ted States and Japan, Root
and the Japanese ambassador exchanged notes. In these they both pointed
out that their object was the peaceful development of their commerce in
the Pacific; that "the policy of both governments, uninfluenced by any
aggressive tendencies, is directed to the maintenance of the existing
status quo in the region above mentioned, and to the defense of the
principle of equal opportunity for commerce and industry in China"; that
they both stood for the independence and integrity of China; and that,
should any event threaten the stability of existing conditions, "it
remained for the two governments to communicate with each other in order
to arrive at an understanding as to what measures they may consider it
useful to take."

The immigration problem between Japan and the United States was even
more serious than that of the open door and the integrity of China. The
teeming population of Japan was swarming beyond her island empire, and
Korea and Manchuria did not seem to offer sufficient opportunity. The
number of Japanese immigrants to this country, which before the Spanish
War had never reached 2000 in any one year, now rose rapidly until in
1907 it reached 30,226. American sentiment, which had been favorable
to Japan during her war with Russia, began to change. The public
and particularly the laboring classes in the West, where most of the
Japanese remained, objected to this increasing immigration, while a
number of leaders of American opinion devoted themselves to converting
the public to a belief that the military ambitions of Japan included the
Philippines and possibly Hawaii, where the Japanese were a formidable
element in the population. As a consequence there arose a strong demand
that the principles of the Chinese Exclusion Act be applied to the
Japanese. The situation was made more definite by the fact that the
board of education in San Francisco ruled in 1906 that orientals should
receive instruction in special schools. The Japanese promptly protested,
and their demand for their rights under the treaty of 1894 was supported
by the Tokio Government. The international consequences of thus
discriminating against the natives of so rising and self-confident a
country as Japan, and one conscious of its military strength, were bound
to be very different from the difficulties encountered in the case of
China. The United States confronted a serious situation, but fortunately
did not confront it alone.