Racism and the Pacific

Harada possessed property before acquiring property from Gunnerson, “suggesting this method of purchasing property processed easily.” His neighbors noticed the purchase and attempted to dispose of his Japanese family by offering an exceptional amount of profit. The People of the State of California versus Jukichi Harada favored Harada, indicating his right to own and purchase property “in good faith, with the funds of the children, and not as a circumvention of the Alien Land Law.” Americans in California responded negatively insisting Harada violated the Alien Land Law, which eventually reached the press throughout the state and the eastern regions of the United States. Additionally, Oyama versus California guaranteed “equal access to property regardless of race” in 1948. This case supported the impact and the defeat of the California Alien Land Laws several years after the decision. Americans sensed their racial superiority over the Asian community and attempted to subdue their chances of employment.
In addition to legal cases, Japanese and Filipino Americans relied on strikes on the account of reduced income and racial discrimination. Asian communities, during the early twentieth century, are generally farm laborers. Japanese and Filipino laborers received less income for their work. The Japanese “launched a major strike in 1909 to protest living and working conditions as well as wage inequalities.” Americans responded by defeating their protest with violence and arrested Japanese Americans for organizing the demonstration. The plantation industry refused to listen to their protest for racial equality within the workplace. Along with organizing demonstrations, Japanese and Filipino Americans established the Japanese Federat...

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