Karen Akiyama, From Prostitutes to Picture Brides: The Immigration of Japanese Women to the United States 1884-1919 (1986)

The tale of early Japanese women coming to the United States is a tragic one. Before 1907, Japanese women comprised only a tiny portion of the Japanese immigrants who came to the United States. The ratio of Japanese men to women entering the U.S. was six to one. A large portion of these women were forced into prostitution upon entering the U.S. Seattle, San Francisco, Spokane and other west coast cities reported large populations of Japanese prostitutes. Most of these exploited women were brought to the U.S. by men who either sold them or used them as prostitutes.

After the turn of the century, and specifically during the years 1908-1909, there was a national crusade against "white slavery" and widespread concern about the prevalence of Japanese prostitutes. In the 1907 Gentleman's Agreement, Japan agreed to limit the emigration of its citizens. In reality, this agreement did not limit female immigrants, but shifted their "status" from prostitutes to picture brides. After 1907, Japanese female immigrants began to outnumber the Japanese male immigrants. Picture Brides increased because the men who had immigrated to the US at the end of the 19 th century were eager to secure Japanese wives. Because traveling to Japan was too expensive for many of the poorer immigrants, the practice of picture brides came into being.

This paper explores the legal and political ramifications of the United States immigration policy with regard to female Japanese immigrants during this time period. The 1919 Ladies Agreement forced Japan to limit the number of passports it issued to picture brides, and effectively limited the number of Japanese women who could immigrate to the U.S. Many anti-immigration forces portrayed the picture brides as prostitutes in the making. In reality, few picture brides were forced into prostitution. The picture brides were threatening to the American population as wives and mothers and workers, because in this capacity they threatened to become permanent American citizens rather than a transient population available for exploitation.

Revised July 23, 2003 (MD)