Student Honors Theses
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Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2026
Abstract
In 1907, the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt finalized the Gentlemen’s Agreement. This informal arrangement, made in part due to the continued American dissent against Japanese immigration during the early twentieth century, was designed to limit the number of Japanese migrant workers in the United States. In Roosevelt’s words, the only Japanese nationals that would be allowed for U.S. entry would be “students, travelers, business men and the like.”1 But, as it would be discovered, there were “loopholes” to this Agreement. The family members of Japanese immigrants already in the U.S. were allowed access into the country. Thus, single, Japanese men, the majority of the Japanese diaspora, notably in Hawaii and California, at that time, turned to their country of origin for help in getting a wife who would travel to and settle in the United States after meeting the criteria for this immigration threshold.
Recommended Citation
Coniglio, Lex G., "Japanese "Picture Brides" and the Anti-Asian Immigration Discourse in the U.S. Media 1907-1924" (2026). Student Honors Theses. 6.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/hist_students/6
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