The Harada House ( ja, ハラダハウス,
[ハラダハウスに支援の手を:日系人史跡が崩壊の危機 - Rafu Shimpo](_blank)
/ref> ''Harada Hausu'') is a historic house in Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...
. The house was the focus of a critical application of the California Alien Land Law of 1913
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 (also known as the Webb–Haney Act) prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases over it, but permitted leases lasting up to three years. It affe ...
, which prevented foreigners who were ineligible for citizenship from owning property. The state of California attempted to seize the property from the family in ''California v. Harada'', but the Haradas ultimately won the case and retained ownership of the house. The house, created in 1884 and built upon by the Harada family, was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1990[ and ] and is currently overseen by the Museum of Riverside.
Description
The Harada House is located near downtown Riverside, on the east side of Lemon Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. The house was built in 1884 as a single-story saltbox
A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a woode ...
cottage with recessed shiplap wood siding and a wood shingle roof. The Haradas made a large improvement to the property in 1916 with the addition of a second story, complete with "four bedrooms, a bathroom, and an open front porch." It now stands as an unassuming, two-story frame structure with shiplap siding on its exterior. It is fronted by a two-story porch supported by heavy posts, with the second floor of the porch being enclosed. The original four square chamfered
A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces.
Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fur ...
porch support posts have been exchanged with simple heavy posts and the original windows were redecorated by extending their frames. Due to the alterations of the house being used as evidence in the case of ''California v. Harada'', its historical integrity and a majority of its features such as its wallpaper, fixtures, and overall structural design have been preserved.
History
Family
During the early 1900s, Jukichi Harada emigrated from his native home of Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
alongside his wife, Ken, and their firstborn son, Masa Atsu. The Harada family settled in Riverside, California by leasing a boarding house as well as operating a restaurant, and they had three more children, Mine, Sumi, and Yoshizo, during this time. In 1913, the Harada family suffered the loss of their five-year-old son, Tadao, due to the bacterial infection diphtheria caused by their current confined living situation. Jukichi Harada then began searching for a new home that was close to the family's church and his children's school.
''California v. Harada''
The house was purchased in 1915 by Jukichi Harada in a transaction that formally placed ownership of the house in the hands of his three minor children, who were natural-born United States citizens. This was because Harada and his wife Ken were immigrants from Japan, and were prevented from owning property in California by the California Alien Land Law of 1913
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 (also known as the Webb–Haney Act) prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases over it, but permitted leases lasting up to three years. It affe ...
. After the purchase, neighboring property owners attempted to drive the Haradas out of the property, without success. State authorities then filed suit against the children (the named owners of the property) to bring it into state ownership in October 1916, and the hearings for the case of ''California v. Harada'' began in December 1916.
At issue in the case was the right of the American-born Japanese children of Japanese immigrants
The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (日系) or as Nikkeijin (日系人), comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan (and their descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded a ...
to own the house, with the case serving as an early constitutional
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
test of the alien land law. During the hearings, the case drew international attention, as the current relations and Gentlemen's Agreement
A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or th ...
between the U.S. and Japan put a lot of eyes on the trial. The hearings ended in September 1918, with Judge Hugh Craig upholding the right of the children to own the house. Judge Craig stated that, as American citizens, the Harada children had the right to own property regardless of their race, and the state chose not to appeal this decision.
Despite the Haradas being allowed to keep the property, the principle of legislation preventing land ownership by aliens was also confirmed. This set the stage for further legal challenges, as foreigners ineligible for citizenship were still unable to own property.
Preservation
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Haradas were among those sent to Japanese internment camps, where both Ken and Jukichi Harada died. During their internment, a Caucasian friend of the family occupied the house, and the family was able to retain ownership.
Also during World War II family members Roy Hashimura (adopted) and Harold Harada served with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
The 442nd Infantry Regiment ( ja, 第442歩兵連隊) was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment is best known as the most decorated in U.S. military history and as a fighting unit composed almost entirely of second-gene ...
. In the years after the war, Sumi Harada, one of the three children, took over the house and boarded other Japanese families who had lost their homes. It is during this period that the upstairs porch was enclosed to provide more living space.
Beginning in the 1970s, Mark Rawitsch, a graduate student from the University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
, begun researching the Harada house. Working alongside Sumi Harada, who was able to preserve a vast quantity of family records, the two were able to demonstrate the house's significance to the City of Riverside, and the house became an official landmark in 1977. In 1991, Sumi Harada received a letter from the National Park Service, “The Harada House has been found to possess national significance in the history of the United States. It has been declared a National Historical Landmark.” In 2004, four years after Sumi Harada died and ownership passed to her brother Harold, their house was donated to the Riverside Metropolitan Museum.
Restoration
In November 2016, the American Alliance of Museums
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
notified the Riverside Metropolitan Museum in a reaccreditation letter of the need to come together "to see measurable plans and evidence of concrete steps taken to address the urgent need to stabilize, then conserve, then open the Harada House." A comprehensive structural engineering assessment shall be performed to understand the house's full condition. There are more structural issues that have to be dealt with to fully stabilize it, even though the house has had previous structural work. Overall, the Harada House needs dismantling to understand its original structure and condition, then a full plan of procedures to fully restore the house can be developed.
Through the process of restoration, the house is currently being made into a cultural and educational site by the Museum of Riverside (formerly the Riverside Metropolitan Museum). To create an interpretive center for the site, the museum raised money through donations to purchase a neighboring house, referred to as the Robinson House.
Image:Harada House Plaque 20091024b.jpg, National Historic Landmark plaque in front of the Harada House.
Image:Harada House Plaque 20091024a.jpg, Riverside Cultural Heritage Board plaque in front of the Harada House.
See also
*
* Day of Remembrance (Japanese Americans)
The Day of Remembrance (DOR, ja, 追憶の日, ''Tsuioku no Hi'') is a day of observance for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Events in numerous U.S. states, especially in the West Coast, are held on or near February ...
* Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
* Empty Chair Memorial The Empty Chair Memorial ( ja, 空席の椅子の記念碑, ''Kūseki no Isu no Kinenhi'') is a memorial located at Capital School Park in downtown Juneau, Alaska, United States. It is dedicated to the 53 Juneau residents of Japanese origin who were ...
* Fred Korematsu Day
The Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution is celebrated on January 30 in California and a growing number of additional states to commemorate the birthday of Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American civil rights activist best known ...
* Go for Broke Monument
*
* National Japanese American Veterans Memorial Court
The National Japanese American Veterans Memorial Court ( ja, 日系米国人退役軍人慰霊碑, ''Nikkei Beikokujin Taiekigunjin Ireihi'') is a National memorial (United States), national memorial court in Los Angeles, California, honoring the ...
* Sakura Square
Sakura Square ( ja, サクラ・スクエア, ''Sakura Sukuea'') is a small plaza located on the north/east side of the intersection of 19th Street and Larimer Street in Denver, Colorado. The square contains busts of Ralph L. Carr, Governor of C ...
* Alien land laws
Alien land laws were a series of legislative attempts to discourage Asian and other "non-desirable" immigrants from settling permanently in U.S. states and territories by limiting their ability to own land and property. Because the Naturalization A ...
* List of National Historic Landmarks in California
This is a complete List of National Historic Landmarks in California. The United States National Historic Landmark (NHL) program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures, districts, objects, and simila ...
*
References
Further reading
*
*
*
** Reviewed in:
External links
Museum of Riverside, Harada House
* ttps://www.nps.gov/places/harada-house.htm National Park Service; National Historic Landmarks Program; Harada House*
{{National Register of Historic Places in California
Museums in Riverside, California
Japanese-American culture in California
Japanese-American memorials
Property law in the United States
Ethnic museums in California
History museums in California
Museums of Japanese culture abroad in the United States
Houses in Riverside County, California
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Historic Landmarks in California
National Register of Historic Places in Riverside County, California
Landmarks in Riverside, California
Houses completed in 1884
1884 establishments in California