The Potato King Advocates for Japanese American Civil Rights
An Appeal to Justice: The Injustice of the Proposed Initiative Measure
Publication: Stockton, CA: (the author), 1920. First Edition.
Notes: An early printed defense of Japanese immigrant rights in English, an appeal by one of the most prominent Japanese immigrants in California against the 1920 Alien Land Law initiative.
This brochure-pamphlet was issued during the campaign to expand the scope of California’s alien land law. The measure proposed to prohibit Asian immigrants from holding real property, restrict their use of corporations, and curtail the practice of Japanese immigrants placing property in the names of their American-born children. California voters approved it in a landslide.
Shima frames his argument against the ballot measure in the language of American civic ideals. He describes the proposed law as “an infringement upon the fair play and square deal traditional with the American nation.” He also writes that "racial difference engenders a race feeling" but that "the hope of our age lies in the effort to minimize race feeling. Its spirit, its ideal, its tendency is not to emphasize but to alleviate racial difference."
The author, Ushijima Kinji, who Americanized his name to George Shima, was known as the Potato King for his agricultural success in the Sacramento Delta around Stockton, California. He was, by most accounts, the richest Japanese immigrant in the early 20th century. In Japan, he came to be a real-life Horatio Alger figure and the subject of several biographies and children's books.
Six panel brochure. 4 by 8-1/2 inches folded.
Edition + Condition: First edition (likely). A near fine example; paper a bit toned; tiny chip missing from one corner.
Item No: #366286
Price: $850