Description
Book SynopsisIn 1915, Jukichi and Ken Harada purchased a house on Lemon Street in Riverside, California. Close to their restaurant, church, and children's school, the house should have been a safe and healthy family home. Before the purchase, white neighbours objected because of the Haradas' Japanese ancestry, and the California Alien Land Law denied them real-estate ownership because they were not citizens. To bypass the law Mr. Harada bought the house in the names of his three youngest children, who were American-born citizens. Neighbours protested again, and the first Japanese American court test of the California Alien Land Law of 1913 -- The People of the State of California v. Jukichi Harada -- was the result. Bringing this little-known story to light, The House on Lemon Street details the Haradas' decision to fight for the American dream. Chronicling their experiences from their immigration to the United States through their legal battle over their home, their incarceration during World War II, and their lives after the war, this book tells the story of the familys participation in the struggle for human and civil rights, social justice, property and legal rights, and fair treatment of immigrants in the United States. The Harada familys quest for acceptance illuminates the deep underpinnings of anti-Asian animus, which set the stage for Executive Order 9066, and recognises fundamental elements of our nations anti-immigrant history that continue to shape the American story. It will be worthwhile for anyone interested in the Japanese American experience in the twentieth century, immigration history, public history, and law.
Trade Review"The House on Lemon Street ranks with Valerie Matsumoto's Farming the Home Place, Yasuko Takezawa's Breaking the Silence, and Linda Tamura's Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence as among the very best books in Japanese American studies to simultaneously make a major contribution to that field of study plus local and public history." Art Hansen, Professor Emeritus of History & Asian American Studies and past director of the Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton
