Interracial Marriage In 1909 America

[Mulboyne]

HistoryLink: Gunjiro Aoki weds Gladys Emery in Seattle on March 27, 1909, after leaving states that prohibit mixed race marriages.
On March 27, 1909, Gunjiro Aoki (b. 1883 ) weds Helen Gladys Emery (b. 1888 ) in Seattle after traveling from California and Oregon, which prohibit mixed-race marriages. The bride is accompanied by her father, Archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of California John Emery, and by her mother. The newlyweds plan to settle on a ranch near Seattle because of the hostility to their union in California. Aoki, a native of Japan, was a servant in the Emery home in Corte Madera, California. When Gladys Emery announced her love for Aoki, her parents opposed the marriage. The couple was refused a marriage license in California because state law prohibited marriage between Japanese and Caucasian persons...In July 1909, Mrs. Aoki gave birth to a daughter, the first of their five children...more...

Aoki's great neice wrote this account of the marriage. Here's an editorial from the Oregonian:

[L S]

Mulboyne, Great history find! I am back in Portland so it is fun to see some of the J-history of the NorthWest.

There is a good site about Nikkei, Japanese immigrants around the world, here. It's a great resrouce if anyone wants to do research on Japan immigrants, especially for the US. I found the blurb belowon Portland, OR where today ther is no Japan town...just Chinatown. Seems we lost Japan town after 1941. But...Portland does have a Japanese grocery store, called "Anzen" from 1890s that still exists today.

In the 1890s, hundreds of young Japanese immigrants arrived in Oregon to work on the railroads, lumber mills, farms, and fish canneries. Portland was the hub from which these Issei, mostly young bachelors, found work in the surrounding areas, or stayed and began to work in Portland. The area of Portland by the Willamette River north of W. Burnside Street became known as Japantown.
By the 1910s, many men had become more established and began to arrange for brides. In 1920, there were 1,349 Japanese women living in the state. With the start of many new families, Portland's Japantown grew to become a thriving heart of the Nikkei community, a central business district that was home to many families, schools, sports, and social activities. By 1940, there was a concentration of over 100 businesses located within a six or eight block area. Nihonmachi was a busy place, where the Japanese would come to buy Japanese food, receive dental and medical care, find legal assistance, and take care of their banking needs.
Japantown disappeared suddenly in the spring of 1942, when all persons of Japanese ancestry were removed from the West Coast and placed into concentration camps. Yet for those who remember the old Portland, the echoes of Japantown can still be heard today.

[hodensaft]

This really is a neat find.

My family moved to Oregon in 1991, and I'd never known until recently that there had been a Japanese area in Portland. Sad to know that it was a victim of the "forced relocations".

[gkanai]

You never cease to amaze Mulboyne! Fascinating stuff...

[gkanai]

I found a few other related articles on Aoki's website:

http://www.firstvoice.org/press_web_pages/Reviews.html

[Mulboyne]

I found a few other related articles on Aoki's website:

http://www.firstvoice.org/press_web_pages/Reviews.html

The San Fransico Call's description of their first baby is really something:

The combination is startling. There seems to be some sort of a misfit, some horrible blunder. The face, neither yellow nor white.

[amdg]

Yikes! Not the kind of thing a new mother wants to read...

[Charles]

There are many interesting stories of the Japanese in the Northwest region, I've been especially interested in essays from David Niewert at his blog Orcinius. He wrote a book about the Japanese immigrant community around Belleview and its total elimination during the times of WWII internment. Niewert also writes a lot about the white supremacist and other "Patriot" elements that grew up around this WWII era hate. You can search his blog on the term "Japanese" and get a fair sampling of this material.

[L S]

Charles, thanks for the link to the Orcinius site. I liked it.

[TennoChinko]

Interesting read.

Back in the early-90's, my Japanese-American college roommate reported he was up in the Seattle-Tacoma area with his (blonde) Caucasian girlfriend and nearly attacked in the parking lot of a highway truck stop by a white guy who was apparently enraged at the sight of an Asian man holding hands with a white woman. His cooler-thinking friend pulled him away.

Nice to see how somethings don't change ...

[Tsuru]

Bigots make great hamburger meat though

[Samurai_Jerk]

Interesting read.

Back in the early-90's, my Japanese-American college roommate reported he was up in the Seattle-Tacoma area with his (blonde) Caucasian girlfriend and nearly attacked in the parking lot of a highway truck stop by a white guy who was apparently enraged at the sight of an Asian man holding hands with a white woman. His cooler-thinking friend pulled him away.

Nice to see how somethings don't change ...

That would be VERY unusual in the Seattle area. Maybe he was a little further to the east. Once you get past the Cascades, Washington is pretty much the same as Idaho.

[TennoChinko]

That would be VERY unusual in the Seattle area. Maybe he was a little further to the east. Once you get past the Cascades, Washington is pretty much the same as Idaho.

Agreed. That's why I took care to mention the location.

It was a rest area off a major highway near the Seattle-Tacoma area - so it very well could have been the case that the two were out of town rednecks.

[L S]

Agreed. That's why I took care to mention the location.

It was a rest area off a major highway near the Seattle-Tacoma area - so it very well could have been the case that the two were out of town rednecks.

There are occasional beatings in Seattle and Portland every few years that are racially motivated. Usually they are done by street kids that get pulled into white supremacy groups. Racial killings, though, have been rare to my knowledge. The last one in Portland that I can remember was in 1988, when some skinheads beat an Etheopian immigrant to death. I only remember b/c I rented a house that one of the murderers had lived in previously and lots of the court documents kept coming to my house.

[Greji]

Bigots make great hamburger meat though

Depends how you slice them. Lot of tripe there!

As late as the early to mid 1960's, a US military man who was interracially married could appeal an assignment to certain states in the US on the grounds that those states had laws forbidding such marriages. These appeals were automatically accepted and approved.

[sublight]

There was also the Cable Act of 1922 which effectively revoked the US citizenship of any American woman who married an Asian alien.

This was actually a step up from previous law, which considered a woman's citizenship to automatically be the same as her husband's, and so under which female US citizens lost their citizenship if they married any non-citizen. The Cable Act allowed them to remain US citizens if their husband was eligible for naturalization. Since Asians weren't eligible at the time, women who married them were still shown the door.

[sublight]

On March 27, 1909, Gunjiro Aoki (b. 1883 ) weds Helen Gladys Emery (b. 1888 ) in Seattle... In July 1909, Mrs. Aoki gave birth to a daughter, the first of their five children

I'm guessing dad was traveling with them with a shotgun under his arm.

[amdg]

I'm guessing dad was traveling with them with a shotgun under his arm.

Nice pick up Sublight.

[Mulboyne]

...As late as the early to mid 1960's, a US military man who was interracially married could appeal an assignment to certain states in the US on the grounds that those states had laws forbidding such marriages. These appeals were automatically accepted and approved.

There were some events this year to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the judgement in Loving vs Virginia which had the effect of ending all restrictions on marriage in the US which were based on race. It must have been peculiar for military men with Japanese wives to know that their marriage was not recognized in parts of their own country.

[GuyJean]

There were some events this year to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the judgement in Loving vs Virginia...

NPR had a decent podcast about the 'Loving Decision':
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10889047

GJ

[Greji]

It must have been peculiar for military men with Japanese wives to know that their marriage was not recognized in parts of their own country.

It was more than Japanese. Any military wife from all the places around the world that the US military is located has women coming to the states as wives. If they were anything that could be considered non-caucasian, you were out on a limb.

Obviously, those late running Jim Crow carry-overs were written for Black and White, but could be used for anything non-white. I was in Goose Bay Labrador working on a little project during the Cuba conflict and one of our team members was notified of his future re-assignment (transfer if you will) to 2nd AF which was at Barksdale, Louisiana. He was a brother and married to a white girl. He sent off a message (twixt in those days) and they notified him within eight hours the assignment had been changed to a place that was guaranted to have a lot less good ole boys running around in bed sheets and pillow cases. That was August of 1962 and I think there were still five states that had racial marriage bans (I'll stand corrected on that number, but it was close to that).

[Mike Oxlong]

...I was in Goose Bay Labrador working on a little project during the Cuba conflict...

Was there much goosin' in Goose Bay? I've met a few SAS and other types who have spent time in a place most of my fellow Canuckistanis know little about, and even few have been to.

However, I do have the lowdown on Yellowknife

[Greji]

Was there much goosin' in Goose Bay? I've met a few SAS and other types who have spent time in a place most of my fellow Canuckistanis know little about, and even few have been to.

However, I do have the lowdown on Yellowknife

Of course as you know Labrador is now Newfoundland, but even in those days, there were a suprising number of young ladies from Montreal up there on work contracts at the USAF Base or the Canuckistan AF Base on the other side. Couple that with some friendly Newfs and eskimo/indian lass or two, the Goosing requirement was eased considerably. Other than the minor inconvenience of about a 260 inch annual snow fall and white outs at anywhere from 40f to 50f degrees below, it wasn't a bad place. Made who ever was in the futon with you, feel pretty cozy for beating frostbite. The down side was there wasn't a goat in the area. However, there were some nice looking caribou though!