Agriculture

Many Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) began as sharecroppers. Others sought to buy land, but the Issei had to overcome obstacles preventing them from competing with white farmers. California and other states passed alien land laws prohibiting Asian immigrants from purchasing or leasing agricultural land. There were ways around the discriminatory laws: an Issei father could put the property in the name of his American-born child, or issei could form corporations in which a majority of the shareholders were American citizens. Despite the alien land laws, Issei farmers played a significant role in West Coast agriculture. In the years just prior to World War II, Japanese American families grew 35 percent of the produce in California. By the 1920s, Japanese Americans supplied 75 percent of the produce and half the milk to the Puget Sound region.

Industry and employment (586)
Agriculture (805)

Related articles from the Densho Encyclopedia :
Seabrook Farms

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805 items

img View of muddy agricultural fields (ddr-fom-1-10)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-10/

img Harvesting with a tractor (ddr-fom-1-44)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-44/

img Farmers working in the fields (ddr-fom-1-779)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-779/

img Man working a tractor in a field (ddr-fom-1-26)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-26/

img Arrivals (ddr-hmwf-1-199)

"Hanako request, June 20 1044, Denson Arkansas arrivals (June 15)" as described on back

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-hmwf-1-199/

img A sow and her piglets (ddr-fom-1-41)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-41/

img Women harvesting potatoes (ddr-fom-1-46)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-46/

img Students prepping agricultural fields (ddr-fom-1-727)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-727/

img Men and women harvesting onions (ddr-fom-1-42)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-42/

img Man tending crops in a field (ddr-fom-1-14)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-14/

img View of agricultural fields (ddr-fom-1-785)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-785/

img Tractors working agricultural fields (ddr-fom-1-789)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-789/

img Farmers working in the fields (ddr-fom-1-30)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-30/

img Tractors working agricultural fields (ddr-fom-1-777)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-777/

img Farmers working in the fields (ddr-fom-1-780)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-fom-1-780/

img Arrivals (ddr-hmwf-1-200)

"Hanako request, June 20 1044, Denson Arkansas arrivals (June 15)" as described on back

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-hmwf-1-200/

img "Nikkei farm family scene" (ddr-densho-259-358)

Caption by Homer Yasui: "A Nikkei farm family scene, taken at one of the early Yasui farms in Summit, which is slightly north and a little west of Odell, Oregon. The farm 'family' was mostly the young Masuo and Shidzuyo Yasuis Sitting back left is, I believe, Yoshizaemon Mori...I think that standing in the center is …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-358/

img Asparagus (ddr-densho-259-162)

Caption by Yuka Yasui: "Asparagus grown in Mosier [Oregon]."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-162/

img Japanese American man picking apples (ddr-densho-259-254)

Japanese American man in a suit picking apples, possibly in Willow Flat, Oregon.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-254/

img Issei man with visitors (ddr-densho-259-258)

Masuo Yasui with unidentified visitors.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-258/

img Two Japanese American families on farmland (ddr-densho-259-247)

Caption by Homer Yasui: "Nikkei visitors to what must surely have been the Willow Flat farm both [Shidzuyo and Masuo Yasui] are dressed in their farm working clothes This photo shows the typical farm working clothes that [Shidzuyo]--and almost all of the Hood River valley Issei women of the time wore, when working in the orchards …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-247/

img Issei men with team of horses on farm (ddr-densho-259-357)

Caption by Homer Yasui: "Issei man standing next to a team of horses, an Issei driver and a man standing on the driver's side of a truck loaded with boxes Those boxes look like strawberry crates."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-357/

img Workers picking strawberries (ddr-densho-259-251)

Workers picking strawberries on the Yasui family farm in Willow Flat, Oregon.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-251/

img Acreage of strawberry plants (ddr-densho-259-268)

Caption by Homer Yasui: "A large acreage of strawberry plants I will guess that it was taken at either Summit or in Dee."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-268/

img Crew of Japanese laborers (ddr-densho-259-354)

Caption by Homer Yasui: "A group of Japanese laborers standing in the back row, and a group sitting in the front on the ground I will guess that this crew was picking applies."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-259-354/