decade later this number had increased threefold. About one-half of
them lived in California, and the rest were to be found throughout the
West, especially in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon. They were nearly
all unmarried young men of the peasant class. Unlike the Chinese, they
manifested a readiness to conform to American customs and an eagerness
to learn the language and to adopt American dress. The racial gulf,
however, is not bridged by a similarity in externals. The Japanese
possess all the deep and subtle contrasts of mentality and ideality
which differentiate the Orient from the Occident. A few are not averse
to adopting Christianity; many more are free-thinkers; but the bulk
remain loyal to Buddhism. They have reproduced here the compact trade
guilds of Japan. The persistent aggressiveness of the Japanese, their
cunning, their aptitude in taking advantage of critical circumstances
in making bargains, have by contrast partially restored to popular
favor the patient, reliable Chinaman.

At first the Japanese were welcomed as unskilled laborers. They found
employment on the railroads, in lumber mills and salmon canneries, in
mines and on farms, and in domestic service. But they soon showed a
keen propensity for owning or leasing land. The Immigration Commission
found that in 1909 they owned over sixteen thousand acres in
California and leased over one hundred and thirty-seven thousand.
Nearly all of this land they had acquired in the preceding five years.
In Colorado they controlled over twenty thousand acres, and in Idaho
and Washington over seven thousand acres each. This acreage represents
small holdings devoted to intensive agriculture, especially to the
raising of sugar beets, vegetables, and small fruits.

The hostility which began to manifest itself against the Japanese
especially in California brought that State into sharp contact with