. >> in april of 1906 and earthquake on the san andreas fault destroyed records at san birth andcity halldeath records. here was an opportunity for chinese in the bay area to say, our birth and death records are no longer existed. -- no longer existent. maybe we can come up with plans to tell the government that we .ere born in san francisco that began the entire paper scheme that allowed chinese living in the united states to say they were born here in the united states, and that they had children in china and they would like to sponsor those children in china, family in china, to come to the united states. a number of chinese came during the post-1906 earthquake period, including my father. announcer: watch the c-span cities tour to oakland on c-span2 book tv and sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span3. they c-span cities tour, working with cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. announcer: 70 years ago on international war crimes trials november 20, 1945, began in nurnberg, germany. next on american history tv, historian mark hull gives a history of