Traveling to America was not what I would have expected.

I did not know that there were so many risks and dangers for a new life in America. When I first got on the ship to America with my family I was happy because my family and I would finally start a new life and earn more money to live; because federal legislation that excluded further Chinese immigration created demands for new immigrant labor. But then I saw the darkness of death all around the ship, but I would have never imaged that as we journeyed closer to America that disease would fall upon us. So many of us Asians journeyed aboard and now one by one they all fall. Death took its toll and when we finally reached America, only half of us were still alive. The beautiful scene that we all saw was breathtaking; the monument of the city was too much many people were glad to be alive so see this view. Our life in America just got started. But I was scared, scared of the many more dangers and difficult days ahead of us. The worse part of America was the passing through the detainment place on Angel Island. Those with disease would not be able to get through into America. We had to wait in a line, then we had to go through several questionings about our culture, then we went through a health check with professional doctors hired from the government, more questionings, and then finally we went through government officials and signed some papers, the government officials checked and rechecked our papers thoroughly and we finally passed the detainment center in Angel Island; Ill tell you Angel Island is the most strictest places for immigrants, it took weeks to finally finish. That was the toughest day in my life, waiting and waiting for it to all to be over to get started on a new course. Off we went to our new life in America, but I couldnt help shake that fear that I felt when I first came here. We settled with other Asians and other immigrants from other cultures. Our housing was smelly or better to say disgusting. We had to live with 3 other families with a lot of children; our water was not clean because of swage systems; sanitation was difficult because if you didnt get clean you die of disease; and because of all the dirtiness, disease spread throughout the housings and many died. My family and I were one of the luckiest people to survive, the very luckiest to even survive the trip here to America as well. I prayed everyday that we would be safe from all the diseases and death in America.

The jobs were easy to find in America because they were all over the place, our wages were low but we were glad to at least earn money. The jobs were so different because of the machines that they used. We also did farm work because farming came most easily to us Japanese. Walking to and from our house to work was suffocating because of the pollution in the air caused by the factories and machines, it felt like I was on the ship of immigrants again, it made me sick every time, death was even taking its toll again in the housings and tenements. Even through I thought that life here was supposed to be great I thought deep inside me that it wasnt. Earning money was good for us because we were poor but life here was different and difficult due to the dirtiness and filth and disease and death. Americans hated us for taking their jobs and because we couldnt speak English and because of that we didnt understand. That is why Americans made us take classes to learn English. Japanese, Korean, and Chinese people all went to school to learn. More and more days past and sometimes I forget to speak Japanese. I know that Americans want it for the best of themselves but I felt as if something died in me. Japanese language and my Japanese culture started to become foggy within me as do the others. Forgetting something that is what you are hurts. Life in America is painful. Then it comes time when everyone is about to forget and the Americans win and battle that was within every immigrant. My family and I have made enough money to live and it comes a time we have to go back. I was happy to go back to Japan. Even if I almost forgot my culture we will go back home eventually and relearn it. We packed our bags and took the ship back to Europe, the sick disease ship. We stayed in Japan, never to go back into the New Life that we were promised a new life again.

Citations: . "Immigration the Journey to America ."library.thinkquest.org. Education Foundation , n.d. Web. 12/7/2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Japanese.html>. Mercier, Laurie. "Japanese Americas in the Columbia River Basin ." http://archive.vancouver.wsu.edu. Historical Overview. Web. 7 Dec 2012. <http://archive.vancouver.wsu.edu/crbeha/ja/ja.html>. (1916). Iva toguri d'aquino. (1916). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/imgres? um=1&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1280&bih=619&tbm=isch&tbnid=h3X0bSiXyuiQZM:&img refurl=http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/iva-toguridaquino/&docid=KrANYoLMn5SqM&imgurl=http://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/ biographies/tokyo %2520rose.jpg&w=161&h=283&ei=ZB3CUKyuJ4mEiwLwtYGwCw&zoom=1&iact=h c&vpx=536&vpy=90&dur=686&hovh=225&hovw=127&tx=103&ty=121&sig=1127316 67335488965125&page=1&tbnh=162&tbnw=94&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:17,s: 0,i:134