will, I am convinced, regard it as occasion for sincere regret if the present correspondence is terminated without arriving at a distinct understanding on this and all the other points involved. I may add that, bearing in mind the scrupulous regard for treaty obligations which has always characterized the intercourse of our countries, as well as the specific assurance to which I had the honor to allude in beginning this note, the Imperial Government will hopefully anticipate that all possible steps will be taken to prevent the recurrence of action like that of the Colorado authorities.
Referring to the concluding paragraph of Mr. Hill’s note of the 29th ultimo, I beg to say that I shall take pleasure in informing my Government of the friendly sentiments it expresses. At the same time it is only proper that I should state that, in my opinion, the Imperial Government, while cordially reciprocating those sentiments, will not find it possible to agree to the proposition that the geographic origin of the Japanese people affords adequate reason for the treatment to which our countrymen have been subjected in California and Colorado. The bubonic plague did not appear in Japan until about two years ago, and has never been seriously epidemic. The successful efforts which have been made to hold it in check, as well as the hygienic precautions taken, give ample promise that it will never become endemic. In this age of rapid communication Japan is in no greater danger from the original source of infection than the world in general, and there is certainly nothing to show that her people are more susceptible to the ravages of the disease than the peoples of other countries. The plague makes no distinctions in nationalities, as its history proves and as has been shown by the experience of every country where unhappily it has found lodgment. In Sydney, for example, where there have been 200 cases since January of this year, there have been only three victims among the relatively large number of residents of Asiatic origin.
Accept, etc.,