| This dissertation explores various ways in which Japanese and Japanese American elites sought to promote a favorable image of both Japan and the Japanese diaspora in the first half of the twentieth century---a time when tensions over immigration and Japanese expansion in Asia marred bilateral relations. Taking as a framework the inherent connection between the relations between a migrant's home and adoptive nations and her experience in the new country, this study explores the question of how elites (the only element of society capable of undertaking the campaigns executed) sought to improve the image of Japanese Americans and also of Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. It considers the question at hand from two interrelated perspectives: attempts to reform individual Japanese Americans' modes of engaging with society at large, and transpacific social organizations' efforts to manage the perceptions that large bodies of Americans had of Japan.;Examining early twentieth century Japanese travel guides, a 1940 history of Japanese Americans written by the JAA, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs records pertaining to discriminatory acts in the U.S., convention minutes for the JACL and the New Americans conferences, correspondence of Viscount Shibusawa Eiichi, papers of Reverend Okumura Takie, documents of the America-Japan Society, propaganda booklets by the Foreign Affairs Association of Japan, The Nippu Jiji newspaper and English-language American newspapers, and more, this research uncovers many exciting conclusions. It is evident that, in the early stage of Japanese immigration, social elites on both sides of the ocean promoted cultural assimilation as a way to demonstrate Japanese patriotism, whereas the second generation Japanese Americans, or Nisei, were strongly encouraged to work within the existing social structure and vociferously proclaim American patriotism to ensure that their American birth rights were honored. After the passage of the so-called "Asian Exclusion Act" of 1924, elites in Japan utilized a children's international friendship campaign to showcase fine Japanese craftsmanship and the refinement representative of the higher echelons of society by commissioning dozens of specialty dolls to be donated as gifts to the United States. Finally, it considers the joint propaganda-spreading activities of two very different organizations --the America-Japan Society and the Foreign Affairs Association of Japan--- and finds the propaganda disseminated in the West to consist of four major themes: security, an inept Chinese government, the other powers in China not being fair to Japan, and Japan's situation constantly being compared to that of the West. |
