711.945/1043
The Japanese Ambassador (Hanihara) to the Secretary of State
Sir: In view of certain statements in the report of the House Committee on Immigration—“Report No. 350, March 24, 1924”— regarding the so-called “Gentlemen’s Agreement”, some of which appear to be misleading, I may be allowed to state to you the purpose and substance of that agreement as it is understood and performed [Page 370] by my Government, which understanding and practice are, I believe, in accord with those of your Government on this subject.
The Gentlemen’s Agreement is an understanding with the United States Government by which the Japanese Government voluntarily undertook to adopt and enforce certain administrative measures designed to check the emigration to the United States of Japanese laborers. It is in no way intended as a restriction on the sovereign right of the United States to regulate its immigration. This is shown by the fact that the existing Immigration Act of 1917,41 for instance, is applied to Japanese as to other aliens.
It was because of the fact that discriminatory immigration legislation on the part of the United States would naturally wound the national susceptibilities of the Japanese people that, after thorough but most friendly and frank discussions between the two Governments, the Gentlemen’s Agreement was made for the purpose of relieving the United States from the possible unfortunate necessity of offending the natural pride of a friendly nation.
The Japanese Government have most scrupulously and faithfully carried out the terms of the Agreement, as a self-imposed restriction, and are fully prepared to continue to do so, as officially announced at the time of the conclusion of the present Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and the United States. In return the Japanese Government confidently trust that the United States Government will recommend, if necessary, to the Congress to refrain from resorting to a measure that would seriously wound the proper susceptibilities of the Japanese nation.
One object of the Gentlemen’s Agreement is, as is pointed out above, to stop the emigration to the United States of all Japanese laborers other than those excepted in the Agreement, which is embodied in a series of long and detailed correspondence between the two Governments, publication of which is not believed to serve any good purpose, but the essential terms and practice of which may be summed up as follows:
(1) The Japanese Government will not issue passports good for the Continental United States to laborers, skilled or unskilled, except those previously domiciled in the United States, or parents, wives, or children under twenty years of age of such persons. The form of the passport is so designed as to omit no safeguard against forgery, and its issuance is governed by various rules of detail in order to prevent fraud.
The Japanese Government accepted the definition of “laborer” as given in the United States Executive Order of April 8, 1907.
(2) Passports are to be issued by a limited number of specially authorized officials only, under close supervision of the Foreign Office, which has the supreme control of the matter and is equipped [Page 371] with the necessary staff for the administration of it. These officials shall make thorough investigation when application for passports is made by students, merchants, tourists, or the like, to ascertain whether the applicant is likely to become a laborer, and shall enforce the requirement that such person shall either be supplied with adequate means to insure the permanence of his status as such or that surety be given therefor. In case of any doubt as to whether such applicant is or is not entitled to a passport, the matter shall be referred to the Foreign Office for decision.
Passports to laborers previously domiciled in the United States will be issued only upon production of certificate from Japanese Consular officers in the United States, and passports to the parents, wives and children of such laborers will be issued only upon production of such consular certificate and of duly certified copy of official registry of members of such laborer’s family in Japan. Utmost circumspection is exercised to guard against fraud.
(3) Issuance of passports to so-called “picture brides” has been stopped by the Japanese Government since March 1, 1920, although it had not been prohibited under the terms of the Gentlemen’s Agreement.
(4) Monthly statistics covering incoming and outgoing Japanese are exchanged between the American and Japanese Governments.
(5) Although the Gentlemen’s Agreement is not applicable to the Hawaiian Islands, measures restricting issuance of passports for the Islands are being enforced in substantially the same manner as those for the Continental United States.
(6) The Japanese Government are further exercising strict control over emigration of Japanese laborers to foreign territories contiguous to the United States in order to prevent their surreptitious entry into the United States.
A more condensed substance of these terms is published in the Annual Report of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1908, 1909 and 1910 on pages 125–6, 121, and 124–5, respectively.
As I stated above, the Japanese Government have been most faithfully observing the Gentlemen’s Agreement in every detail of its terms, which fact is, I believe, well known to the United States Government. I may be permitted, in this connection, to call your attention to the official figures published in the Annual Reports of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration, showing the increase or decrease of Japanese population in the Continental United States by immigration and emigration. According to these reports* in the years 1908–1923 the total numbers of Japanese admitted to and departed from the Continental United States were respectively 120,317 and 111,636. In other words the excess of those admitted over those departed was in fifteen years only 8,681, that is to say, the annual average of 578. It is important to note that in these 8,681 are included not only those who are covered by the [Page 372] terms of the Gentlemen’s Agreement, but all other classes of Japanese such as merchants, students, tourists, Government officials, etc. These figures collected by the United States Immigration authorities seem to me to show conclusively the successful operation of the Gentlemen’s Agreement. Besides this there is, of course, the increase through birth of the Japanese population in the United States. This has nothing to do with either the Gentlemen’s Agreement or the Immigration laws.
I may add in this connection that if the proposition were whether it would not be desirable to amend or modify some of the terms of the Agreement, the question would be different, and I personally believe that my Government would not be unwilling to discuss the matter with your Government, if such were its wishes.
Further, if I may speak frankly, at the risk of repeating what, under instructions from my Government, I have represented to you on former occasions, the mere fact that a certain clause, obviously aimed against Japanese as a nation, is introduced in the proposed immigration bill, in apparent disregard of the most sincere and friendly endeavors on the part of the Japanese Government to meet the needs and wishes of the American Government and people, is mortifying enough to the Government and people of Japan. They are, however, exercising the utmost forbearance at this moment, and in so doing they confidently rely upon the high sense of justice and fair-play of the American Government and people, which, when properly approached, will readily understand why no such discriminatory provision as above-referred to should be allowed to become a part of the law of the land.
It is needless to add that it is not the intention of the Japanese Government to question the sovereign right of any country to regulate immigration to its own territories. Nor is it their desire to send their nationals to the countries where they are not wanted. On the contrary the Japanese Government showed from the very beginning of this problem their perfect willingness to cooperate with the United States Government to effectively prevent by all honorable means the entrance into the United States of such Japanese nationals as are not desired by the United States, and have given ample evidences thereof, the facts of which are well-known to your Government. To Japan the question is not one of expediency, but of principle. To her the mere fact that a few hundreds or thousands of her nationals will or will not be admitted into the domains of other countries is immaterial, so long as no question of national susceptibilities is involved. The important question is whether Japan as a nation is or is not entitled to the proper respect and consideration of other nations. In other words the Japanese Government ask of the United States Government simply that proper consideration [Page 373] ordinarily given by one nation to the self respect of another, which after all forms the basis of amicable international intercourse throughout the civilized world.
It is indeed impossible for my Government and people, and I believe it would be impossible also for your Government and for those of your people who had made a careful study of the subject, to understand why it should be necessary for your country to enact as the law of the land, such a clause as Section 12 (b) of the House Immigration bill.
As is justly pointed out in your letter of February 8, 1924, to the Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration,42 it is idle to insist that the provision is not aimed at the Japanese, for the proposed measure (Section 25) continues in force your existing legislation regulating Chinese immigration and the barred-zone provisions of your immigration laws which prohibit immigration from certain other portions of Asia—to say nothing about the public statements of the sponsors and supporters of that particular provision as to its aim. In other words the manifest object of the said Section 12 (b) is to single out Japanese as a nation, stigmatizing them as unworthy and undesirable in the eyes of the American people. And yet the actual result of that particular provision, if the proposed bill becomes the law as intended, would be to exclude only 146 Japanese per year. On the other hand the Gentlemen’s Agreement is, in fact, accomplishing all that can be accomplished by the proposed Japanese exclusion clause except for those 146. It is indeed difficult to believe that it can be the intention of the people of your great country, who always stand for high principles of justice and fair-play in the intercourse of nations, to resort—in order to secure the annual exclusion of 146 Japanese—to a measure which would not only seriously offend the just pride of a friendly nation, that has been always earnest and diligent in its efforts to preserve the friendship of your people, but would also seem to involve the question of the good faith and therefore of the honor of their Government, or at least of its executive branch.
Relying upon the confidence you have been good enough to show me at all times, I have stated or rather repeated all this to you very candidly and in a most friendly spirit, for I realize, as I believe you do, the grave consequences which the enactment of the measure retaining that particular provision would inevitably bring upon the otherwise happy and mutually advantageous relations between our two countries.
Accept [etc.]
- 39 Stat. 874.↩
- See “Table B” of the Annual Reports. [Footnote in the original.]↩
- Vol. i, p. 214.↩