Question

What was the Gentlemen's Agreement?

A. A deal between the United States and Japan that allowed Japan to ban emigration to the United States
B. An agreement between Japan and China to send men from both countries to America
C. An agreement that allowed Japanese and Mexican laborers into the United States for a limited time
D. Adeal between China and the United States to send skilled American workers to China and Japan ​

Answer 1

The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal pact between the U.S. and Japan where Japan agreed to restrict emigration to the U.S. to avoid a formal ban on Japanese immigrants, helping maintain diplomatic relations and addressing U.S. nativism concerns.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal and unwritten pact between the United States and Japan. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. would not impose a formal ban on Japanese immigrants, which had been previously done with Chinese immigrants through the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Instead, the United States relied on Japan to halt the migration of its citizens to the U.S. This strategy was designed to lessen the growing tension over Japanese immigration and to appease nativist sentiments without causing a diplomatic rift with Japan.

Significantly, the agreement also included persuasion by the U.S. federal government for the San Francisco school board to only segregate Chinese children, not Japanese, in schools. Because the pact was unofficial, Japan maintained its dignity by declaring that it was their own choice not to migrate to the West, thus the term 'Gentlemen's Agreement' emerged to define this diplomatic understanding.