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DDH - The 1906 San Francisco School Board Incident · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

• 0:00
  History is strange, it's alien, and it won't give us what we
• 0:04
  would like to have in. The fall of 19 O 6A local
• 0:11
  decision by the San Francisco School board sparked a
• 0:14
  diplomatic firestorm which quickly escalated into an
• 0:18
  International Crisis. What seemed like a simple matter
• 0:23
  of public education policy would, by October 11th,
• 0:27
  threatened to derail relations between the United States and
• 0:30
  Japan, one of the world's emerging powers at the time.
• 0:34
  At the heart of the issue was the school board's decision to
• 0:37
  segregate Japanese students, forcing them into separate
• 0:41
  schools alongside Chinese and Korean children.
• 0:44
  This was more than just a local squabble struck at the delicate
• 0:48
  balance of international diplomacy and the ever evolving
• 0:52
  identity of America as a nation of immigrants.
• 0:57
  Let's back up a bit. Take a look at the bigger
• 1:00
  picture. By nineteen O 6, Japan was no
• 1:03
  longer the isolated feudal society it had been just a few
• 1:06
  decades earlier. After the measure restoration in
• 1:09
  1868, Japan had rapidly industrialized, modernized its
• 1:14
  military, and had emerged as a serious player on the world
• 1:17
  stage. They even defeated Russia in the
• 1:20
  Russo Japanese War of 19 O 4 and 19 O 5, stunning the world,
• 1:26
  proving their growing strength. This wasn't the Japan of
• 1:29
  traditional samurai and isolation.
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  This was a modern power demanding respect from the
• 1:35
  Western world. But with power come
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  expectations. Japan wasn't just flexing its
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  muscles in Asia, was also trying to navigate its relationship
• 1:46
  with the West, especially the United States.
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  This is where the 1894 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation comes
• 1:53
  in. This treaty was supposed to
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  ensure the Japanese citizens living in the United States
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  would be treated fairly and have the same rights as other
• 2:01
  immigrants. In theory it was meant to
• 2:04
  protect Japanese immigrants from discrimination, but as you
• 2:08
  probably knew, things didn't quite work out that way.
• 2:13
  Anti Asian sentiment had long been growing on the West Coast.
• 2:17
  California, in particular, had a long history of hostility
• 2:22
  towards Asian immigrants, dating back to the Chinese Exclusion
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  Act of 1882. As Japanese immigrants began
• 2:30
  arriving in larger numbers in the early 1900s, they faced the
• 2:34
  same kinds of prejudice. Many white Americans, especially
• 2:38
  Californians, were worried that Japanese immigrants were
• 2:41
  becoming too successful. They were hard workers running
• 2:45
  farms and businesses. Those threatened the livelihoods
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  of local workers. This resentment only grew after
• 2:52
  the 19 O 6 earthquake, which left the city of San Francisco
• 2:55
  in ruins and through its public services, including schools,
• 3:00
  into complete disarray. So when the San Francisco School
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  Board claimed that the schools were overcrowded and ordered
• 3:07
  Japanese students to be segregated into what they called
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  Oriental schools, it wasn't hard to see the underlying
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  motivation. This was not just about
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  classroom space. This was about keeping Japanese
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  children separate and, frankly, unwanted in mainstream society.
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  The move was seen by Japan as an insult.
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  After all, it was in direct violation of the 1894 treaty,
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  which guaranteed equal treatment.
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  News of the segregation order reached Tokyo.
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  The Japanese government did not take it lightly.
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  Japan had just won a major war. They were not about to tolerate
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  what they saw as humiliating treatment of their citizens
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  abroad. They demanded action, and soon
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  enough this local issue in San Francisco had the potential to
• 3:56
  explode into an international incident.
• 4:00
  President Theodore Roosevelt was caught in a very tight spot.
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  On the one hand, he understood the necessity of keeping peace
• 4:08
  with Japan. The last thing the United States
• 4:10
  wanted was a conflict with a rising power in the Pacific.
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  On the other hand, he had to tread carefully with domestic
• 4:17
  politics. Many Americans, especially in
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  California, supported the school board's decision and they were
• 4:23
  all too happy to fan the flames of anti Japanese sentiment.
• 4:28
  Roosevelt's initial response was to try and solve the matter
• 4:31
  quietly, Very UN Roosevelt like. He didn't want a full blown
• 4:35
  diplomatic crisis, so he reached out to the San Francisco School
• 4:39
  board and asked them to reconsider, but they wouldn't.
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  The pressure was mounting and Roosevelt realized that if he
• 4:46
  did not step in, this whole thing could blow up in his face.
• 4:51
  Roosevelt did what he had done the year before with the Russo
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  Japanese War. He negotiated and what would
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  become later known as the Gentleman's Agreement of 19 O 7
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  and 19 O 8. He struck a deal with the
• 5:03
  Japanese government. Japan agreed to voluntarily
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  limit the number of passports they would issue to Japanese
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  workers heading to the United States.
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  This would help ease the concerns of anti immigrants in
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  California. In return, San Francisco's
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  school board backed off from its segregation policy.
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  The Japanese children were allowed to return to the
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  integrated schools, but not the Korean or Chinese.
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  Now, Roosevelt had managed to avoid a full on diplomatic
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  disaster, but the gentleman's agreement wasn't exactly a
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  shining moment for civil rights still placed significant limits
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  on Japanese immigration, and it reinforced the idea that
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  immigrants from Asia were not truly welcome in the United
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  States. It was basically a Band-Aid
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  designed to smooth things over diplomatically without actually
• 5:54
  addressing the root of the problem, racial prejudice.
• 5:59
  What about the legacy of this whole mess?
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  Well, the segregation crisis in San Francisco was just one
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  chapter in a much longer and often ugly story of US Japanese
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  relations. The resentment and fear of the
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  Japanese immigrants didn't just disappear.
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  In fact, it would continue to grow in the decades that
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  followed, setting the stage for some of the darkest moments in
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  American history, including the internment of Japanese Americans
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  during World War 2. The 19 O 6 incident also sent a
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  clear message to the Japanese government.
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  Despite your growing military and economic power, your
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  country's citizens will still face discrimination abroad this
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  sense of disrespect contributed to the growing tensions between
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  the United States and Japan, tensions that would contribute
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  to the eventual boiling over into the devastating conflict in
• 6:52
  the Pacific during World War 2. The diplomatic crisis of 19 O 6
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  reminds us of how even seemingly small local decisions can have
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  major international consequences.
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  It teaches us how the issues of immigration, race and
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  international relationships are deeply intertwined and how the
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  choices we make, whether in a school board meeting or in the
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  halls of power, can ripple throughout history.
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  Check out more stories from history@davedoeshistory.org.