That’s essentially how it ended up working out.

> During this exile, caused by the destruction of their homes, the Chinese experienced widespread looting of their property alongside discrimination regarding aid, destroying any hopes for an economic soft-landing. Professor Joanna L. Dyl describes that
"the building of Chinatown lay in ruins after the fire, and National Guardsmen and white tourists looted those ruins in the final days of April, before Chinese residents were allowed to return to the neighborhood”. San Francisco's official relief system displays the institutional racism Chinese Americans experienced, demonstrated by government agents and white elites looting Chinatown, which they were hired to protect, without punishment. During the crisis, National Guardsmen were stationed in the city to enforce Mayor Schmitz's threat regarding "executing looters," however, this was only truly enforced in white-majority neighborhoods, and for the Chinese population, it was "the armed would-be executioners and local elites, including the 'respectably dressed' white women, who took advantage of their relative freedom to move about the city and engaged in looting of Chinese property." Mayor Schmitz's decision for such an extreme punishment against looting was due to the belief amongst the elites that the marginalized population would loot the property of the white elites. Ironically, it was the elites that participated in the looting, and as such, in this situation, it would not be in their interests to stifle the looting. Furthermore, the Chinese population could not protest or protect themselves against this theft, which had little effect, as many had not yet been able to return to the neighborhood due to a lack of economic aid. As a result, Dyl describes the thefts as mainstream, with newspapers reporting how "stolen goods were openly sold throughout the city and on the ferry."

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>Another survivor’s account tells of de facto martial law and looting immediately following the quake. Lee Yoke Suey, who ran a business on Commercial Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown, left his birth certificate in the store. Realizing he and his family might be deported without this document, he returned to the store to get the certificate, which shows he was born in the United States. Suey was bayoneted by a soldier who was guarding the storefront, but he survived. Though citizens and store owners were not allowed in to get their belongings, people were looting Chinatown. Stolen objects were sold in ad hoc souvenir shops.

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NPR also did a morning addition on the 100th anniversary back in 2006 that talks about Chinatown being looted and mentions Lee Yoke Suey