ABSTRACT
The Arkansas legislature in 1943 enacted an anti-Japanese land law. It declares that no Japanese or a descendant of Japanese shall ever purchase or hold title to any lands in the State of Arkansas. Since those laws are in reality aimed at the Japanese, Arkansas raises to eleven the count of states that have anti-Japanese land laws. The constitutional issue is whether California can pick out of her half-million alien residents, 25,000 Japanese aliens, together with imperceptible number of Korean, Malay, and Polynesian aliens. The Census of 1940, in reporting the occupations of persons fourteen years old and older, shows that over ten thousand alien Japanese were engaged in farming in California. California law forbids Japanese aliens to hold any legal interest in land, except leasehold for commercial and residential purposes, and the concept of a legal interest in land is stretched to include the holding of a share in a corporation.
