The interwar period in the U.S. was a time of vehement anti-Asian politics, coming on the heels of a different pandemic, the Spanish Flu (1918-’20). In 1875, 1882, 1907 and 1924, successive federal acts and agreements slowed and then halted migration from Asia. Ozawa v. U.S. (1922) denied citizenship to Issei or first-generation Japanese immigrants. Alien Land Laws were passed in California (1913, 1920) and other states, prohibiting “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land. Compounding all this was the Great Depression, starting in 1929. But despite everything, Issei writers produced poetry, stories, essays and plays, making beauty from their lives.
Like many immigrants, Hayashida had limited options. In an environment of legalized racism, people sought out the mutual support of Japantowns like Little Tokyo. The community faced two opposing pressures — the desire to assimilate and prove they belonged, and the desire to preserve Japanese culture and language. Many first-generation immigrants could not afford to return to Japan, but were legally prevented from moving forward in the U.S.
Even though Issei were writing here and their books and literary journals were published in the U.S.; even though some were directly connected to white modernist artist peers, their Japanese-language work went unrecognized, categorized as “foreign” poetry. To position their writing as “American” would bring into question the nation’s default English-centric stance.
Still, the 1930s were a vibrant artistic period, not just for Japanese-language literature but also for photography, visual art and dance. In Los Angeles, Morio Hayashida joined Japanese literary clubs and socialized with fellow artists and pre-war modernists like writer Yone Noguchi, writer and actor Sadakichi Hartmann, artist Takehisa Yumeji and Michio Itō, a dancer. Through these networks, Issei writers explored their experiences and began to formulate a Japanese American sensibility. They wrote, published and supported each other, printing their books in Japan, since Japanese book typesetting in the U.S. was extremely limited. But most of this ended when the U.S. interned Japanese Americans in 1942.
In English-language poetry, there is some recognition that early white modernists like Ezra Pound were inspired by translated Japanese and Chinese poetry and by writers, such as Yone Noguchi, who circulated in bohemian circles. Issei poets brought the strands of Japanese and American modernism together, departing from classical Japanese poetry and experimenting with free verse.