Idaho's Place: A New History of the Gem State

Idaho Voices: Ethnic History

198 Idaho Voices Ethnic History Farmer Henry Fujii discusses discriminatory land laws in Idaho in the 1920s. Interviewer: Everyone got along fine? Fujii: Yes. But [in] 1915 agitators come from California tryin’ to make anti-Japanese land laws in Boise. Interviewer: Were they Japanese men? Fujii: No. Interviewer: White men? Fujii: White men. They wanna make [sure] the Japanese can’t own that land. That’s what they wanted. Anti-Japanese land law they call it. Interviewer: Did they get away with it? Fujii: They did. They done that from California way, then come to Idaho and Oregon, all western states. Interviewer: What did the Japanese people do then? Fujii: In Idaho, we [were] prohibited [from] owning the land, but we had to lease under five-years land lease allowed to us, so we farmed leased land, most of ’em. I already owned a land at the time. Finally this land . . . law went through Idaho Legislature, 1923, but I bought this land in 1918 so we didn’t have no trouble. Interviewer: Oh, well then what happened to the other Japanese people that they wanted to buy land? Fujii: They leased the land. Interviewer: They leased it? Fujii: That’s the only way they can farm after this law pass. Interviewer: How long was that law in effect? Fujii: Until after the war. Idaho Voices: Ethnic History199 Interviewer: I’ve never heard that before. Fujii: I think . . . 1948 or ’49 they refused that. It was an unfair, unfair law. That would [have] stood in California too until they repealed. Oregon same way; they couldn’t hold the land and they couldn’t lease the land in California and Oregon. Washington too. Utah, Arizona. Interviewer: Well, did all the states repeal that law then? Fujii: Um-hm. But children born in the United States, they’re citizens, so they can buy the land, lease the land for their own help, and older Japanese, they can buy land and keep on farming. * * * Rosa Lee Tigner describes discrimination in Boise against African Americans . Interviewer: Did you have any problems in Boise getting services, like perhaps in Pocatello, some of those places you mentioned, were there places like that in Boise? Tigner: Was there. Boise we was thought—I don’t know about northern Idaho, I’ve never lived in northern, but Boise is worse than Pocatello. Interviewer: It was? Tigner: Yeah, because Boise had in their Greyhound bus station “We do not cater to colored persons.” That was on the Greyhound bus. Going from Pocatello to Grand Coulee, Washington, and I got off—I used to be crazy about a ham and egg sandwich, and it choked me to death when I happened to look up and see—I couldn’t eat another bite because that sign right there—it was just choking me—I couldn’t eat no more. I went and got back on the bus. But they had service—they couldn’t refuse the service because I was Black. Interviewer: They’d lose a lot of customers. Was that pretty common around Boise? Tigner: It was then, I found out. And I found out that not until—it hadn’t been too many years that Boise had kind of changed their attitude, and really there’s a little undercurrent yet. 200 Idaho Voices: Ethnic History Interviewer: Still? Tigner: Yeah. Notes Henry Fujii was interviewed by Robert Alexander and Cecil Hungerford, August 23, 1971, Nampa, ID, transcript (OH0037), Idaho Oral History Center/Idaho State Historical Society, 13–14. Used with permission of Idaho State Historical Society. Rosa Lee Tigner was interviewed by Mateo Osa, February 6, 1981, Boise, ID, transcript (OH0560), Idaho Oral History Center/Idaho State Historical Society, 21–22. Used with permission of Idaho State Historical Society. ...