From DiscoverNikkei.org
MUKASHI BANASHI: Stories of the Past from Issei Women in Fowler, California
Akemi Kikumura-Yano
In the summer of 1981, I drove the Tehachapi Pass from Los Angeles and descended on to the flat, dry floor of the San Joaquin Valley, one of the largest valleys in the world and once the bed of a vast inland sea, stretching approximately 250 miles long and 40 to 65 miles wide, extending from Sacramento in the north to Kern County on the south, and bounded by Mount Diablo Spur on the west and Sierra Nevadas on the east.1
I was headed for Fowler, a small agricultural town in the heart of Fresno County where I had decided to study a community of Japanese Americans whose members had settled in the area since the turn of the century. This region of the country had long earned its reputation as one of the most versatile and agriculturally productive in the world, the richness of its soil created by the gradual movement of giant glaciers slicing through mountains and pulverizing rocks that lay in its path, the yearly abundance of water needed for irrigating farmlands provided by the myriad rivers that flow westward from the Sierras, and the early ripening of crops that form the sweet saccharine in fruits, aided by the desiccating heat of the summer sun.
I selected Fowler to learn more about the early development of Japanese American community life because this area was one of the first places in the United States where the Japanese moved into independent farming on a permanent basis. I was particularly intrigued with the lives of the pioneer Issei (first generation immigrant from Japan) women who bravely crossed the Pacific to join their husbands in a strange land 7,000 miles away from home. These women had steadily worked alongside of their husbands, helping to transform the fields from “hay” land to productive, lush green orchards and vineyards, while at the same time, nurturing the growth of a second generation that would eventually reap the benefits of their toil and call this land their home.
Despite the vital role they played in turning this sage covered prairie into one of the nation’s leading shippers of fruit and raisins, little is known about their early experiences. The urgency of collecting their life histories pressed even more heavily as the passage of each year amassed an increasing list of deceased Issei to the memorial calendar, taking with it the rich, buried treasures of their past. But time had been generous with some of Fowler’s Issei women, who, in their eighties, still remained alert and productive, and with the help of many supportive community members, I was welcomed into the homes of seven Issei women who had settled there in the early 1900s.
Akemi Kikumura-Yano is Senior Vice President, Japanese American National Museum.
「立命館法学(Ritsumeikan Hogaku)」別冊、『ことばとそのひろがり（３）(Kotoba to sonohirogari)』－山本岩夫教授退職記念論集ー２００５年３月２０日
1. This research was made possible with the support of the Institute of American Cultures, Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles; the California Council for the Humanities; the Central California District Council and the Pacific Southwest District Council of the Japanese American Citizens League, and the members of the Japanese American community in Fowler, California. Special thanks go to the Issei women who allowed me to share their lives.