Content Warning: This section discusses the US imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII, as well as racism/xenophobia.

The first recorded immigrants from Asia to the US came in the mid-1850s. The majority of these immigrants came from China with the prospect of making money during the gold rush, and they largely settled on the West Coast. Over time, US companies began to hire workers of Asian background for major infrastructure projects, such as the Transcontinental Railroad. More often than not, these workers experienced harsh labor conditions, including low wages and poor housing. Asian immigrants also had limited rights as US citizens; in fact, over the course of the late-19th century, several legislative acts limited the rights of Asians (particularly from China) both to enter the US and to receive citizenship.

The majority of Japanese who immigrated to the US worked either in Hawaii on sugarcane plantations or on farms in the continental US; Jeanne notes that her own father first came to Hawaii but moved to the mainland after seeing the poor working conditions that Japanese laborers were subject to on the island. In the early 20th century, two legal developments significantly impacted the Japanese American community: Legislation restricted land ownership to citizens, and the Supreme Court ruled that Japanese immigrants were not white and therefore could not naturalize.