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ISSEI (EE-say)
A
first generation Japanese immigrant, especially in the United
States
Common
clues: Japanese immigrant; First
generation Japanese-American; American of Japanese heritage;
Nisei's parent
Related
crosswordese: NISEI
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a year
Video:
Japanese
Immigration Offices – A Heartwarming Play
Issei
is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America,
South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first
to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred
to as Nisei (second generation), and their grandchildren are
Sansei (third generation). (In Japanese counting, "one, two,
three" is "ichi, ni, san.").
The
first Japanese Brazilian immigrants arriving aboard the Kassato
Maru in 1908.
The
first members of the Issei did not migrate directly to the United
States, but to Hawaii (which was at the time American-controlled
but not yet part of the U.S.). These migrants—the first of
whom arrived on board the steamship City of Tokio in February
1885—were common laborers escaping hard times in Japan, and
their emigration was subsidized by the Hawaiian government, which
needed cheap labor for its sugar plantations. A large number of
Japanese eventually settled in Hawaii.
Direct
migration of Japanese to the United States began a little later
in 1885 with the arrival of "student-laborers". The
earliest of these migrated to San Francisco, and their numbers
constantly expanded in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their
purpose of moving to America was to gain advanced knowledge and
experience in order to develop the modern society at home. Both
students and laborers were attracted by the image of America as a
country that welcomes foreigners. When they first arrived in the
U.S., they had no intention of living there permanently and were
merely students or laborers whose purpose was to learn from
Americans and to bring knowledge back to their own country.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Issei".
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