Opponent of CA’s Alien Land Law Dies: RIP Toshio Sakai

Toshio Sakai, who helped lead a battle by Japanese Americans to overcome the vestiges of a historical racial ban on land ownership, died last Thursday at age 95.

Mr. Sakai was born in Walnut Grove in 1913 and reared by Japanese immigrants. He lived with his family in Japan during the Great Depression and in Los Angeles before being interned with Japanese Americans during World War II.

 Mr. Sakai returned to Walnut Grove after the war and opened an insurance agency. He served for 27 years on the Walnut Grove Fire District and was on the Walnut Grove School District board. He was a past president of Walnut Grove Buddhist Church.

Mr. Sakai also fought to end a legacy of discrimination created by California’s Alien Land Act, which barred Japanese immigrants from holding title to the parcels on which they owned their homes. Although the law was struck down in 1952, generations of his family and others in Backtown – the Japanese section of Walnut Grove – continued paying rent to landlords. Residents also paid for improvements, including a gravel road, weed spraying and a sewer tie-in. The landlords refused to sell the property to residents but agreed not to raise rents. When a hefty rent increase was set in 1968, Mr. Sakai and his neighbors helped organize a rent strike by residents with support from the War on Poverty’s Operation Grass Roots, the Sacramento County Legal Aid Society and the Japanese American Citizens League. After two years, the landlords agreed to sell to homeowners.

KJ