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 Workers in a field (ddr-densho-255-53)

Written on reverse: "April 1940, Babasan, Shinodasan, Imurasan, Shibasan, Hamayakisan[?], Nakamotosan, Grandpa, Papa, Grandma, Mrs. Yoneda, Haruko, Chiyo, Mrs. Sakiyama."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-53/

img Woman picking apples (ddr-densho-255-167)

Japanese American woman standing on a ladder and picking apples in an orchard.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-167/

img Man and girl with farm animals (ddr-densho-255-88)

A man with a shovel and a young girl standing in the snow with cows and pigs.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-88/

img Japanese American laborers hoeing (ddr-densho-255-114)

Two Japanese American laborers hoeing in a dirt field. On reverse: "Post Card."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-114/

img Laborers on mounds of hay (ddr-densho-255-79)

Laborers standing on and around mounds of hay, with a pipe being channeled into the hay.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-79/

img Workers in a field of vegetables (ddr-densho-255-125)

Laborers working in a field of vegetables.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-125/

img Workers and horse in a field (ddr-densho-255-55)

One female and two male farm laborers standing in a field with a horse. On reverse: "Post Card."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-55/

img Japanese American couple in orchard (ddr-densho-255-162)

Japanese American couple in an orchard, the man standing on a ladder and handing fruit to the woman.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-162/

img Woman in orchard (ddr-densho-255-112)

White woman standing in an orchard in Ogden, Utah.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-112/

img Woman and child sitting on the ground (ddr-densho-255-92)

Woman and child sitting on the ground, with a man standing near them.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-92/

img Man standing on hydraulic wagon (ddr-densho-255-153)

Man standing on a hydraulic wagon with a wire cutter in his hand.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-153/

img Women picking apples in an orchard (ddr-densho-255-166)

Four white women picking apples in an orchard.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-166/

img Man in snow with pigs (ddr-densho-255-140)

Man standing behind a pile of snow with pigs in the foreground.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-140/

img Horses in a pasture (ddr-densho-255-121)

Three horses in a pasture.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-121/

img Beans growing by a house and greenhouse (ddr-densho-255-57)

Plants, probably beans, growing on poles in front of a house and greenhouse.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-57/

img Men looking in a greenhouse (ddr-densho-255-58)

Written on reverse: "Taken March 22, 1950 pa[?] standing outside Shige is inside. Taken from East North."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-58/

img Man and girl with pigs (ddr-densho-255-145)

Japanese American man standing on a snowy hillside. A young girl sits in the foreground. Pigs root through the snow.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-145/

img Japanese American woman picking apples (ddr-densho-255-129)

Japanese American woman picking apples with a baby at her feet.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-255-129/

doc Letter from James Curtis to Chizu Takeda (ddr-densho-501-202)

James Curtis writes back to Chizu Takeda about a travel permit for her husband, Shoji Takeda.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-202/

doc Letter from Chizu Takeda to Dan Shields (ddr-densho-501-201)

Chizu Takeda requests two travel permits for her husband, Shoji Takeda, and her father-in-law, Tomiju Takeda.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-201/

doc Postcard from George Winsor to Mr. Takeda (ddr-densho-501-204)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-204/

doc Letter from S.J. Miller to C. Takeda (ddr-densho-501-208)

S.J. Miller sent C. Takeda a program for the Western Colorado Horticultural Society annual meeting.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-208/

doc Thank you letter to Shoji Takeda from Peter Lert (ddr-densho-501-139)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-139/

doc Letter from R. Reuter to Mr. Takeda (ddr-densho-501-205)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-205/

av Sowing Seeds of Life... of Hope (ddr-densho-1024-80)

Japanese vegetable seeds played an enormous part in making life more bearable for the Japanese people who were incarcerated in a concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming during WWII. See this item in the Densho Resource Guide at: Sowing Seeds of Life... of Hope (film). See this item in the Digital Library of the Japanese …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1024-80/