California Alien Land Law of 1913

Leading up to the passage of the 1913 Alien Land Law, there had been growing anti-Asian prejudice in California and in the United States in general, first against the Chinese during the 19th century, culminating with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and then against the Japanese during the 20th century. Anti-Japanese sentiment was often expressed in racist Yellow Peril arguments. In 1900, there was an influx of over 12,000 Japanese immigrants to the US mainland, many of whom had just been released from indentured labor with Hawaii's 1898 annexation. Many Japanese immigrants settled in California and relocated to rural areas after they initially landed in cities. Farming became the major economic foundation for the Japanese population in California, and they saw it as a way to prove their productive abilities and to establish a sense of permanency in their new nation. Gradually, many moved from farm labor into truck farming and filled the niche market for perishable crops. By 1915, three quarters of the vegetables consumed by Los Angeles residents were grown by Japanese. == California Alien Land Law of 1913 ==

At the start of 1913, the California legislature considered approximately 40 anti-Japanese measures, many of which related to land ownership. The Woodrow Wilson administration discouraged the legislation and sought to persuade Democratic lawmakers to vote against it. The measure passed the Senate by 35–2 on May 2, 1913 while the measure passed the Assembly on May 3, 1913 by 72–3. Governor Hiram Johnson signed the bill into law on May 17, 1913. At the time of the legislation's passage, there were at most 50,000 Japanese individuals in California (out of a total California population of 2.5 million). The Japanese population owned 12,726 acres (out of 27 million acres of improved or unimproved land in California). == California Alien Land Law of 1920 ==

The California Alien Land Law of 1920 continued the 1913 law while filling many loopholes, such as: leasing of land for a period of three years or less was no longer allowed; owning of stock in companies that acquired agricultural land was forbidden; and guardians or agents of ineligible aliens were required to submit an annual report on their activities. The 1920 Alien Land Law was passed in reaction to the intensification of anti-Japanese sentiment, but failed to stem Japanese immigration to California. The law was approved by the voters after being proposed by the California State Legislature. It passed with a vote of 668,438 to 222,086. The 1920 law was amended in 1923 to further fill wording-related loopholes. There is not complete agreement about the effects of the 1920 law. It is thought by some historians to have had a significant negative impact on Japanese involvement in agriculture. For example, the amount of agricultural land controlled by Japanese decreased by approximately 40 percent between 1920 and 1930, and total acres farmed by Japanese persons declined by 47 percent. During the 1920s, there was a general decline in the agricultural economy in California and elsewhere in the United States, which would have partially contributed to the sudden downturn in Japanese farming. Many Japanese were also able to evade the law, often by claiming to be farm "managers." There were at least sixteen prosecutions of Japanese for violations of the Alien Land Law from 1920 to 1940, but there were likely many more. Although the Alien Land Laws made farming more difficult for them, the Japanese still managed to maintain a fairly high level of economic success in the agricultural industry. In 1915, Japanese Foreign Minister Komei Kato likely spoke for many Japanese when he expressed the sentiment that Japanese immigrants were dismayed by being singled out in such a fashion by the Alien Land Law legislation. == Related court cases ==

In 1918, California v. Jukichi Harada was resolved in Riverside Superior Court in favor of Harada, allowing the Harada family to keep the home purchased in the names of their three American-born children by affirming their 14th Amendment rights. The outcome of this case did not alter California's alien land laws, and the parents, Japanese immigrants Jukichi and Ken Harada, remained ineligible for citizenship for the remainder of their lives. In 1923, the laws were upheld in the United States Supreme Court and were determined not to be in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Alien Land Laws were invalidated in 1952 by the Supreme Court of California as a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in Sei Fujii v. California. Fujii was a longtime Los Angeles resident, but was not a U.S. citizen. He alleged that the law violated the California and United States Constitutions, and that it also went against the spirit of the United Nations Charter to which the United States was bound by treaty. The California District Court of Appeal had decided in 1950 that the Alien Land Law was in violation of Articles 55 and 56 of the United Nations Charter. The Supreme Court of California then ordered the case transferred for hearing and settlement, as it was determined to be a sufficiently important question of law. == Criticism ==

The laws are widely held to have been discriminatory measures specifically targeting the Japanese, spurred by fears about the increasing number of Japanese immigrants settling in California. The choice to apply the laws only to those aliens ineligible for citizenship rather than to all aliens meant that European aliens would not be affected. Because of this, the bill was decidedly directed at Asians and specifically at the Japanese, who had become a strong presence in the agricultural labor market as well as in the control of farms. The Alien Land Laws were part of a larger trend of attempted discrimination against the Japanese through policy in California during the early 20th century. == Related acts ==

Eight other American states passed restrictive land-ownership laws during the years 1913–25. These states were Arizona, Washington, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming followed with the passage of Alien Land Laws during the World War II years. Until 2018, Florida was the only state that had not repealed its Alien Land Law. A 1926 amendment was buried in a provision to the 'Basic Rights' paragraph of the Florida Constitution (Article 1, Section 2): ==See also==