From DiscoverNikkei.org
Akemi Kikumura-Yano, MUKASHI BANASHI: Stories of the Past from Issei Women in Fowler, California
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Upon my first encounter with the women, they seemed surprised, but pleased, that I wanted to learn more about their early experiences in America. “My stories?” asked Mrs. Abe, a spry, seventy-seven year old Issei. “There aren’t any that are worth a dime,” she laughed.
“I don’t have a single good one either,” Mrs. Sato remarked. However, despite their seemingly incredulous response, they were all generous with their time and eager to share their past with me.
Even a cursory look about their homes revealed the major reason behind all their hard work, sacrifice, and struggle: college diplomas and scholastic awards cluttered living room walls, various athletic trophies collected dust on crowded book shelves, toys--Mickey Mouse on a trapeze, Raggedy Ann, Rubik’s cubes--found convenient resting places for their grandchildren’s next visit, and from every corner of the house gazed eyes from framed pictures--of Keiko, the eldest daughter, gowned in yards of white satin, looking shy and nervous on her wedding day; of Raymond, the one year old grandchild, donning a blue cap with a matching terry cloth jumpsuit, displaying a toothless grin; of Ojī-chan, grandfather, in his youth, seated stiffly in a cane-backed chair, wearing a starched white shirt, tie slightly askew, and an oversized topcoat, expressing just the right amount of seriousness to convince a picture bride of his good intentions.
The women, whose ages ranged from seventy-six to eighty-nine (median age eighty-six), were all long-time residents of the area, arriving in Fowler from 1911 to 1923, one year before the Immigration Act of 1924 that barred further Japanese immigration. Those were the years that Fowler had witnessed a burgeoning growth in its Japanese population. Before the 1900s, only seventeen Japanese men and two families lived in the town on a permanent basis, but after the turn of the century, their numbers quickly multiplied, giving Fowler the distinction of becoming the first community in Fresno County where the Issei settled into independent farming.2
The ones who began to purchase land were those who had managed to save enough capital or had made a decision to remain in America, like Hoichi Sumida, who in 1901, became the first Japanese in Fresno County to buy a forty acre parcel in the Fowler area;3 Saikichi Kawano followed shortly thereafter with a forty acre purchase in the same town.4 By 1909, Fowler had the largest number of Japanese landowners and tenants, fifty-three, although vast majority farmed land on a cash and share basis, forty-four, like the other Japanese who farmed in the county.5
2. “Japanese Were First a Laboring Class,” Fowler Ensign, 3 May, 1972.
3. “Japanese Merchant, Fowler, 1907”, Fresno Bee, 14 September, 1980.
4. Dr. Ryo Munekata, Rev. Messssrs. Ryuei Masuoka, Bunyu Fujimura, Hoshin Fujikado, Arthur Takemoto, and Masao Kodani, and Mssssrs. Masaru Okino, Tsukasa Saneto, Yoshio Shibata, and Sei Shohara, contributing members, Buddhist Churches of America, Volume 1, 75 Year History, 1899-1974, (Illinois: Nobart, Inc., 1974), 157.
5. House Immigration Commission, Immigrants in Industries, Part 25: Japanese and Other Immigrant Races in the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States (61st Cong. 2d sess., Senate Document 633, 1911), 626.