Final answer:
The agreement between Japan and the United States from 1906 to 1909, known as the Gentleman's Agreement of 1907, was an informal pact where the US would not ban Japanese migration and Japan would voluntarily restrict emigration to the US.
Step-by-step explanation:
Gentleman's Agreement of 1907
The agreement between Japan and the United States between 1906 and 1909 is commonly known as the Gentleman's Agreement of 1907. In an effort to manage immigration concerns and burgeoning xenophobia without causing diplomatic tensions, leaders from both the US and Japan reached an informal pact.
Under this pact, the United States refrained from imposing an explicit ban on Japanese migrants, similar to the exclusionary laws that had applied to Chinese immigrants. In return, Japan took measures to prevent its citizens from emigrating to the US.
Additionally, the US government was successful in persuading the San Francisco school board to desegregate schools, limiting segregation to only Chinese children. This was a key detail, as the agreement itself was not officially documented, allowing Japan to maintain that there was no formal restriction on immigration, only that it was a choice not to emigrate to the US.
As background context, this agreement came in the wake of US involvement in peacemaking after the Russo-Japanese War, which ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905. The resulting deal helped to ease tensions and maintain peace in the Pacific, a region of increasing interest for the United States.