Title

California's Japanese Americans

The impact of internment on California's Japanese American population was obviously enormous and it went well beyond the three to four years spent in the assembly centers and relocation camps. Based on available census data from 1930, 1940, and from1950, after the war and after the camps were closed, you can begin to see the broader impact of the internment experience in terms of the dramatic shift in popuation.

In order to assess the impact of the internment on California’s Japanese population you will need to go back to the decade of the 1930s and and compare and contrast the changes in both California's Japanese American population and changes in the population of the state as a whole.

California's Japanese American Population 1930 - 1950 gives you access to census data from three decades and the ability to compare a variety of census variables side-by-side. Create a data map showing the state's change in population from 1930 to 1940. Notice that the map makes available a complete table of the census data. Looking at the table and sorting on the Population 1940/Population 1930 column you can see that all but two of the state's counties grew over the decade with growth rates ranging from 1% in San Benito County to 107% in Shasta County. Describe any geographic patterns you see to changes in the state's population in the decade of the 1930s.

Use the other map and examine the state's population change over the next decade - during the years of World War II. Compare and contrast the state's pattern of population change over the decades 1930 - 1940 and 1940 - 1950

My World
ArcGIS
Google Maps

• Click on the Analyze tab, select to Add Field(s) By Math Operation, and complete the form as follows:

• When you click OK the computation you want is done and the data shown in Visualize mode.

• Next, click the Edit Appearance button ().

You can choose the Colorscheme you want to use. Enter 7 as the Number of Fill Colors and select to Classify By: Quantiles. This will give you seven groups with approximately the same number of counties per group.

• Click on the Apply button and Close the window.

• Right click the California layer in the table of contents and select Properties...

• In the Fields pane select Japanese1940 as the Value and Japanese1930 as the Normalization value.

• In the Classification pane click the Classify button. You will see a new window. Select to classify by Quantiles and 7 classes as pictured below:

 

The result is the is the desired division. It is said to be a normalized value because we now have a rate that is not affected by the size of the counties.

 

This will give you seven groups with approximately the same number of counties per group.

Click OK

 

 

• Click OK again to leave the Properties window.

You can define your own labels to make the map easier to read by editing the values in the Labels column:

• Select Population 1940/Poulation 1930 from the drop down menu

• Click Map

• To sort the data on any variable simply click once on the column heading to sort from low to high; twice to sort from high to low.


Complete a similar analysis of California's Japanese population from 1930 to 1950.

Once the data is available it is easy to prepare a map of the results similar to the one below.

My World
ArcGIS
Google Maps

• Select File >> Layout & Print from the main menu.

• Uncheck the Show Scale and Show Compass boxes in this case.

• Click Print

• My World prints an image of the map to a file. Name the file and Save it where you can get to it from your word processer.

You can choose the Colorscheme you want to use. Enter 7 as the Number of Fill Colors and select to Classify By: Quantiles. This will give you seven groups with approximately the same number of counties per group.

• Click on the Apply button and Close the window.

• Select View >> Layout View from the main menu.

• A map template is provided for you to edit. Double click on:

- Map Title to enter your own title
- Created by to add your name and today's date

• Zoom in () and/or pan () to position the map image as desired.

• Select File >> Print from the main menu. Check to see that the correct printer is selected and that the orientation of the map is correct.

• Click OK to print your map.

• Select View >> Data View from the main menu.

•Select Print... from the File menu.

• Set the orientation of the page to Landscape mode.

• Click Print.



To Start You Thinking -

  • 1) Which California counties had no Japanese American population in 1930?

    2) Which counties had the most significant growth in Japanese American population in the decade of the 1930s? (This is a trick question. You will need to examine not only the finished map, but individual counties as well. For example, according to the map, in Lake County, north and east of the San Francisco area, it looks like the increase has been substantial. Click on the county, though, and examine the actual Japanese American populations in 1930 and 1940.)

    3) Generally speaking, how does the change in the Japanese American population compare with the change in the population of the state as a whole during the decade of the 1930s? What factors in California state history during the 1920s and 30s might account for the differences in change (or lack of change) in the populations?

    4) Complete the California's Japanese Americans worksheet.
Last modified in July, 2008 by Rick Thomas