California Alien Land Law of 1913 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids California Alien Land Law of 1913
California State Legislature
Assembly voted	72-3
Senate voted	35-22
Signed into law	Yes
Governor	Hiram Johnson
Code	None (at large)
Status: Struck down

The California Alien Land Law of 1913 (also known as the Webb–Haney Act) was a rule in California that stopped people who couldn't become US citizens from owning farmland. It also prevented them from renting land for more than three years. This law mainly affected immigrant farmers from China, India, Japan, and Korea who lived in California.

Even though the law mentioned all "aliens ineligible for citizenship," it was mostly aimed at Japanese immigrants. The law passed easily in the California State Senate (35 votes for, 2 against) and the State Assembly (72 votes for, 3 against). It was written by attorney Francis J. Heney and California's attorney general, Ulysses S. Webb, because Governor Hiram Johnson wanted it.

Japan's Consul General, Kametaro Iijima, and lawyer Juichi Soyeda tried to stop the law. The Japanese government told the US Secretary of State that the law was "unfair" and didn't fit the friendly relationship between the two countries. They felt it ignored an existing treaty. The main goal of this law was to discourage more people from Asia from moving to California and to make life harder for those already there.

Why the Law Was Created

Before the 1913 Alien Land Law, there was a lot of prejudice against people from Asia in California and across the United States. This started with Chinese immigrants in the 1800s, leading to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Later, this prejudice shifted towards Japanese immigrants in the 1900s. People often used racist ideas, like the "Yellow Peril," to spread fear about Asian people.

Around 1900, more than 12,000 Japanese immigrants came to the US mainland. Many had been working in Hawaii and moved to California after Hawaii became part of the US. A lot of Japanese immigrants settled in California and moved to farming areas. Farming became very important for them. They saw it as a way to show they could be productive and build a life in their new country. Many started by working on farms and then moved into growing special crops that spoil quickly.

The sudden increase in Japanese immigration caused many groups in California to become anti-Japanese. New laws against Asian people were suggested in the California legislature, which made public feelings worse. Some soldiers returning from World War I felt that Japanese immigrants were taking their job opportunities. Others worried that Japanese people were trying to take over farmland owned by white people in California. Newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and groups like the Anti-Asiatic Association strongly pushed these anti-Japanese ideas.

In 1907, the US and Japan made an agreement called the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907. Japan agreed to stop giving passports to workers who wanted to move to the US unless they already had a place to live or family there.

A treaty from 1911 allowed Japanese people to rent and own land in the US for homes and businesses. But this treaty did not cover farmland. So, the Alien Land Laws focused on agricultural land. These state-level laws were created to stop immigration because the federal government wasn't doing much.

More and more Japanese people worked as farm laborers and tenant farmers in California during the early 1900s. They filled a gap in farm labor that Chinese workers used to fill. This gap appeared after the Chinese Exclusion Act sharply reduced the number of Chinese workers. Japanese families hoped to save enough money, especially through tenant farming, to buy their own land.

Even though the 1913 law was supposed to reduce immigration, it didn't have a huge impact on Japanese farmers at first. In fact, their numbers actually went up after the law passed. Many Japanese immigrants, called issei, found ways around the law. They would put the land in the name of their American-born children, called nisei, who were US citizens. By 1915, Japanese farmers grew three-quarters of the vegetables eaten by people in Los Angeles.

California Alien Land Law of 1920

The California Alien Land Law of 1920 was created to fix the weaknesses in the 1913 law. It closed many of the ways people found to get around the first law. For example, renting land for three years or less was no longer allowed. Also, people who couldn't become citizens were forbidden from owning shares in companies that bought farmland. Guardians or agents of these "ineligible aliens" also had to report their activities every year.

The 1920 law was passed because anti-Japanese feelings grew stronger. Also, the 1913 law wasn't really stopping Japanese immigration to California. Voters approved the 1920 law after the California State Legislature suggested it. It passed with a large vote: 668,438 for and 222,086 against. The 1920 law was changed again in 1923 to fix even more wording problems.

Experts don't fully agree on how much the 1920 law affected Japanese farming. Some believe it had a big negative impact. For example, the amount of farmland controlled by Japanese people dropped by about 40 percent between 1920 and 1930. The total acres farmed by Japanese people went down by 47 percent. However, the 1920s also saw a general decline in farming across California and the US. This wider problem would have partly caused the drop in Japanese farming.

Many Japanese people still found ways to avoid the law, often by saying they were farm "managers." There were at least sixteen legal cases against Japanese people for breaking the Alien Land Law between 1920 and 1940, but there were probably many more. Even though these laws made farming harder, Japanese people still managed to be quite successful in agriculture. In 1915, Japanese Foreign Minister Komei Kato likely spoke for many Japanese when he said that immigrants were upset about being unfairly targeted by these laws.

Court Cases About the Law

In 1918, a court case called California v. Jukichi Harada happened in Riverside. The court decided in favor of the Harada family. This allowed them to keep the home they bought in the names of their three American-born children. The court said this was allowed under the 14th Amendment, which protects citizens' rights. This case did not change California's alien land laws, and the parents, Jukichi and Ken Harada, could not become citizens during their lives.

In 1923, the Supreme Court of the United States looked at the laws. They decided that the laws were not against the 14th Amendment. So, the laws were allowed to continue.

In 1946, the Supreme Court of California heard the case People v. Oyama. This case was about Kajiro Oyama, a Japanese immigrant. He had bought farmland and put it in his son's name. His son was a US citizen. A local court had even approved Oyama's request to be his son's guardian so he could manage the land. This was a common way Japanese people got farmland when other ways were blocked.

The case then went to the Supreme Court of the United States as Oyama v. California. The Supreme Court decided that California had violated Fred Oyama's rights as a US citizen to own property. This decision was very important. It helped change how people thought about Japanese immigrants and their property rights.

Finally, in 1952, the Alien Land Laws were declared invalid by the Supreme Court of California. This happened in the case Sei Fujii v. California. The court said the laws violated the equal protection part of the 14th Amendment. Sei Fujii had lived in Los Angeles for a long time but was not a US citizen. He argued that the law went against the California and US Constitutions. He also said it went against the spirit of the United Nations Charter, which the US had agreed to.

In 1950, a lower court had already said the Alien Land Law violated parts of the United Nations Charter. The California Supreme Court then took the case because it was a very important legal question.

Why the Laws Were Unfair

Many people agree that these laws were unfair and specifically targeted Japanese immigrants. They were created because of fears about the growing number of Japanese immigrants in California. The laws only applied to "aliens ineligible for citizenship." This meant that immigrants from European countries were not affected. Because of this, the laws were clearly aimed at people from Asia, especially the Japanese. Japanese immigrants had become a strong part of the farming workforce and controlled many farms. The Alien Land Laws were part of a larger effort in California to discriminate against Japanese people in the early 1900s.

Similar Laws in Other States

Eight other American states passed similar laws about land ownership between 1913 and 1925. These states included Arizona, Washington, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Later, during World War II, Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming also passed Alien Land Laws.

Until 2018, Florida was the only state that had not removed its Alien Land Law. A change made in 1926 was hidden in a part of Florida's Constitution:

. . . the ownership, inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens ineligible to citizenship may be regulated or prohibited by law.