Shima, George: [Japanese Association of America]:

$1,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

AN APPEAL TO JUSTICE THE INJUSTICE OF THE PROPOSED INITIATIVE MEASURE. [with:] FACTS IN THE CASE THEY WILL BE CAREFULLY WEIGHED IN CONSIDERING THE PROPOSED ALIEN LAND INITIATIVE LAW [wrapper ... An eloquent and passionate pair of pamphlets arguing against the proposed California Alien Land Law of 1920. The earlier Alien Land Law of 1913 was born of the growing anti-Japanese sentiment of the era. Passed by an overwhelming majority (despite protests from the Japanese consulate), it prohibited any aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning or leasing farmland long-term. In actuality, the 1913 act was not particularly effective. Many Japanese immigrants were able to get around its stipulations by gifting their lands to their American-born children, and despite the government's efforts Japanese farmers were responsible for seventy-five percent of the vegetables consumed in Los Angeles in 1915. The state attempted to remedy the situation with the Alien Land Law of 1920, which imposed much stricter measures and closed the loopholes of the first law, with an absolute prohibition on land ownership by Japanese citizens for any duration and protections against first-generation immigrants transferring titles to their children. The 1920 law was more successful in its aims, and the total acres farmed by Japanese Americans declined by forty percent between 1920 and 1930.An Appeal to Justice was written prior to the public vote on the second law, by George Shima, "the Potato King" respons

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