"Prosperity Decade", "High Mass Consumption" and the Pacific Northwest Japanese Community

The ninnteen−twenties of the United States is known as the "Prosperity Decade" or the "New Era". The people enjoyed the prosperity and the bigininng of the era of the high mass consumption. For the Japanese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest, on the other hand, the ninteteen−twenties was the decade on the cross. Anti−Japanese movement by racists, especially the Anti−Japanese Land Act of Washington State, anoyed them very much. However, they also were affected by the economic and social changes of the United States in those days. Though many Japanese businessmen in Seattle lamented that they were living through hard times, the economic situation of the Japanese people in the Pacific Northwest, in general, improved in the 1920’s. The possession and use of automobiles became common among the Japanese families as well as among Caucaisians according to the articles on the Taihoku Nippo, the Great Northern Daily News, published in Seattle in thoseday, though it seems that the expenses for the automobiles placed burdens on the household economies of many Japanese families.