they came to america looking for opportunity. but when they reached angel island they were met with a bit -- bitter welcome because of exclusion laws. >> you come to the u.s. and they immediately lock you up and separate you from your family. >> one woman's 55-year-old fight to legally own her home in the delta. >> i was on cloud nine for days. >> she was just 2 years old

when an earthquake ripped through china town. >> my father had to carry my mother out. the neighbor had to carry me out. >> reporter: the impact of the quake on san francisco's chinese community was not recognized for many years. all those stories straight ahead on a second look. hello everyone and welcome to a second look. i'm frank somerville. hundreds of thousands of immigrants mostly from asian were held and processed on angel island in san francisco bay in the decades before world war ii. many were denied entry to the united states due to a race based exclusion law. but 50 years ago, president lindon johnson signed an immigration act of 1965. he said the new law would address the un-american national origins quota system which allowed three countries to supply 70% of all of the

immigrants accepted into the united states. instead, the new law granted access to people's skill sets. >> reporter: san francisco's china town has always been the heart and soul. the home away from home for the chinese men and women who immigrated to this country. with the start of the california gold rush, chinese men seeking what they called the mountain of gold began flocking to america. most of them would be ill prepared to deal with the cruelty they would face in this new land of opportunity. >> from the beginning there was recentment from the chinese from whites and the government in particular. it was government thinking that the chinese could never be assimilated into american society and the idea began a

self-fulfilling prophesy as racial intolerance forced the chinese into their own world of isolation. that world that was china town. the chinese were so unliked that they would create their own world within. most chinesed just passed through china town on their ways to jobs all over the state. they were merchants, farmers, laborers, they worked in sweat shops and as servants for the wealthy. despite low pay and staggering working conditions, chinese laborer cut their way through the granite sierra and completed the western end of the transcontinental railroad. they also worked in california's gold fields. often they would be allowed to work land that was considered already tapped out. there was a $20 a month gold

tax on foreigners which meant chinese and yet still they made money. the dark clout of racism could not stop the chinese from making money. money that could mean a return to families still in china or a return to this country. it made sense to leave china. >> starvation, and people are poor. no jobs. my father came earlier. he was 18. he went back several times. the last time he went back he brought my daughter, me and my younger brother 1922. >> reporter: economic conditions in this country took a turn for the worse. and with jobs scarce, recentment to the chinese. they would be subjected to yet

another humiliation. in 1882 congress would pass the exclusion act. barring the immigration of chinese laborers for a period of 10 years. the act was extended every 10 years to 1962. other classes of chinese would be considered on a case by case basis. if there was any doubt about the applicant's right to immigration, they said the benefit of the doubt would always go to the united states government. over the years loopholes were closed, the law revised and the exclusion act became more restrictive than ever. the chinese became the first group to be limited access into the united states. this tranquil island in san francisco bay would become the symbol of anger over immigration laws aimed at them. on angel island, 175,000

chinese immigrants would pass through. they were sometimes detained for weeks, sometimes years while immigration officials pondered their fate. what hung in the balance was admission to the u.s. or deportation back to china. to many chinese their time here on angel island was psychologically painful and profoundly sad. >> you're coming to the land that promises freedom. you come justice and promises great promise and you come to the united states and immediately lock you and separate you from your family. and you have to face interrogation. it's not physical harm done to you, it's all mental. it's the mental cruelty that you have to go through. you have to go through days and days of interrogation they ask you questions about how many chickens do you have in your farm. how many steps. who lives on the left side. who lives on the right side. where's your village well. where's your church, who's your

minister. and with any conflict they would deport you back to china. >> reporter: when san francisco burned to the grown. amazing opportunity opened up to the people of china town. city hall was destroyed along with all its records. the chinese were suddenly able to claim citizenship and there were no record to dispute their claims. they immediately sent to china for their families and children. because now their children were citizens too. the face of china town was changed, it grew younger with the arrival of children. still to come on a second look. storys from those who were held at the detention center on angel island. >> he stopped running his hand across his front. and hi started crying. >> and in a northern california town built entirely by chinese, a woman fights for decades to buy the land beneath her home.

the legacy of a racist california law.

welcome back to a second look. california drew chinese immigrants during the gold rush in the early 1900s. but the gate keepers to what the chinese called gold mountain could be fierce. to be admitted to california immigrants had to get past a difficult examination at angel island. as george watson reported back in 1989. >> reporter: they came to a pier that would later be named china cove in san francisco bay. they were dealing with immigration laws that were drafted solely to stop them from coming to the country. from china these people would come to the land of student looking for work and money to allow them to go back home or bring their families to

america. but it was not a gate way but detention center. this was the place where the u.s. government made its last stand against chinese immigrants. >> we heard about angel angel island, how cruel, how bad it was until we got there. they took us to the barrack 317. >> reporter: howard tam the son of a merchant came to angel island in 1932. chinese merchants along with teachers were excluded if they could prove to the officials

that they were eligible. details that would have to be verified by family members and other witnesses. such things as how many steps were there to his house. what were the floors made of. exactly where in the kitchen was the rice bin kept. 14-year-old howard tam was asked how many feet there were between his house and his neighbors. >> i didn't know, how many steps from my house to the next neighbor's. i had been there 32 years i didn't know how many steps from my house to the next neighbor's. they said, then his mother said 50 feet. my father something else. that was a problem then. you are not the true son to this family. how come, how come we ask you one question you give us three answers?

>> reporter: other applicants were asked to draw maps of their villages. immigration officials would meticulously copy the maps for their records. down to the fences, even the number and types of trees in the village. another applicant claimed he was returning to a job in china town. he was asked to draw a map of all the stores in his china town neighborhood. an immigration official actually went to china town to verify the map. to some extend the law worked in 1880 chinese accounted for almost 9% of the california population. by 1940 they accounted for less than 1%. but ironically the courts proved friendly to the chinese. applicants could appear to the federal courts and many did. petitioning, chinese were find

tag the courts were making total enforcement of the chinese exclusion laws virtually impossible. by 1890 more than 30,000 chinese sought to overturn decision that is denied them entry to this country. approximately 90% of them won their cases. many others had to deal with the humiliating ordeal of deportation. we had access to documents if they were at least 75 years old. documents of any age were available to family members. we found one woman who was deported because officials thought she was too immodest and therefor probably a prostitute. another woman was also thought to be immodest and possibly a prostitute but she was allowed to stay because seven white witnesses testified in her behalf. the testimony of white witnesses held great sway with the immigration officials while testimony from chinese witnesses might be dismissed all together.

one man claimed he was native born in america. and he had returned to china for several years and was now coming back to the u.s. he appeared to have the appropriate documents. including a picture of himself as a boy and another picture as a young man. immigration officials said the pictures were not of the same person because the ears were different. they sent him back to china. >> so this is where my father stayed and i asked him about it and he said well i will show you where i stayed so he took me into this room. he walked me through this door and he walked me to his bunk. and he did not say a word since he left the boat. when he looked at this bunk he started rubbing his hands across this bunk. and he started crying. you know, in my whole life through my 50, 60 years of life i've never seen my father cry. >> reporter: when chinese immigrants came to angel island there was no statute of liberty

offering harbor. there was instead a detention barracks where they would be locked up while every effort was made to deny them entry to this country. the chinese immigrant, the long voyage to this land of opportunity one woman's 55 year fight to set things right. >> and a survivor's china town story from the 1802 earthquake.

welcome back to second look. sometimes it can take years of fighting to claim what is rightfully yours. that is the story of a chinese woman. she was known as the -- connie king. >> reporter: when travelers in the san joaquin delta see the town of lock they often find it hard to believe this is a real town not a movie set. if these rickety weathered buildings could talk they would have quite a story to tell. the story of chinese americans and their struggle to get a foothold. connie knows that story, she

has lived it for 65 years. connie's first language was chinese. that's because chinese children went to this school where they were thought in chinese. >> i was only nine or 10 years old i had to take care of my two brothers and my sister at that age when my father and mother were away looking for work. sometimes we don't have anything to eat. i would just give them a piece of bread and sprinkle some sugar on top. that's a sandwich. >> reporter: the chinese came to build the railroads. back breaking work that nobody else wanted. but it paid a dollar a day. later hundreds of chinese came to the delta area to pick fruit. or to pack fruit for shipping. connie king got her first pair of new shoes in the seventh grade. she grew up to be a beautiful young woman and got married but when she and her husband tried

to buy a house in the area they were told they couldn't because they were chinese. they had no choice but to move to loch. a town built by chinese. here the chinese could own the houses they built but the land was owned by a farmer named loch and the law at the time forbade chinese from owning land. connie and her husband moved into a three car garage given them by her husband's father. they added on to the building, made a home and raised their children. when the alien land act was struck down in 1952, the chinese began moving away to places where they could buy a house and the land under it. but even after her husband died, connie stayed on. determined that some day she would own her little piece of land. by the time sacramento county bought the land under loch in 2001, connie's husband had died. but she fought on. and at last, last month, the county offered to sell the homeowners the land under their homes. connie bought hers for $5,000.

>> you never know how happy i was that day. i tell you i was in cloud nine for days. because i couldn't believe that i finally got the land under my house. in fact, two days before that i went outside at night and i talked to the sky. i said i told the chinese people that pass away that never get to get the land, i told them that we're going to get the land on december 11th. i said come and join us. >> in 2007, connie king saw another dream come true. the construction of the loch memorial park. a tribute to the chinese immigrants who came to california. when we come back on a second look, one woman remembers how her family fled the 1906 earthquake after it shook their home in china town.

welcome back to a second look. san francisco china town was home to 1,300 men, women and

children when the quake hit. in april of 2000 she became the first chinese american survivor of the quake to be honored at the annual survivors gathering on market street. that same year she also sat down with bob mackenzie and shared her story. >> san francisco's china town is more than a tourist destination. it's a densely populated side of town where many chinese americans still choose to live. but 100 years ago it was not where chinese people chose to live. china town is where they had to live. chinese were not allowed to own property below kernie street or above -- avenue. at the end of the job some migrated to the city within a city that was china town. bessie chum's grandfather came over to dig the railroad. her father became a politician.

her mother was a traditional chinese bride who's feet had been bound to make it small and dainty. the girls were towed under the foot and bound there with strips of cloth. >> in the old days, they had higher class and lower class. the higher class people daughter they always bound their feet. >> so why those tiny feet you would know that someone was upper class. >> yeah. >> my mother was a picture bride. >> reporter: bessie who is about to turn 96 was two years old when the great earthquake of 1906 struck her parent's china townhome. >> of course you couldn't walk very fast. my father, they don't have any time to pack any clothing. my father had to carry my

mother out. and a neighbor has to carry me out. >> reporter: the quake and the fires that followed hit china town as hard as any part of the city. perhaps harder because volunteer firefighters were busy saving the better parts of town. and those didn't include the chinese district. no one was in a hurry to rebuild china town either. bessie's parents moved to oakland then san jose. finally came back to the city as bessie reached school age. >> we have a school just so the chinese people could go to oriental school. >> oriental school. >> yes, there was a place where the chinese ywca. >> you couldn't go to the public school. >> we couldn't go to other schools. we just go to the oriental school. >> how did it make you feel? >> well, of course we feel bad but then we couldn't help it. so we were just go along ourselves. >> bessie grew up and married a

man she met on a trip. a chinese soldier. her citizenship was taken away. after a four year court battle she won back her citizenship and her husband was able to stay. china town began to get a little respect. chinese americans went through the depression with everyone else, things got better for them as discrimination began to ease. bessie's husband did well in business. bessie outlived her husband. bessie decided she should buy a cane. she did but she's never used it. after walking up one of those san francisco hills, she then walks up three floors to her apartment. >> now everybody is more freer and people intermarry here, and a lot of chinese people have

more education. and they're allowed to go to college. >> so it has turned out much better. >> oh yeah, it's much better now. it's different from the entire -- a different world. >> reporter: bessie and her family live the spirit of the motto that says endure what you can't change and change what you can't endure. >> reporter: hundreds of chinese immigrants died in the quake and the fire that is followed but only 12 chinese names are on official death lists. bessie chum died in 2002, she was 97 years old. that's it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville, we'll see you next week.

continues. it's been mighty cold in here since "the big chill." what say we warm our hearts by... "st. elmo's fire"? yes! couple of wine coolers and some '80s rob lowe -- i can get into that. i'm still holding out hope i'll have plans tonight.

great. two for two. haley? oh, so fun, but i'm gonna have to say no. i have a photography-class thing. what kind of a thing? oh, you know just an exhibit, like, to show our photos. is it something that we should go to? claire we just made plans. mom, this is a college class. i'm not in the third grade. don't you have nap time there? no. i have free periods, during which i sometimes nap. is it me, or was she just being purposefully vague? alex, i want you to go through her stuff and find out about this thing tonight. wait, wait