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Japanese Alien Land Law Investigation Records
MSS 323
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Title: japanese alien land law investigation
records
Dates: 1912-1948
Collection number: MSS 323
Collector:
Japanese American Citizens
League
Collection Size: 2.25 linear feet
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of
Special Collections
Stockton, California 95211
Abstract: The collection consists of materials related to
19 investigations into Japanese-owned properties focused in San Joaquin County
and escheat cases that resulted from them.
Physical location: For current information on the location
of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection open for research.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as
the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
researcher.
japanese alien land law investigation records. MSS 323. Holt-Atherton
Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library.
Biography / Administrative History
The 1913 Alien Land Law enacted in California limited aliens ineligible
for citizenship to only any property rights guaranteed in treaties with their
respective countries. Effectively, this targeted aliens from Japan, since they
were unable to apply for citizenship under the immigration laws at that time,
and the 1911 U.S.-Japan treaty made no mention of property rights. Violations
of the law would result with the property in question being escheated to
(confiscated by) the state. Despite this barrier, Japanese immigrants continued
to increase their land holdings in California. Several methods for
circumventing the law grew common in the years following. These included
purchasing land in the name of a child and holding it under guardianship, or
forming an agricultural corporation to hold the land. Anti-Japanese lobbyists
grew increasingly discontented, and in 1920 a new, more restrictive Alien Land
Law was placed on the ballot and passed. This new version was intended to
prevent the circumventions of the 1913 law that had become common. It stated
that when a person purchased land in another's name, it was assumed that this
was intended to bypass the law. The burden of proof was also shifted to the
defendant. The defendant would now have to prove that the land had not been
purchased as it was in order to circumvent the Alien Land Law. The Law was
challenged in 1948, in
Oyama v. California. Fred
Oyama sued the State of California, arguing that his rights as a citizen had
been violated when the state confiscated the land in Los Angeles that his
non-citizen father had held in his name. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his
favor, and overturned a portion of the 1920 law. The entire law was overturned
in 1952, in
Fujii v. California. During the period
that the Alien Land Laws were in effect, the state filed 76 escheat
proceedings.
The Alien Land Laws appear to have had a significant effect on Japanese
living in San Joaquin County. Many in the county were under investigation by
the state, with the aim of finding their land holdings in violation of the Land
Laws.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of materials related to 19 investigations into
Japanese-owned properties and escheat cases that resulted from them. These
materials are primarily court documents, evidence, records, and materials
gathered during investigations. These would be useful to researchers looking
for insight into the methods used by the Attorney General's office in
investigating and trying the escheat cases, and the types of information they
collected about Japanese immigrant families residing in and around San Joaquin
County. This collection contains several documents related to the
Oyama trial, including the legal brief of the
case, in folders 1.2 and 4.4. Several of the subseries, such as Terumitsu
Akita, Sadaki Higashi & Jiichi Motoike, and Kiyoshi Watanabe, contain large
amounts of material, especially evidence used by the District Attorney's
office, related to those cases.
The collection also contains more general or miscellaneous materials
more broadly related to Alien Land Law investigations in San Joaquin County,
correspondence to and from the District Attorney's office, agent reports, and
indexes. These materials could be used to examine how agents of the District
Attorney's office conducted investigations, and how the District Attorney
corresponded with other counties, and how he reacted to the
Oyama case.
There are also two photographs:
the first is of Japanese-American students in front of a Stockton Buddhist
Church, and the other shows a mix of Asian-Pacific American students at a
conference. The majority of the documents in the collection date from the 1930s
and 1940s. These materials were provided by the Japanese American Citizens
League (JACL). Prior to their acquisition by the JACL, the materials in the
collection were housed in the San Joaquin County Courthouse.
The materials in the collection were donated in two 1 linear foot boxes.
The original order of the labeled folders inside the boxes is reflected in the
inventory. Although folder titles have been maintained the collection has been
arranged into three series, in order to present the collection in a more
coherent manner for the patron. The first series contains the general and
miscellaneous materials related to Alien Land Law investigations,
correspondence, reports and indexes. The second series contains the materials
related specifically to 19 investigations into Japanese-owned properties and
escheat cases that came out of them. This series is arranged alphabetically by
plaintiff or defendant's last name. The third series contains photographs. The
Original Inventory contains detailed information on specific materials
contained in each folder.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
San Joaquin County (Calif)
Alien property - California
Japanese - California - Legal status,
laws, etc