Portrait of Jitsuo “Ed” Kawaoka as a young man, Petaluma, California, between 1938 and 1941
(Courtesy of Sonoma County Library). View in Calisphere
The Kawaoka Case was heard in 1923 by Judge Rolfe Thompson of Sonoma County’s Superior Court, who later ascended to the state Court of Appeal. He ruled against the Japanese family in a matter of letters of guardianship for a poultry ranch near Penngrove in which the father hoped to hold the land for his three children, all of whom were born in the United States.
Thompson denied the request, ruling that it was an attempt to circumvent the Alien Land Law. And he didn’t stop there. The language of the ruling falls hard upon our ears 70 years later. But there is no evidence that anyone protested his vehemence at the time.
‘The purpose of the Alien Land Law,’ Judge Thompson stated, ‘ ... is to protect our rapidly vanishing fertile soil against the invading horde of brown men who come here and shatter our standards of living and citizenship; who substitute their philosophy of politeness and cunning for the ‘golden rule,’ who bring to us their Oriental ideas and religion. Over 5,000 of them were born in California last year …. They monopolize our richest fields …. Little wonder our legislators in their wisdom have found it necessary to defend our schools, our homes and our lands against this unwelcome and unscrupulous invasion by every legislative means within their power.’
— LeBaron, Gaye. “No Welcome Mat for Japanese in the Golden State.” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, April 26, 1992.