'Farming the Home Place'

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and discusses the immigrant Japanese population within the United States who worked in agriculture in 1909. The paper discusses the discrimination and hardships these Japanese farmers faced in the USA. The paper also takes a look at the book 'Farming the Home Place' by Valerie Matsumoto which talks about the life of the immigrant Japanese farmer pre, post and during their internment.

From the Paper:

"The key to the community' survival during the leanest years of early economic development, a time of toil, lean meals of miso soup, and constant anxiety about economic survival was a strong sense of community involvement and common ethnic solidarity in an otherwise hostile land. The land was harsh in terms of its arid ecology and also in terms of how other Americans regarded these farmers as outsiders and interlopers. The Cortez Growers Association (CGA) provided some community structure and cohesion to the life of the farmers. Membership in the organization was contingent upon board approval and the payment of fifty dollars. From its origins, it evolved into a diversified structure, encompassing the marketing of produce, the shipping of goods, the purchase of farm supplies on a collective basis, even the drying of fruit. (Matsumoto, p.49; 53) However, far beyond a purely business related collective of farmers, the CGA created an important cultural institution. It staged traditional Noh plays for the community and provided English language and Sunday school instruction, although some members of the community retained their devout Buddhism, despite the efforts of Christian missionaries. The CGA showed how these farmers could retain their Japanese culture and still function as loyal Americans."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Matsumoto, Valerie. (1994). Farming the Home Place. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

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