Hanihara’s Immigration Protest Reaches Congress

A Protest and Its Reception

Ambassador Masanao Hanihara asked Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes to defend Japan’s standing in an immigration dispute in April 1924. A pending bill would exclude immigrants ineligible for American citizenship, using racial restrictions on naturalization to bar Japanese entrants. Hanihara’s note of April 10 argued that Japan had already restricted labor migration voluntarily through the Gentlemen’s Agreement. The government controlled passports, checked applicants’ circumstances, and exchanged migration statistics with the United States. He maintained that a discriminatory statute would humiliate a country that had cooperated with American policy. [1]

Hughes agreed that the ambassador had accurately explained the arrangement and sent the note, with his own reply, to the relevant congressional committees. Hanihara’s concluding reference to “grave consequences” was interpreted as a threat. Reporting to the American ambassador in Tokyo on April 15, Hughes blamed press treatment that detached the words from their context. He said that senators who had supported keeping the agreement had changed their position, and that a measure allowing the existing practice to continue had been defeated 76 to 2. [2] [3]

Hanihara answered the allegation on April 17. He wrote that the consequences he feared were damaged confidence and ill feeling between the two countries. He recalled the cooperation of the Washington Conference and denied any intention to threaten or offend. Hughes replied the following day that he had understood the words in precisely that sense. [4] [5]

The 1924 immigration law made racial ineligibility for citizenship a barrier to admission, excluding Japanese immigrants. Japan protested, but the provision remained. [6] [1] [5]

Related Diplomats

1. Masanao Hanihara [1] [4]

Related Reading

• Japan and the United States
• Japan