California Alien Land Law of 1913
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (i.e., all Asian immigrants) from owning land or property, but permitted three-year leases. It affected the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean immigrant farmers in California. It passed thirty-five to two in the Senate and seventy-two to three in the Assembly and was co-written by attorney Francis J. Heney and California state attorney general Ulysses S. Webb at the behest of Governor Hiram Johnson. Japan's Consul General Kametaro Iijima and lawyer Juichi Soyeda lobbied against the law.[1][2] The law was invalidated in 1952 by the Supreme Court of California as a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution in the case of Sei Fujii v. California.
Ten other American states passed restrictive land-ownership laws during the decade 1913–23.[3]
[edit] See also
- Leonard M. Landsborough, California agriculturalist who bought land for Japanese
[edit] References
- ^ "Tells Japan's Side Of California Case. State's Attitude Inconsistent with Our Previous Acts of Friendship, New Consul Says." (PDF). New York Times. June 30, 1913. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=990CE5DD153FE633A25753C3A9609C946296D6CF. Retrieved 2009-07-30. "Asserting at the outset that he meant to be very frank in his discussion of the subject, Kametaro Iijima, the new Japanese Consul General to this city, talked to a reporter yesterday about the California situation at his home, at Central Park West and Eighty-sixth Street. Mr. Iijima arrived in this city last Saturday from Japan."
- ^ "Dr. Soyeda Sure That in the End Californian Situation Will Be Settled Amicably." (PDF). New York Times. June 26, 1913. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D04E5D6103CE633A25755C2A9609C946296D6CF. Retrieved 2009-07-30. "'The Japanese are much surprised by the attitude of the Californian Legislature, and some of them are annoyed, but the thinking persons in Japan trust that the trouble will be solved in the light of justice and humanity,' Dr. J. Soyeda said yesterday at the Hotel Astor. ... Dr. Soyeda and Tadao Kamiya who is associated with him in his mission, were entertained at a luncheon yesterday by the Publishers Association of New York ..."
- ^ Colletta, 1967; Olin, 1966.
- Colleta, Paolo E., 1967, "The Most Thankless Task: Bryan and the California Alien Land Legislation," Pacific Historical Review, XXXVI (May): 163–87.
- Daniels, Roger, The Politics of Prejudice: The Anti-Japanese Movement in California and the Struggle for Japanese Exclusion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962).
- Olin, Spencer C.,Jr.,1966. "European Immigration and Oriental Alien: Acceptance and Rejection by the California Legislature, 1913," Pacific Historical Review,XXXV (August): 303–15.
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