Labor Movement and Japanese Immigrants in Washington State, 1922-1924

After the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the relationship between labor organizations and Japanese immigrants in Washington State became friendly. There were, however, many problems remained. When the big railroad shop strike occurred in the United States in 1922, one ofthe Japanese companies in Seattle sent strikebreakers to the railroad shops of Auburn. Almost all the Japanese in Auburn protested strongly against it because they wished to preserve a good relationship between white labor unions and the Japanese society there. Their appeal to the United Northwest Japanese Association in Seattle was, however, practically rejected by its executives. In 1924, U. S. Congress passed the Japanese Exclusion Act. Newspapers in Seattle, the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Star welcomed the decision of the Congress. Only the Seattle Union Record, the organ of the Seattle Central Labor Council, was critical to the Exclusion Act and sympathetic to the Japanese in Seattle. The policy of the Union Record was, however, not supported unanimously by a large majority of the organized labor in those days. The influence of conservatives was becoming stronger in the Washington State labor movement. They had bad feeling on Japanese immigrants and were critical against the policy of Harry Ault, the editor ofthe Union Record.

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