xxii Chronology of Japanese American History
1895 The Planters’ Labor and Supply Company reorganizes under
the name Hawai‘ian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA). Its goal
is the “advancement, improvement and protection of the sugar
industry of Hawai‘i, the support of an Experiment Station,
the maintenance of a sufficient supply of labor for the sugar
plantations of Hawai‘i and the development of agriculture in
general.”
1896 Japanese in Hawai‘i start the first Japanese-language school in
Honolulu.
1896 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the “separate but equal”
concept in its decision on Plessy v. Ferguson. The decision
legalizes “Jim Crow” laws for nearly 60 years.
1896 Ulysses Shinsei Kaneko, a Japanese businessman and labor
contractor in Riverside, California, becomes a naturalized citizen.
He becomes the first Issei to buy land in Riverside in 1897.
1898 U.S. Commodore George Dewey captures Manila Bay in the
Philippines.
1898 Spain cedes the Philippines and Guam to the United States
with the Treaty of Paris, which ends the Spanish-American
War. This is the start of Filipino migration to the United States.
1898 The first Japanese-language newspaper in the mainland United
States, the Nichibei Shimbun, is published in San Francisco.
1899 The Philippine-American War begins. The war is officially
declared over on July 4, 1902.
1900 Twenty-seven men from the Japanese island of Okinawa arrive
in Hawai‘i aboard the SS City of China. They are taken to the
Ewa Plantation, where they work.
1900 The Hawai‘ian Organic Act makes all U.S. laws applicable to
Hawai‘i, thus ending contract labor in the islands.
1900 The first large-scale anti-Japanese protest takes place in
San Francisco, organized by various labor groups.
1900 San Francisco orders the quarantine and compulsory
inoculation of all Japanese and Chinese upon discovery of a
bubonic plague victim in Chinatown.
1900 The Hawai‘ian Islands officially become a U.S. territory, and
all islanders become American citizens. President William
McKinley appoints Sanford B. Dole the first governor.
