The House on Lemon Street: Japanese Pioneers and the American Dream by Mark Howland Rawitsch (review)

For Jukichi and Ken Harada, securing a home for their growing family in a respectable neighborhood in Riverside, California embodied the American dream. When the house at 356 Lemon Street went up for sale in 1915, Jukichi Harada provided the funds for purchase and listed his three American-born children as owners on the deed. Harada left his own name off in compliance with the 1913 California Alien Land Law, which prohibited noncitizens from owning property. “Concerned neighbors,” alarmed at the thought of a Japanese family in their racially homogenous neighborhood, immediately formed a citizens group to contest the sale of the property to the Haradas. After several unsuccessful attempts, they urged the attorney general to file a lawsuit against Harada for violating the Alien Land Law. In 1916, The People of California v. Jukichi Harada became the first court case to test the Alien Land Law. Two years later, Judge Hugh Craig ruled in favor of Harada, stating the children had the right to own property under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Historian Mark Howland Rawitsch sheds light on this monumental, though little-known, court case in his thought-provoking study, The House on Lemon Street: Japanese Pioneers and the American Dream. The narrative parcels the relationship between the Haradas and their beloved home into three time periods—the prewar period when they fought to establish their residence, the World War II era when they were forcibly removed, and the postwar resettlement period when the youngest daughter Sumi assumed sole residence.

Rawitsch describes the Haradas’ early years in Riverside as they gradually assimilated into American culture, and he chronicles the growth of Jukichi and Ken’s family through the birth of eight children. By placing the Harada family at the center of the narrative, Rawitsch uses local history to convey the larger experience of Japanese immigrants as they navigated the complexities of assimilating into American culture and society. Though their landmark court case was a significant victory over discriminatory legislation, the Haradas, along with other Asian Americans, were subjected to decades of de jure and de facto discrimination and prejudice. Mine and Sumi, the two Harada daughters, for example, recalled being pelted by rocks and being called vicious names by neighborhood children. Later, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the issuance of Executive Order 9066, the Haradas and other Japanese on the West Coast were removed from their communities and incarcerated in “war relocation centers” during World War II.

Rawitsch uses the Haradas’ experience as a portal into the story of Japanese American incarceration. Through the separation of Harada family members and the deaths of Jukichi and Ken while incarcerated at Topaz, Rawitsch powerfully conveys the disruptiveness of internment to the family unit, especially the toll that it took on the older Issei. Rawitsch also explores ways in which many of the internees (most of whom were U.S. citizens) demonstrated loyalty to their country through military service and cooperation with the War Relocation Authority, despite the violation of their civil liberties.

Rawitsch shifts the focus toward Sumi as she returns home at the conclusion of the war. The familiarity of her family’s belongings comforted Sumi as she remained alone for the last five decades of her life. She kept to a small portion of the house, leaving the rest exactly as it was before her family was forced to leave in 1942.

In the epilogue, Rawitsch reveals his connection to the story, which leads to a highly revelatory section of the book. While the prewar landmark court case gives the Harada House its particular historical value, Sumi’s memorialization of her family’s experiences through the preservation of material culture within the home is of great significance. Due to his interest in Japanese American history, Rawitsch visited Sumi to learn more about her family’s story. Though familiar with the general history...