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Important or Impotent? Taking Another Look at the 1920 California Alien Land Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2004

MASAO SUZUKI
MASAO SUZUKI
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Economics, Skyline College, 3300 College Drive, San Bruno, CA 94066. E-mail: suzuki@smccd.net.
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Abstract

Opposition to Japanese immigration led to Alien Land Laws that barred Japanese immigrants from buying or leasing farmland. Although there is general agreement that the 1913 California Alien Land Law had little impact, historians and social scientists have differed over the effectiveness of the 1920 initiative, which closed loopholes in the earlier law. Census data show a decline in Japanese American agriculture over the short and long run, which cannot be fully explained by the agricultural downturn of the 1920s. This evidence indicates that the 1920 California Alien Land Law had negative consequences for Japanese immigrant farmers.

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ARTICLES
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 125 - 143
Copyright
© 2004 The Economic History Association

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