By 1920, even more laws began to encroach on Japanese-American success. California legislation prohibited Japanese employers from hiring white females and charged prohibitively high rates for fishing licenses. Authorities stated outright the purpose of such measures: to limit privileges for immigrant Japanese so that fewer nationals would leave Japan to seek opportunity in the United States.
These West Coast restrictions did not go unnoticed in Washington. President Theodore Roosevelt, as a gesture to Japan, ordered an end to segregated schools. The Japanese government reciprocated by limiting the number of nationals who were allowed to emigrate.
By 1924, pressures from voters forced Congress to establish a quota system as a means of stabilizing living and working conditions in California, Oregon, and Washington — states in which Asian immigrants often outnumbered established racial groups — that is, whites, Indians, and Hispanics. The force which finally broke the prejudicial laws was the growth of the second wave of Asian Americans, the Nisei, or those born in the United States and endowed with constitutional protections to property, education, land ownership, voting, and office-holding rights.
To solidify anti-Asian forces, whites began to form leagues, labor unions, and clubs such as the American Legion and the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West, all of which excluded Japanese Americans. To counter with their own unifying organization, the newcomers formed the powerful Japanese-American Citizens League, which reached national status by 1930.
