Mr. Takahira to Mr. Hay.
Washington, June 7, 1901.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication of the honorable Acting Secretary of State dated the 27th ultimo, and of the two inclosures therewith, in reply to my note verbale of the 30th of last April, regarding the deportation of Japanese immigrants from Seattle in March last.
I beg that you will tender to the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury my thanks for the steps he has taken to ascertain the facts in the case, as shown by the letter of Mr. Blackwood, deputy collector of customs at Seattle, and that of Mr. Cudihee, sheriff of Kings County, Wash., copies of which were transmitted with the communication under reply. I regret to add, however, that the statements made in those letters do not, in my opinion, completely answer the questions suggested by my note verbale.
The points to which I desired to especially draw attention by that note were, first, that a number of Japanese who appeared to be legally entitled to enter the United States had been turned back without apparent cause; and, second, that these persons, while awaiting the decision of their case, had been confined in jail under circumstances, which, to say the least, were not in harmony with the treatment ordinarily accorded to immigrants to the United States. In connection with what Mr. Blackwood and Sheriff Cudihee say on this latter point, I beg to state that His Imperial Majesty’s consul at Vancouver made a careful personal investigation of the matter on the return of the deported immigrants to that place. As a result he reports that while undergoing detention at Seattle some of them were confined in small rooms, 4 together, and the rest in the common room of the jail in company with other prisoners. Some of the latter, the immigrants believed, had been convicted of crimes or offenses. That, however, is not particularly material, since it is not denied that these Japanese subjects, although not accused of any offense, were treated like ordinary criminals and confined with people of that class. In addition they complain that they were supplied with poor and insufficient food, of which, in some cases, they were robbed by the other prisoners. And they assert also that from among the personal effects which they were obliged to surrender on entering the jail, a watch and an overcoat were missing when they were deported. The report of His Imperial Majesty’s consul contains other details similar to the foregoing, but I have no desire to dwell upon this disagreeable feature of the case further than to call it to the attention of the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury, which, I feel assured, is the most certain way of preventing the recurrence of similar treatment of Japanese subjects resorting to this country.
[Page 370]With reference to the first point mentioned in my note verbale (the eligibility of the immigrants), I had the honor to state that according to the information given to me these persons did not belong to any of the classes whose immigration is forbidden by United States law, and that they were healthy, well clad, and in possession of sufficient funds to provide against their becoming public charges. Since, therefore, it appeared that these Japanese subjects possessed the necessary qualifications and fulfilled all the conditions required by law, I added that I was at a loss to discover why they had not been permitted to enter the United States. The plain inference from the admitted facts appeared to me to be that they were entitled to land under the provisions of United States law, and, also, as I stated, by virtue of the stipulations of the treaty between Japan and the United States.
I find in Mr. Blackwood’s letter the statement that “the examination of these immigrants was conducted in an impartial manner in strict accordance with the immigration laws and regulations.” Without any intention of questioning the accuracy of this explanation, I would respectfully submit that, as it stands, it does not furnish a complete answer to the statements contained in my note verbale.
A reasonable explanation of the failure of the immigrants to appeal from the decision of the board of inquiry, to which Mr. Blackwood further alludes, may be found in the circumstances of their detention already described. If they had appealed they would have been compelled to submit for an indefinite period to the humiliation and discomforts of confinements in jail, and it was only natural that they should have preferred to take the quickest way out of the dilemma.
In again calling attention to this case I beg to state that I have no intention of asking for the Japanese subjects immediately interested, or for others who may come to the United States, any special favor or immunity from the operation of the United States laws relating to immigration. All that such Japanese subjects can rightfully expect, and all that the Imperial Government expects on their behalf, is the same treatment as is accorded under similar conditions to the citizens and subjects of other foreign countries. This measure of justice, I feel convinced, it is the purpose of the United States Government to extend to them; and if in the present instance it shall prove, as appears to be the case, that Japanese subjects have been deprived of their right to enter this country by a construction of the law by local immigration officers not justified by the facts, I trust that I may rely upon the good offices of the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury to prevent the repetition of such action.
Accept, etc.,