Let's follow the footsteps of Shinichi Kato's father, Matsujiro, after he moved to the U.S. It is not clear which port in Japan Matsujiro left from in 1900, or where he landed in the U.S.
In his profile written in "A Centennial History of Japanese Americans in the United States," Shinichi himself wrote that after coming to the United States, Matsujiro "opened a Japanese restaurant in Fresno, Central California, and later farmed in Pareja..." However, according to his nephew, Junji Yoshida, "I've heard that he first worked as a cook at a boarding house for railroad construction."
Kato may have omitted his father's background because the period was short, but it was common for migrant workers from Japan to work on railway construction sites, and naturally many of them were from Hiroshima, the first prefecture to accept immigrants to North America.
In the United States, the California Gold Rush that began in the late 1840s triggered an influx of people to the West in search of the frontier. Large-scale railroad development began as a means of transportation for this purpose, and five transcontinental railroad routes were built.
Initially, this construction was carried out by many Chinese immigrants, but as the increasing number of Chinese workers were expelled, attention turned to hardworking Japanese workers who could work for low wages to replace them.
"In order to employ Japanese workers, wages were set higher than for plantation workers, and inns in ports along the Pacific coast were asked to recruit, recruiters directly under the railroad company were sent to the coastal ports, and laborers were also procured through labor contractors under contract with the company." (From "History of Immigrants in Hiroshima Prefecture")
Contractors also recruited workers from their hometowns to travel to the U.S., and some workers from Hiroshima made the journey to the U.S. to work on the railroad.
It is not known how Matsujiro came to work at a boarding house for railway construction, but there were probably many of his compatriots, or even people from his hometown, working there.
Head to Fresno County, home to vineyards and more
After the railroad construction site, Matsujiro probably moved to Fresno in Central California, as Shinichi also wrote. At the time, the main industry in Central California was agriculture, producing a variety of agricultural products, including grapes, cotton, citrus fruits, melons, vegetables, sugar beets, rice and wheat. Matsujiro first ran a "Japanese restaurant" in Fresno, the main city of the region.
Fresno is the central city of Fresno County, located roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. According to the "Centennial History of Japanese Americans in the United States," the first Japanese people to come here were two Japanese men who were brought back as servants by an American engineer who was in Japan when he returned to his home country around 1880. After working in a vineyard, the two men returned to their home country, but then came back to Fresno, developed the land, and managed a vineyard.
Also, people from Hiroshima Prefecture came to Fresno and opened shops, and before long the number of people from Hiroshima continued to increase. Looking at the Japanese population as a whole, the trend of people coming from the Sacramento area and coastal areas continued. In a 1929 survey by the local Japanese Association, there were 4,372 Japanese people in Fresno County, with 940 households. The Fresno Japanese Association was founded in 1909 with 707 members.
The First World War, which began in 1914, caused grape prices to soar, and Fresno's economy boomed. With so many Japanese people making a living there, they formed a community and various commercial facilities were established. Matsujiro's restaurant was probably one of them.
Shinichi writes that after running the restaurant, Matsujiro moved to Parlier to work in agriculture, but does not go into detail. Parlier is about 30 kilometers southeast of Fresno, and this region was "famous as the Japanese village of central California" and was a thriving agricultural region. It was famous for producing grapes, with high-quality crops and grape prices always at the highest level, and the soil is more fertile than in other regions, so it also produces high-quality dried grapes.
In 1918 (Taisho 7), Shinichi moved from Hiroshima to Pareya at the invitation of Matsujiro, who had started farming in the area.
After his father returned to Japan, he changed his course
Many people in Pareya are from Hiroshima Prefecture, and among the "successful people" introduced in "The Centennial History of Japanese Americans in the United States," there are some whose paths and experiences are very similar to those of Matsujiro and Shinichi. Honkazu Suna, a native of Kabe Town, Asa County, Hiroshima Prefecture, was born in 1900, the same year as Shinichi Kato, and his father also came to the United States in the same year as Matsujiro, working on railroad construction before buying land on the border between Pareya and Reedley and running a farm.
Furthermore, Kakuichi was called to America by his father and helped his father with his business while studying hard, which is similar to how Shinichi attended night school while helping his father with his work, and it is also the same in that his parents returned to Japan, but Kakuichi stayed behind. Although they are very similar, it was common for families to be called to America to run a business.
However, when Matsujiro returned to Japan, Shinichi did not stay in Paleya but moved south to Pasadena, an upscale residential area near Los Angeles, where he worked in the gardening business. It is unclear why he moved to Pasadena. And after this, Shinichi's career path would change dramatically.
According to his own written biography, "From 1926 he worked as a reporter for the Rafu Nichibei and California Mainichi Shimbun newspapers, from 1933 he served as executive director of the Southern California Central Agricultural Association and manager of the Southern California Agricultural Association Federation, during which time he founded the morning Rafu Agricultural Product Market Broadcasting, from 1937 he was editor-in-chief of the American Industrial Daily, and in 1940 he edited the 'Comprehensive Directory of Japanese Industries in the United States.'" This is how he entered the world of journalism.
Since then, Shinichi has been writing in both Japan and the United States for many years, but he seems to have been proud of his experience working in agriculture in his youth. In the preface to the paperback edition of "America Immigration History: A Hundred Years" (Jiji Shinsho), Shinichi pays tribute to the hardships of the first generation and writes the following about himself:
"When I shook hands with many of my friends during my time living in the mainland, most of them would look at my hands and say, 'Your hands are unusual for a newspaperman. They look just like those of a coal miner.' The skin on my hands is stiff, my fingers are calloused, and even now I still retain traces of the hard work of my youth. But compared to the 'pine cone'-like hands of the Issei pioneers who still survive in the United States, although in small numbers, they are nothing."
(Titles omitted)
© 2021 Ryusuke Kawai
