Orientalizing the Pacific Rim: - History, Department of

The missionaries believed that they knew the Japanese from first-hand
experience, and they remembered how frustrating and difficult it could be to deal with
‘Orientals’ whom they thought might take offense at the slightest mistake. They
blamed the offenses, of course, on the strict demands of social etiquette and politeness
which Japanese society demanded, and not on the difficulties of cross cultural relations,
or even their own penchance for social miscues. In the end, they felt that after dealing
with such an exotic and intricate society as the Japanese, handling the nativists would be
relatively easy.
Who’s Oriental and What’s the Problem
“Is there an Oriental Problem in America? If so, where is it? What are its
manifestations? What do we know of our Chinese, East Indians, Filipinos, and
Japanese? How do they contribute to our wealth and welfare? To what extent
are our impressions in accordance with the facts? These are some of the
questions which The Survey of Race of Relations is trying to answer.” 14
In setting out to research race relations on the West Coast, both missionaries and
nativists agreed that the ‘Oriental problem’ was the central concern. But who was an
‘Oriental’? And what was the ‘problem’?
The answers to these questions, not
surprisingly, depended upon who was being asked. For the Japanese Exclusion
League, the Sons of the Golden West, the American Legion, and other nativist
organizations, ‘Oriental’ was a racial classification bounded not only by presumed
origins in Asia and the Far East (the mythical Orient), but it also reflected a history of
14 “The Survey of Race Relations,” Eliot Grinnel Mears, The Stanford Illustrated Review
(April, 1925). Reprint found in Box 5 of the Papers of the Survey of Race Relations.
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