Nikkei Farmers of the Hood River Area

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Clearing Land of Timber, Hood River, OR, ca. 1927

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Issei were also hired to clear land for landowners. After timber harvest, stumps were pulled with horses, dynamite, and hard labor to prepare fields for planting. By 1905, as many as 600 Issei were employed in this manner, for about a dollar a day. As Issei laborers saved money and gained experience as farm hands, they were ready to lease or purchase their own tracts of land, alone or in partnership with other Issei. Sometimes land was acquired in exchange for labor on contract.

Purchased parcels were often marginal, less desirable tracts of uncleared land. The Issei faced many more years of the same backbreaking labor as they prepared their own land for planting crops and orchards.

Photo: Courtesy of Cliff Nakamura.

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