Japanese American Citizens' League

Founded in 1930, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is a membership organization whose mission is to secure and maintain the human and civil rights of Americans of Japanese ancestry and others victimized by injustice. The JACL has 112 chapters nationwide and eight regional districts with over 24,000 members found in 23 states. In addition to its national headquarters in San Francisco, the JACL has five regional offices (Los Angeles, Fresno, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago), as well as an office in Washington D.C. and an organizational newspaper, the Pacific Citizen, distributed nationally from its office in Los Angeles. According to its official website, www.jacl.org, the JACL derives its effectiveness through its regional offices located in key cities and areas to serve the needs of the organization's members and to maintain the well-being of all Asian Americans.

From the guide to the Japanese American Citizens League audio-visual collection, 1926-1975, bulk 1927-1939, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)

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.

From the guide to the japanese alien land law investigation records, 1912-1948, (University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of Special Collections)