My research last week at the National Archives in Washington consisted of Japanese and Chinese immigrants who were detained by Immigration services and used Habeas Corpus in order to try and get into the United States. Most of those that I research consisted of sons of merchants that were detained on account of differing testimonies.
One example that I have is of the child Lim Show[1] who was seven when he arrived in the United States. He was the merchant son of Lim Jew who was a member of the firm Fay Yuen and Co in San Francisco. Lim Show was denied access on account that the child was only able to answer simple answers and that any witnesses to the parentage was were only able to see the son for a few seconds. I could not find out what happened to him. One example at the opposite end of the spectrum of these particular type of case is the experience of Young Fook[2] and Young Yin, who arrived here on February 17, 1918. They were seeking admission as the sons of Young Pang who was a merchant of the firm of Quang Yah company. The immigrant Young Fook and Young Yi were denied on the allegation that they were not the sons of Young Yi as the is a discrepancy in the testimonies of both Young Fook and Young Yin in their immigration interrogation. I also cannot find out what happened to them, but it is most likely that they were deported Other types of records that I found at the National Archives were Japanese families who immigrated to the United States and were detained due to discrepancies that the immigration had with the immigration laws of the United States. One example of this is the case of the Yamashita[3] family who arrived in the United States with his family and was detained due the irregularity of their case. Yamashita’s case families case is unique as the parents admitted that they were laborers in Japan , which regular would disqualify them from entering the United States. But due to the fact that Miss Yamashita’s father was a farmer in the United States and partly due to a treaty between Japan and America that stipulated that America should issue passports to the laborers who are children of immigrants who lived in the United States, they were allowed by the law to enter the United States. Another unique part of this case was that sons (who were adopted) of Yamashita had American passports. What the outcome was of this unique case is unknown. What is unique about this case is that it involves the conflict of interest between the law of America and the international treaty between America and Japan.
Out
of all the cases that I read during our stay at the National archives, most of
the files that I researched during our most recent outing had unknown conclusions.
The best that I can do is infer from the text in the files that they were
deported from the United States.
[1] Lim Show, File 54085/32, Accession E9, subject correspondence,1906-1932 , Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C).
[2] Young Fook, Young Yi, File , Accession E9, subject correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C).
[3] M Yamashita and Family, File 54004/18 Accession E9, subject correspondence,1906-1932 , Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C).