Editing Issei (section)

===American {{transliteration|ja|issei}}===
{{main|Japanese Americans}}
The first members of the {{transliteration|ja|issei}} emigrated not directly to the [[mainland United States]], but to Hawaii. These emigrants—the first of whom arrived on board the [[steamship]] ''[[City of Tokio]]'' in February 1885—were common laborers escaping hard times in Japan to work in Hawai'i. Their immigration was subsidized by the Hawaiian government, as cheap labor was needed for important commodity crops, especially its [[sugar plantation]]s. Numerous Japanese eventually settled in Hawaii.<ref>Tate, E. Mowbray. (1986). [https://books.google.com/books?id=OuUvlfcIGRQC&q=Transpacific+Steam ''Transpacific Steam: The Story of Steam Navigation from the Pacific Coast of North America to the Far East and the Antipodes, 1867–1941''], p. 231</ref><!-- Note: many of the emigrants to Hawai'i came from the Ryukyuan islands due to heavy tax increases there, resulting in a drain of labour; some mention of this would be good. Please see the article on the Ryukyuan islands for more details.-->

Emigration of Japanese directly to the mainland began in 1885, when "student-laborers" landed on the West Coast of the United States.<ref>Sakata, Yasuo. (1992). ''Fading Footsteps of the Issei,'' p. 1.</ref> The earliest of these emigrated to San Francisco. Their numbers continually increased in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their purpose in moving to America was to gain advanced knowledge and experience to develop the modern society at home. Both students and laborers were attracted by the image of the United States as a country that welcomed foreigners. When they first arrived in the U.S., they had not intended to live there permanently, but rather to learn from Americans and to take that knowledge back home. While they encountered discrimination, they also made opportunities, and many settled in California, and later in Washington and Oregon as well as Alaska (to a lesser degree).