The Japanese (Issei – first generation) and their American children (Nisei – second generation) were a very visible minority.

From then until 1920, tens of thousands of Japanese – mostly peasants who were not first-born sons – came to America, leaving behind widespread famine and the threat of conscription in a war against Russia for the promise of a better life in the “Rich Land.”

The emigration of Japanese to the United States and Hawaii began in the 1860s, and ballooned when the U.S.