LAKEPORT, Calif. – Historian and author Mark Rawitsch will present a reading of his recently released book, “The House on Lemon Street: Japanese Pioneers and the American Dream,” on Sunday, April 7.

The reading will begin at 2 p.m. in Room 7050 of the new Lake Center, 2565 Parallel Drive, Lakeport.  

It is open to the public with free admission.

In 1915, Jukichi and Ken Harada purchased a house on Lemon Street in Riverside, Calif. Close to their restaurant, church, and children's school, the house should have been a safe and healthy family home.

Before the purchase, white neighbors objected because of the Haradas' Japanese ancestry, and the California Alien Land Law denied them real-estate ownership because they were not citizens.

To bypass the law, Mr. Harada bought the house in the names of his three youngest children, who were American-born citizens. Neighbors protested again, and the first Japanese American court test of the California Alien Land Law of 1913 – The People of California v. Jukichi Harada – was the result.

Bringing this little-known story to light, “The House on Lemon Street” details the Haradas' decision to fight for the American dream.

Chronicling their experiences from their immigration to the United States through their legal battle over their home, their incarceration during World War II, and their lives after the war, this book tells the story of the family's participation in the struggle for human and civil rights, social justice, property and legal rights, and fair treatment of immigrants in the United States.  

Sandra Dallas of The Denver Post has called the book “[A] highly engaging history of the California Japanese.”

Susan Hasegawa of San Diego City College has said of the author, “Rawitsch teaches that history, the creation of history, and preserving our history occurs in our backyard, not in some far-off place.”

Rawitsch is currently the dean of instruction at the Willits Center and the Lake Center for Mendocino College, and “The House on Lemon Street” is his first book.

It recently received the inaugural Crader Family Book Prize in American Values awarded to a first book which best exemplifies individual liberty, constitutional principles and civic virtue. Rawitsch was awarded a $1,000 honorarium for his winning entry.

The reading is sponsored by the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College and the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, affiliate groups of the Mendocino College Foundation.

For more information, call 707-263-4944 or visit www.mendocino.edu .