Takaki Chapter 10

In chapter 10 Takaki talks about immigration, work gangs, and the ways different ethnicitys were treated through those two things. Takaki's thesis in this chapter is the different reasons for immigration and the different ethnicities that had to live together because of Immigration.

In the 1890's America was a true melting pot. People from all different races and backgrounds wanted to come to America because of the high pay for labor. Whether it was children, men, or women, everyone wanted to be in the place where the workers were treated like gold. For instance Japan told their citizens that they were going to send 600 emmigrants to Hawaii to work on different plantations. Well, to get one of those six hundred slots you had to be chosen from the 28,000 people who applied for those slots. The amount of people who wanted to come to America was amazing. Once all the Japanese, Chinese, and other races were sent to Hawaii, they all had to live and work together. Takaki states that it was extremly hard it was for those different races to do so. What was even harder for the different races to do together was work. It was little known around the world that even though America might have paid workers more, the amount of work they had to accomplish in one day was astonishingly high. Farmers and owners of these plantations put workers into groups based on race. Farmers feared a revolt from the workers so they put them into teams or gangs which consisted of people of different ethnicties. Not only were they forced to work together, but also they were forced to live together. A Japense labor stated, "Fifty men and women, married and single, were forced to live together in one small shed." The labors were treated as slaves. Every multiracial "work gang" had a work watcher who was most likely white. The white work watchers used whips and other things to keep the workers on task. Although it was hard for immigrants to live in villages, they did make their own schools, foods, and other traditional rituals which were practiced in their home counrty.

Two Discussion Questions:
1.) What was the ethnicity with highest amount of immigrants that came to America and why do you suppose that, that country was the highest?
2.) Did people ever get back the information that the working and living conditions in America were horrible and did that stop people from wanting to come over to America?

This chapter was a little harder for me to comprhend what exactly Takaki was trying to get across to the reader. The information and concepts was a little more dry than other readings assigned in this class. With that being said it must have been extremly hard for people to deal with the living and working conditions they were faced with. People were totally mistaken where in their minds they were excited about the oppurtunity to make more money, when really it might have been more money but was it worth it.