| Gentlemen's Agreement Of 1907 |
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The was an informal agreement between the United States and the Empire Of Japan regarding Immigration and Racial Segregation . The Agreement was not a single document, but was a series of six diplomatic notes exchanged between Japan and the United States from late 1907 to early 1908. The immediate cause of the Agreement was anti-Japanese Racism in California, which had become increasingly Xenophobic after the Japanese victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War . On 11 October 1906 , the San Francisco, California Board of Education had passed a regulation whereby children of Japanese descent would be required to attend Racially Segregated separate schools. At the time, Japanese immigrants made up approximately 1% of the population of California; many of them had come under the treaty in 1894 which had assured free immigration from Japan. In the Agreement, Japan agreed not to issue Passport s for Japanese citizens wishing to work in the continental United States, thus effectively eliminating new Japanese immigration to America. In exchange, the United States agreed to accept the presence of Japanese immigrants already residing in America, and to permit the immigration of wives, children and parents, and to avoid legal discrimination against Japanese children in California schools. There was also a strong desire on the part of the Japanese government to preserve the image of the Japanese people in the eyes of the world: Japan did not want America to pass a ‘Japanese Exclusion Act’ similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act . President Theodore Roosevelt , who had a positive opinion of Japan, accepted the Agreement as proposed by Japan as an alternative to more formal, restrictive immigration legislation. The government of Japan continued to issue passports for immigration to the Territory Of Hawaii , from where immigrants could move onto the continental United States with few controls. The Agreement was later unilaterally abrogated by the United States with the Immigration Act Of 1924 . REFERENCES & ADDITIONAL READING
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