Colorado's Japanese Americans: From 1886 to the Present

12: The Alien Land and Law

T H E A L I E N L A N D L A W P A G E 115 The growth of the Japanese American population in Denver during the war years went relatively unnoticed, but that was not the case in some rural areas of Colorado, particularly in Adams County just north of Denver. Some residents began to view with alarm the growing number of Japanese who were settling in the county and sharecropping, leasing farms, or—horrors—buying land. In January 1944 Colorado governor John Vivian received a delegation of Adams County farmers and businessmen headed by Mayor J. W. Wells of Brighton. Wells declared that in the previous six months an “alarming” number of Japanese had been buying farmland and businesses in Adams County, often paying much more than the property was worth. He said residents were fearful of “agricultural and business exploitation by the Japs” who previously had been only renters or sharecroppers. If Wells explained where these c h a p t e r t w e l v e T H E A L I E N L A N D L A W T H E A L I E N L A N D L A W P A G E 116 refugees from the West Coast were getting all that money, there is no record. The visitors proposed that, because the problem was so urgent, a special legislative session be called to pass an anti-alien land law, prohibiting ownership of real property by aliens ineligible to citizenship. Such a law existed in a number of states, primarily in the West. And because Japanese immigrants, like other Asians, were not permitted naturalization, the intent of such a law was only too evident. In 1889 the state of Washington had been the first state to pass legislation prohibiting land ownership by aliens ineligible to citizenship . California had enacted a similar law in 1913 under the slogan “Keep California White” at a time when Japanese owned approximately 12,700 acres in the state out of a total of 11 million acres of improved farmland. Despite relatively few Asians living in most of these states, similar laws had been passed over the years by Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Missouri with the comprehensive California law serving as the pattern. Governor Vivian’s aides pointed out to him that Article 2, Section 27, of Colorado’s constitution recognized property rights of aliens with these words: “Aliens, who are or may hereafter become bona fide residents of this state, may acquire, inherit, possess, enjoy and dispose of property, real and personal, as native born citizens.” Section 27 said nothing about requiring citizenship for land ownership, nor did it define “bona fide resident.” It could be argued that there was no reason an alien ineligible to citizenship could not be a “bona fide” resident entitled to the right to own property. Thus, Vivian was advised, the state constitution had no provision preventing Japanese Americans or even Japanese aliens from owning real property. Vivian then said he wasn’t about to call a special legis- T H E A L I E N L A N D L A W P A G E 117 lative session to change the constitution but promised to look into the problem. Meanwhile, the Brighton Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution saying the influx of aliens posed “a menace to the public welfare of citizens” and urged new legislation prohibiting land ownership by all aliens. Others seized on this idea. Attorney general Gail Ireland backed a proposal to call a special session of the legislature to pass a constitutional amendment that would have the effect of giving aliens a year to dispose of their property, with the state having the power to seize property after that deadline. In his opinion, the attorney general said, such an amendment would not violate either the national or state constitution. A Constitutional Amendment Committee was established by the House and hearings were opened on February 7, 1944. Mayor Wells was the principal witness in favor of the proposed measure, but remarkably a number of citizens turned out to oppose the amendment . Among them were Dean Paul Roberts, the highly respected pastor of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral; Rev. John A Foote, who had been a missionary to Japan; Charles Binna, secretary of the Denver Congress of Industrial...