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Local News Index
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An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
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While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
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<p>To the editor:</p><p>Quoting from G. W. Cornell's letter of Sept. 20 to the editor, "everything possible should be done to encourage all Japanese to return to their native land and..." Perhaps we could have just as easily relocated elsewhere but, my dear Mr. Cornell, because CALIFORNIA was our native land, we have returned.</p><p>In the spring of 1942, though charged with no crime, we were forcefully torn from our beloved home and lifelong, dear friends. With a lump in my throat, goodbyes were bade to fellow freshman classmates, wondering if we'd ever meet again. How clearly that day comes back to me now, the whole world seemed to crumble about us. Some of the evacuees were put behind barbed-wires in dusty Arizona, others in isolated camps in various parts of this country...our family was fortunate enough to be sent halfway across the continent to a camp in muddy Arkansas.</p><p>However, the greatest victim of this unrighteous uprooting of 70,000 American citizens certainly was not the Japanese-Americans themselves...rather, it was our basic concept of liberty, our standard of justice, and the appeal which we, as free people, should be making to the many oppressed people in the far corners of the world.</p><p>We love and intend to serve this great country with its high ideals. Hasn't America climbed to its present height of greatness because of the contributions of all racial groups? Is not our great American hero, Gen. Eisenhower, of German ancestry? It was certainly not for their own health that those Japanese-American boys fought so valiantly, giving of their blood, sweat, and tears, in some of the bitterest battles on the war fronts...no, they wanted to prove to doubting fellow-citizens of their undivided loyalty and devotion to this great country and the principles for which it stands.</p><p>Wouldn't it be indeed a wonderful world if each of us, rather than looking for the faults and ugliness in our neighbors and other nationalities, would just see the shortcomings and weaknesses in ourselves?</p><p>For those of you who still suspect our loyalty, we want you to know that we harbor no hatred toward you. Instead, we'll be praying for that glorious day when everyone all over this world, regardless of race, color, religion, background, or station in life, would all join hands together and live as God intended for us to live...as brothers.</p><p>Aiko Masada"</p>
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LN-1945-09-26-1038
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<i>Watsonville Register-Pajaronian</i> , page 3
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1945-09-26
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1940s
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Nisei Plea For Understanding<br />[Editorial]
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Wars-World War II
Evacuation (World War II)
Japanese American Community
Italian American Community
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Aiko Masada
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Copyrighted by the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian. Reproduced by permission.
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Santa Cruz Public Libraries
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TEXT
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EN
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NEWS
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County at War
Minority Groups
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https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/bd7f8d25e454a64ba0dca9b694d0dcb0.pdf
6a5f948fd7268b098f861ef418506a52
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Go for Broke: 442nd Regimental Combat Team
By Tracy L. Barnett
Nisei unit fought with distinction—Japanese–American GIs recount stories of war
WATSONVILLE—Nobody has to tell Tom Goto he's a hero. Long ago, he gave away the official recognition of his bravery:
a Purple Heart. He's not one to tell war stories. After 50 years, he still shakes his head quietly and says, "I don't need to
remember those things. I'd rather forget."
Left for dead with a belly full of shrapnel in the Vosges Mountains of France, Goto says it's enough to just be alive. The
self-effacing silence of Goto and his companion of the "Go For Broke" 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team kept a
generation of Japanese–American heroes in the shadows of U.S. history for decades. Scores of the former members of
the most-decorated military unit in World War II came from Santa Cruz County, most from Watsonville.
It was members of the 442nd who shot the lock off the gate at Dachau; they fought their way through the Vosges
Mountains to rescue the "Lost Battalion." They accomplished the deadly ambush of Italy's Gothic Line, climbing a cliff in
silence and total darkness as some fell to their deaths without uttering so much as a whimper.
Until now, they've kept their history folded away in the closet along with their medals. But the time has come for their
story to be told. "I think the ice has been broken, and it's OK to talk now," said Terri DeBono, a Monterey filmmaker who
just completed a documentary on the 442nd, "Beyond Barbed Wire." The Film will cap off the Pacific Rim Film Festival
with a Monday screening at the Fox Theater in Watsonville, follow by a reception for the veterans.
"They're so full of humility, self-effacing; they give credit to everyone else but themselves," said DeBono. "They'll tell you
what their buddy did, but they won't tell you what they did."
DeBono and her partner Steve Rosen, who directed the film, befriended Monterey veteran Yokio Sumida and his wife,
Mollie.
Yokio finally said, "If we don' tell this story, who will?"
We were just amazed at the story of these small men and what they were asked to do. They were put at the head of
many of the battles and were so determined prove their loyalty.
They were fighting like mad men. ... I can't believe we don't know this story, that it slipped by the pages of history.
Some of the men went straight from the internment camps to the front lines. Others, like Santa Cruz native Henry Arao
and Watsonville native Yoshio Fujita left their families behind in the camps to take on some of the War's most difficult
and dangerous assignments.
Arao, who left behind his father, four brothers and two sisters in the Poston, Ariz. internment camp shrugs off the irony.
1
�"We figured we wanted to show them that we were just as much an American as anyone else."
Etched into his memory is the sight of companion Sadao Minamari, who threw himself onto a grenade to save his squad
from almost certain death. Arao was only about 100 feet away at the time. Minamari received a posthumous Medal of
Honor, America's highest military decoration.
Arao doesn't like to talk about it, but his own Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart are locked away in a safedeposit box. He received the honor for dashing out into a clearing to save the life of his wounded squad leader during
the fateful rescue of the Lost Battalion.
In "The Lost Battalions: Going for Broke in the Vosges" by Soquel resident Franz Steidl, the Alamo Regiment (so named
because of their San Antonio origin) had been cut off for six days in the fall of 1944 without food and water in the heavy
forests of the Vosges Mountains of eastern France. The 442nd was sent into the rugged terrain to rescue the surrounded
soldiers. A barrage of machine gun fire and mortars from the German troops on the hilltop rained down on the men,
taking them out in droves.
"The worst was the tree bursts," said Goto, describing the explosions of mortars in the treetops that rained hot metal
and splinters down on the men. "You can hear it whistling before it comes down, but by then it's too late."
The dense growth of the Vosges forest was legendary, lending a Vietnam-like quality to the nightmarish experience.
The big difference from Vietnam, however, was the bitter cold. Soldiers slept in the snow, were pelted by rain and
impeded by fog so thick they could barely see their hands in front of their faces. Soldiers suffered from frostbite and
trench foot so severe they could barely walk; some had to have their boots cut off when they finally made their way
back.
"The daytime sun doesn't penetrate there; it's dark as hell," said Goto. "We said, 'Go for Broke,' but there was really no
alternative. There was no place else to go."
The battalion was left with three times as many casualties as the number of men they rescued. More than 100 were
killed in the four day charge.
"We were charging uphill all the time, and they [the Germans] were just sitting on the hill waiting for us with machine
guns," said Arao "They had the hills loaded with mines. If you walked in the wrong spot, you'd get your leg blown off—
and a lot of men did. We actually didn't have a chance."
Arao, who became leader of his squad of 17 when his own squad leader was hit by a mortar burst has also been silent
about the ordeal for 50 years. Finally, with great deal of urging, he's begun to talk.
"I went into that deal with 17 men and only four made it out," he said. "It just seems like it wouldn't be right to talk too
much about it. I lost a lot of good people, but I was lucky enough to come home."
Japanese–American soldiers during WWII had to fight two battles: one against the Nazis, the other against
discrimination. As then-President Harry S. Truman put it, they won both.
Yoshio Fujita served as a scout and a communications man during the war, stringing miles of wire along the rough
terrain to connect the telephones the troops used. He doesn't talk much about the internment camp where his family
stayed, sleeping in converted horse stalls. But when he thinks of the unfair treatment his fellow Japanese Americans
confronted, his eye tear with the rage of injustice.
The signs were everywhere, even in his hometown of Watsonville: "No Japs Allowed." He finally decided he couldn't take
anymore. One day, before he was shipped overseas, he went into a restaurant to confront the owner:
"How come you've got that sign up?" he demanded of the first person he saw, a waiter.
2
�"Can't you read? It means what it says," retorted the man.
"I can read," Fujita responded evenly. "But I'm going to go over protect your hide, and you'd better take that damned
thing down or you're not going to have any windows and doors left in this place. I'm going to tear them all down."
Fujita served in the 522nd Field Artillery unit of the 442nd, the unit that opened the gates at Dachau, freeing the Nazi
concentration camp victims. He never saw the camp, because he was one of the ones sent ahead, but he heard the
stories. He confronted a well-dressed Jew on the streets before the rescue and asked him how he came to be free.
"I'm not like those stupid ones in the camp who opposed Hitler," said the man, as Fujita recalls it. "I work with the Nazis,
and I'm fat and happy and I smoke good cigars."
Fujita's eyes tear again with disbelief. "I don't understand how he could live with himself," he said.
The 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team was 4,500 strong, but members received 18,143 individual decorations for
bravery, including nearly 10,000 Purple Hearts. Thirty-eight members of the team came from Santa Cruz County, of a
total of nearly 100 Santa Cruz County residents who served during World War II.
Nearly 20 of them served in military intelligence, using their linguistic skills to penetrate enemy lines, break secret codes,
translate documents and perform a variety of other tasks. Two were the brothers of retired Watsonville High School
history teacher Mas Hashimoto, who served out the war in the internment camps.
Hashimoto said he has been trying to get local vets to tell their story for years. He doesn't mince words when he speaks
of the treatment of the Nisei, the first-generation American-born children of Japanese parents, during the war. The
442nd was used as cannon fodder, he believes, time and time again being sent into situations deemed too dangerous for
white soldiers.
"They were expendable," said Hashimoto. "At first no one wanted the Japanese Americans. Again and again, they got
the dirty jobs."
Hashimoto tells the story of Merle's Marauders, the Nisei troops who parachuted into the jungles of Burma. Fourteen
Nisi linguists were among them.
"They were the ones who not only captured Japanese documents and translated them, they endured unbelievable
casualties; of 2,000 guys, only about 200 survived. They went through hundreds and hundreds of miles of jungle and
went beyond what anyone could be expected to endure."
His brother, Tadashi Hashimoto on detached service to the Marine Corps, served in the Pacific Islands and Japan. Serving
in the islands was especially difficult for Japanese–Americans, who were fired on by both sides: the Japanese, who saw
their American uniforms, and the Americans, who saw their Japanese features.
"He was good at interrogating the prisoners, at getting them loosen up and talk about their commanders and regiment,"
said Hashimoto. "He didn't wear a helmet, because he didn't want to shot by his Marine buddies. And at night he was to
stay in the tent and come out only in daylight; otherwise, he'd be shot."
To DeBono, the men of the 442 have marked a unique place in history.
"These are not war stories; to me it's the story of the human spirit," she said, "We're talking about matters of the heart
here."
3
�Sources
This article originally appeared in the Santa Cruz County Sentinel, April 27, 1999 (p. 1) and is copyrighted by
the Sentinel. It is used here with permission.
The content of this article is the responsibility of the individual author. It is the Library's intent to provide accurate local history
information. However, it is not possible for the Library to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a
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please contact the Webmaster.
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�
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Santa Cruz History Articles
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Original articles by library staff and by local authors and material from historical books.
Articles on Santa Cruz County history, many with illustrations, are available here.
The Santa Cruz Public Libraries is grateful to our local historians and their publishers for giving permission to include their articles. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.
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AR-101
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Go for Broke: 442nd Regimental Combat Team
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Barnett, Tracy L.
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<i>Santa Cruz County Sentinel</i>, April 27, 1999 (p. 1)
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Santa Cruz Public Libraries
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4/27/1999
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ARTICLE
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Copyright 1999 by the <i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i>. Used with permission.
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Japanese American Community
Wars-World War II
US Armed Forces-Army
Veterans
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Watsonville
1940s
Military
Minority Groups
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/01ddf2361b7da0bfd5ab7eac6d6e1c34.pdf
c2125831b5eadf6814f0649b43692027
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Text
Nihon Bunka/Japanese Culture:
One Hundred Years in the Pajaro Valley
By Jane W. Borg and Kathy McKenzie Nichols
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Tradition Dictates Tomorrow: The Pioneers
Chapter 2
100 Years of Agriculture: The Land Blossoms
Chapter 3
Uneasy Settlement: The War Years
Chapter 4
A Time to Reflect: 1945 to Present [1992]
Bibliography
From the booklet Nihon Bunka = Japanese Culture: One Hundred Years in the Pajaro Valley. It
was published by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council in conjunction with the Council's 1992
exhibition of the same name. The text is published on the library’s website with the permission
of the Council. Photographs are courtesy of Bill Tao. Copyright 1992, Pajaro Valley Arts Council.
1
�Chapter 1
Tradition Dictates Tomorrow: The Pioneers
No records are known to exist that precisely pinpoint the date that the Japanese came to the
Pajaro Valley. It is known that twelve Japanese laborers came to the area sometime in 1892,
first to work at a saw mill and later at a hops farm. There is no way to know their thoughts,
their dreams or their fears. We don't even have their names. But just imagine for a moment
what it must have been like for them in a beautiful, rich land filled with promise - but
completely alien in every aspect, for until 1885, few Japanese had ever set foot in America. But
Japan's emigration restrictions were eased that year, and young men came seeking their
fortune here - as so many did from around the world.
Those laborers were the start of the Japanese community in the Pajaro Valley, which would go
on to influence every aspect of life here, even as its people fought discrimination and adversity
to settle in this land.
The California Gold Rush, beginning in the late 1840s, attracted people of all nationalities to the
port of San Francisco. Among them were the Chinese, who worked in the Sierra gold fields, and
who later provided the lion's share of the labor for the transcontinental railroad (1869), the
dykes of the Sacramento and San Joaquin River delta and to complete the Southern Pacific
Railroad Coast Line connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
As these monumental projects were finished, the Chinese turned to agricultural work - again
providing a vast labor force needed to support expanding California markets.
Upon the 50th anniversary of the Watsonville Japanese American Citizens League in 1984,
historian Sandy Lydon wrote: "After Japan relaxed laws prohibiting emigration in 1885,
Japanese farm laborers began to replace the aging Chinese in the fields of Hawaii, California,
Oregon and Washington. The number of Japanese living in the Pajaro Valley grew from a
handful in 1890 to over four hundred in 1900, and the young, energetic men soon filled the
slots being vacated by Chinese in agriculture as well as finding employment as domestics,
laundrymen, woodchoppers and railroad workers in the Monterey Bay region."
Kazuko Nakane, author of Nothing Left in My Hands - an outstanding reference for the history
of the first Japanese settlers in the Pajaro Valley - believes that the early settlers had a high
degree of literacy, the vision to become landowners with the ambition to work toward this goal
and a high value placed on mutual aid, all of which led to their future success.
Sakuzo Kimura is believed to be the first Japanese labor contractor, bringing twelve men to
work in an Aptos sawmill and in the Pajaro Valley at an East Lake Avenue hops farm. Kimura, a
man of about 40, made contracts quickly, aided by his fluency in English. He had learned the
language while working for the U.S. Navy, according to Nakane.
As the number of Chinese agricultural workers declined, the number of men emigrating from
Japan steadily increased to work in crops, especially strawberries, on the Central Coast.
2
�In the beginning, the vast majority of Japanese immigrants to the Pajaro Valley were men. Due
to unfamiliarity with language and customs, and to the continuing anti-Asian policies which
created a climate of discrimination, these newly arrived agricultural workers joined together in
"labor clubs," "employment clubs" and "societies" for contract labor, living arrangements and
mutual aid.
Kimura established the earliest known labor club in 1893. After the clubhouse was destroyed by
fire, it was rebuilt in 1897 as the Shinyu (good friends) labor club. The Japanese "labor boss"
system was similar to the Chinese boss system - for an annual fee, the contractor secured work
for the members and acted as a mediator between the
employer and the workers.
In times of unemployment, the workers would also lodge
and cook meals at the club. The clubs naturally became
early social centers for the growing Japanese community.
Japanese boarding houses soon followed, and by 1910
there were ten establishments in Watsonville that provided
lodging, meals and employment information.
"Japanese Club," an Early Pajaro Valley
Labor Club, 1896-1910
Despite being strangers in a strange land, the early Issei
men enjoyed the carefree life of bachelors. Many men
traveled light, with just a buranketto (blanket) over their shoulders.
As bachelors are wont to do, some Japanese men spent their money foolishly. Across the river
in what is now Pajaro, the Chinatown there offered gambling and paid female companionship.
The Chinese gambling houses were nicknamed "Shanghai banks."
But as time went on, the men began longing for family life, and they also found ways to
increase their profits in order to support a wife and children.
As the agriculture of the valley changed from grain and sugar beet cultivation to fruit
production some of the Issei became half-share strawberry farmers. In this arrangement, the
landowner provided the land, plants and equipment, and the Japanese farmer raised the crop.
The profits and risks were shared equally between the two. In the "History of the Japanese
People in Watsonville", written for the 60th anniversary of the Buddhist Temple, it is noted that
the first sharecropper was Senzaemon Nishimura, who worked on the Hopkins Farm.
For most of the Japanese, sharecropping paid far better than contract wages. Eventually, many
Issei farmers became cash tenants, leasing land with an annual payment and retaining all the
crop proceeds. One source reports that in 1900, Ueda Tao became the first Japanese farmer to
lease a strawberry farm. The following year, individuals named Nishimura and Tetsutaro Higashi
also leased land.
The next step in the improvement of farming conditions was the organization of cooperatives in
which individuals pooled their money to lease land in the Pajaro Valley. Among the earliest such
arrangements was the Y.Kosansha Company. Some of those associates were Kumajiro
3
�Murakami, Taroichi Tomioka, and three Yamamoto brothers - Matasuchi, Heitsuchi, and
Taneichi.
At the same time, more Japanese women began to arrive in the
Pajaro Valley, many of them as brides for arranged marriages.
(California and other states had laws preventing interracial
relationships.) For some, the arrangements were made in Japan
between families from the same village who knew each other
well; for others, the bride and groom met only after arrival in San
Francisco. They were called "picture brides" since most had never
met their husbands-to-be, but had exchanged photographs and
letters.
"Picture Brides" ca. 1910
According to the book Japanese American Women: Three
Generations 1890-1990, by Mei Nakano, the women were especially hard-hit by culture shock
in an alien land. Few learned to speak any English at all. Farm laborers' wives had to set up
house in dirt-floor shacks that contained nothing but a bed, a table and a wood stove.
Although some picture brides deserted their husbands because of the hardships, most stuck it
out, compelled by the strong cultural values of gaman (perseverance in the face of adversity)
and giri (a sense of duty). When times were tough, Issei women would shrug and say, "Shikata
ga nai" (It can't be helped).
By 1910, there were 168 Japanese women in the Pajaro Valley. These women not only enabled
the establishment of families, but fostered the growth of community life, businesses and
cultural organizations. As children were born and raised, the entire family worked in the
farming operations, increasing the family's economic security. Children were taught at a young
age to pull weeds and do other field chores. Wives worked in the fields and also took care of
the home and children.
According to Nakane, women also acted as midwives, set up boarding houses and ran
restaurants. Some men also looked for other lines of work, such as Bunkichi Torigoe, who
established a watch and bicycle repair shop in Watsonville in 1909. Others were Yasutaro
Iwami, who set up a barber and billiards shop in 1900; and Keizo Atsumi, who opened a tailor
shop in 1901.
Watsonville's Japantown began to appear at the south end of Main Street around 1905. By
1920, there were public baths, groceries, shoe stores, photographers, a tofu factory, an opera
house, a Japanese school, a stagecoach company and doctors. Peddlers also made trips
between labor camps to sell their wares.
In addition, a Japanese Presbyterian church and a Buddhist temple were established, as was the
Japanese Association, which was founded to fight anti-Japanese laws.
As the population of the Japanese community increased, so did the number of agreements and
laws that restricted their citizenship as well as ownership, and eventually leasing, of land. Under
the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, Japan continued to allow the departure of wives and
4
�children of men already in the United States, but stopped issuing visas to laborers. In 1911, the
U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization decreed that only Caucasians and people of
African descent could apply for citizenship.
Resentment against the West Coast's Japanese communities had been building for some time,
perhaps due to envy of the immigrants' business success. Nakano reported that newspapers
fanned the flames by printing headlines like:
THE JAPANESE INVASION
THE PROBLEM OF THE HOUR, and
CRIME AND POVERTY GO HAND IN HAND WITH ASIATIC LABOR
California's Alien Land Law of 1913 denied ownership of land to Japanese aliens and restricted
leasing to a maximum of three years. Subsequent legislation in 1921 denied the right to even
lease land. Finally, in 1924, all immigration from Japan ceased under U.S. legislation that
prevented entrance to anyone who was not eligible for citizenship.
The Japanese devised a number of ways to get around the restrictions. Sympathetic lawyers
would draw up land deeds in the names of children, who could own land because they were
born in the United States and thus given automatic citizenship. Older Nisei also bought land for
others, such as Ichiro Yamaguchi, who recalled his life for Nisei Christian Journey: "After I was
21, I had to buy land for other people ... I would sign the papers and they would make all the
payments."
Even though later legislation prevented minors from owning land, some individuals were able
to hold land in the name of an American citizen. For the most part, however, the land laws
reduced the number of independent Japanese growers.
As a result of the land laws, followed by the Great Depression, many Issei never regained their
former economic stature. However, the community they had established in the Pajaro Valley
continued to persevere, until anti-Japanese feeling reached its height at the beginning of World
War II.
5
�Chapter 2
100 Years of Agriculture: The Land Blossoms
Agriculture brought pioneer Japanese immigrants to the Pajaro Valley one hundred years ago. A
century later, agriculture is still the valley's principal economic activity, and Japanese Americans
have played an important role in the success of local agriculture.
The earliest commercial cultivation of strawberries in the Pajaro Valley took place in the late
1860s in the Vega district, on the Monterey County side of the Pajaro River. After the coming of
the railroad in the 1870s and the development of extensive irrigation systems for strawberries
in the 1890s, Pajaro Valley strawberry production increased dramatically. The special
relationship of Japanese families to strawberry cultivation is a major chapter in the history of
the Pajaro Valley.
"The Japanese and Dalmatians (Slavs) have assisted in producing the changes introduced in the
kinds of crops grown. The former, being unusually skillful berry growers, have had something to
do with the expansion of the production of berries until much of the land is thus employed,
whereas before their influx, little of it was so used. The latter have done much to encourage the
growing of apples." (U.S. Immigration Commission, Reports, 1911.)
The unusual skill that Japanese workers demonstrated in working with strawberries was
accompanied by their desire to gain more independence as growers and to be able to retain
more of the profits of production. Another early strawberry cooperative was J. and S. Kosansha,
operated by Otokichi Kajioka and four others.
For the 75th anniversary of the Westview Presbyterian Church, Kenji Shikuma described his
family's early involvement with strawberry growing:
"As I can recall to my memory as related to me by my parents on various occasions,
father (Unosuke Shikuma) came to Watsonville in the year 1902, and his first job was
working in the onion field for which his wage was one dollar a day; dollar and fifteen
cents during the peak days. On the following year, he started growing berries on share
together with some of his friends.
"In 1907 when Mother came here from Japan to join him as a young bride, they started
out their life together as the berry growing family unit by joining other relative and
friend family groups to form an association to lease the ground together. To start with,
the families lived in crudely constructed camp houses roughly furnished with simple
home-made tables, benches, shelves, and wooden bed-frames.
"In most cases, two families occupied the same house separated only by a thin-walled
partition. As time went by and with the coming of children, they managed to work out
for separate housings. Here in this so-called "Strawberry Camp," we of the old Niseis
made our initial start in this world.
6
�"About the time I was a few years old, father leased the ground on his own and fulfilled
his immediate ambition - that of becoming an independent strawberry grower. To
operate a strawberry ranch on somewhat bigger scale and on his own was quite
different from what it was farming on share-crop basis, as it required greater financing
in the first place, the need for working capital.
"He borrowed the money from his trusted Commission House in San Francisco Produce
Market to finance his berry growing, and that he in turn agreed to deliver certain
portion of his crops toward repayment on the loan. The well-known department and
hardware store in town, the Ford's, at that time extended him a credit liberally which
helped him greatly in making his start.
"When he became an independent grower, he took on sharecropper families, provided
each a house, and had each family grow two to three acres apiece. Often times our
home was a social center, as father would always welcome all those on the farm for any
special occasions ..."
About 1920, the largest and most productive strawberry ranch in the world was established
under a partnership between Unosuke Shikuma, Heitsuchi Yamamoto, O.O. Eaton and Henry A.
Hyde east of Salinas on the Oak Grove ranch at Natividad. Strawberries that were previously
shipped in large chests to San Francisco on the railroad, were now transported by motorized
truck with a cooling device, in small wooden trays holding twelve-pint baskets.
In order to overcome many marketing difficulties overproduction, price fluctuations, lack of standardization,
and absorption of profits by the commission houses, the
California Berry Growers Association was formed in 1917. The
association's constitution stated that the board of directors
was to be made up of equal numbers of Caucasian and
Japanese directors.
Family Picking Strawberries on White
Ranch, near Freedom Boulevard, ca.
1920s
The Japanese American Yearbook (1918) states that such an
organization was suggested by Issei who were members of
Kashu Chuo Nokai (California Central Farmers Association), a
Japanese farmers' organization. Members of the California Berry Growers Association's first
board of directors were: Mark Grimes, Sumito Fujii, James Hopkins, O.O. Eaton, J.E. Reiter, R.F.
Driscoll, T. Sasao, T. Kato, K. Shikuma, F.J. Moriyasu, and Philip S. Erlich.
"Naturipe" became the official trademark for the Association in 1922, and in 1958, the name of
the Association was changed to "Naturipe Berry Growers," which is now one of the largest
berry cooperatives in the world.
One of the earliest Pajaro Valley lettuce growers of any nationality was Kyuzaburo "Harry"
(H.K.) Sakata, who immigrated, alone, to Canada from Wakayama province at the age of fifteen.
After working and living with his uncle in Canada for two years, he joined other relatives, and
members of his village in Japan, who were farming near Lompoc, California.
7
�Together they pooled their resources, saved money and eventually
bought land and a thresher. Having received a satisfactory return
for their efforts in raising beans due to good market conditions
during World War I, part of the group returned to Japan, but H.K.
Sakata decided to stay.
After searching for farm land, even as far away as Mexico, he
decided to buy in the Pajaro Valley. By this time, California's Alien
Land Law had come into effect, but with the help of an attorney,
the L and W Land Company was established with the title held in
the name of his minor children, who were United States citizens.
Kyuzaburo Sakata with
Prize Heads of Lettuce
In 1918 Sakata shipped ten teams of horses and the thresher from
Lompoc to Pajaro Junction by Southern Pacific railway, and thus began local farming operations
which his descendants and others have continued to the present day.
Although beans were the main crop in the early days, a great variety of berry and vegetable
crops were gradually added to supply the three local Espindola grocery stores. From 1921
lettuce was produced on the Sakata ranches, and Sakata was one of the first West Coast
growers to ship lettuce, packed in ice, by rail to eastern markets.
The partnership of Travers and Sakata, growers and
shippers, was formed in the 1920s. This enterprise
eventually became Sakata and Son in 1939, producing
sugar beets, lettuce, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage,
potatoes and other crops.
Japanese Laborers Harvesting Beans
Following the enormous disruptions caused by the declaration of war against Japan, all
company debts were settled through the sale of land and equipment, and remaining land was
placed with a property manager and leased to local growers for the duration of the war and the
family's forced relocation in the Poston, Arizona, internment center. Eventually the family's
operation of the Pajaro Valley ranches was resumed, and row crop production takes place
today on several valley ranches.
In an interview with Luella Hudson McDowell in 1987, Hisaje "Frank" Sakata said:
"In concluding, we have had a continuous business history since December, 1917,
although we have not lived here all that time. During the war years, we were guests of
the government in the Salinas Rodeo grounds for three months and a year in the Poston
area of Arizona. Subsequently we lived in eastern Oregon for thirteen years.
8
�"In the Pajaro Valley we have lived and have had neighbors who are Americans of
diverse national origin. It has been a privilege and an opportunity to have amiably done
business with persons with diverse names such as Nielsen, Crosetti, Jericich , Travers,
Gonzalez, Wong, Hudson, Matiasevich, Silliman, Shikuma, Oksen, Eaton and various
others - really a cross-section of Americans from all over the world."
Although flowering plants have always thrived in the climate of the Monterey Bay, the flower
growing industry was not established until after World War II. There were only three
commercial flower growers in the late 1950s.
A particularly interesting chapter of the history of cut flower production was told by Harry
Fukutome in the booklet prepared for the 75th Anniversary of Westview Presbyterian Church.
Japanese Americans in northern California were acutely aware of the devastating postwar
conditions in Japan, and many relief supplies were sent by organizations and individuals. The
plight of thousands of refugees returning from Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria to Japan was one
of these many severe problems.
In 1955 the International Agricultural Fellowship Association (Kokusai Noyukai) arranged for the
emigration of 1,000 agricultural workers to the United States under a refugee act that was in
effect at the time.
In 1973, Harry Fukutome related:
"He (Unosuke Shikuma) personally visited Japan in 1955 and 1956 and interviewed the
young people in Kagoshima and Yamaguchi prefectures and invited eight of them to his
farm and asked them to help him in raising strawberries. These ambitious and grateful
young men were full of hope and not only worked day and night for him, but were
greatly influenced by Mr. Shikuma's character and all were led to Christianity.
"Almost all of them became American citizens. When the Refugee Act Agreement was
fulfilled, each of them chose his own vocation. (The agreement was that they must work
in the sponsor's field for three years.) Some became gardeners, others strawberry
growers, but Akira Nagamine took up flower growing as his goal. He recognized how
Watsonville weather was suited for such industry.
"So, depending heavily upon the support of Shikuma brothers, he planned to become a
flower grower. He became a worker in a flower-growing firm in Mountain View.
"Meanwhile he called his brother, Osamu Nagamine, his brother-in-law, Hachiro
Fukutome, and they all learned the technique of the industry for about three years.
Though they had acquired the technique and the knowledge, they had very little capital.
"So, instead of going on separately, they joined resources and in 1962, they were able to
secure a land which they had long waited for - about five acres on Condit Lane, which
was an apple orchard. They started growing carnations first. At that time, there were
only three flower growers in this area, Ben Craust, Mas Tachibana, and Sakae Brothers.
9
�"Since 1962, besides Nagamine Brothers, others came into this area: Nakashima
Growers, PV Green House and others. When the new growers business and its success
was reported, old timers from the Bay Area moved to Watsonville, and on top of that
when the promotion for cut flowers throughout the country was accelerated, many
refugees from Japan and new immigrants poured into this area primarily to raise
carnations.
"... Come to think of it, we owe so much to the faithful and devout Mr. Shikuma who left
a lasting impression upon us and we cannot forget the personal guidance he gave us at
its beginning."
10
�Chapter 3
Uneasy Settlement: The War Years
Japan's fateful decision to drop bombs on Pearl Harbor did more than destroy ships and planes
- it also exploded the tenuous hold that Japanese immigrants and their descendants had on
their adopted country, the United States.
For Issei and Nisei, the news of the December 7, 1941, attack was more than a declaration of
war. It was the beginning of an inner battle that hurt them more than they could say.
One woman quoted in Mei Nakano's book described her feelings at the news: "An old wound
opened up again, and I found myself shrinking inwardly from my Japanese blood." Watsonville
resident Ichiro Yamaguchi wrote, "When Pearl Harbor was bombed, I felt like somebody shot
me ... I was worried that something might happen to us."
His fears were warranted, since the next day, the assets of the Japanese were frozen and the
arrests of community leaders began. A curfew was imposed as well.
The official spokesman for the Japanese Association, Ichiji Motoki, told the Watsonville
Register-Pajaronian that "these people wish to lead peaceful lives and are not the element of
potential troublemakers." Even so, arrests continued to be made of such "troublemakers" as
Buddhist priests, teachers, ministers, Japanese Association officers and newspaper
correspondents. Charges were never proven against any of them, according to The
Japanese and Japanese Americans in the Pajaro Valley by Eleanor Johnson and Opal Marshall.
Other individuals were questioned by the FBI and kept under surveillance.
It was not long after that the first evacuations were announced. The first was minor, an order
for all aliens to vacate a five-mile radius of the coast. This covered the area west of Highway 1,
including Larkin Valley and the Roache District. It displaced some 23 Japanese families.
According to documents from the California Historical Resources Commission, written by
Salinas resident Violet De Cristoforo, by late January 1942 newspapers were printing
unsubstantiated stories about Japanese American spies and saboteurs. On Feb. 19, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the mass expulsion and
incarceration of Japanese Americans.
By March 1942, many Japanese had left the Watsonville area voluntarily, creating a farm labor
shortage. A committee of Watsonville Nisei even drove to Idaho to see about purchasing an
apple orchard, in hopes of moving the entire Japanese community there. However, according to
Sandy Lydon, the soil was rocky and poor, and their plan had to be abandoned.
Young Nisei men were also given the choice of being evacuated or joining the military, and
many did sign up. Young women also volunteered for the Women's Army Corps and the U.S.
Cadet Nursing Corps.
11
�After March 25, restrictions were placed on the movements of Japanese in Watsonville, Gilroy,
the Monterey Peninsula, Salinas and San Benito County. Between April and June, they were
taken to the Salinas Assembly Center, located at the Salinas Rodeo grounds.
Posters were hung everywhere to give "Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry." The
evacuees could take nothing with them except bedding and linens, toilet articles, clothing,
utensils, plates, cups and unspecified "personal articles."
The Japanese Americans had to sell all they owned or leave it with someone they trusted.
Kazuko Nakane writes that they had to sell their belongings for a fraction of what they were
worth, in order to be ready for the evacuation. Just as when they emigrated from Japan, they
could take only what they could carry.
More than 3,600 Japanese Americans were held at the Salinas Assembly Center until July 4.
Twenty barrack buildings were constructed, measuring 20 by 100 feet. The camp was divided
into blocks made up of 14 barracks each. Each block held about 800 people and had its own
mess hall, laundry and recreation room. The rooms had no shades, curtains, shelves, closets or
lockers, so most evacuees stored their belongings under their beds.
Despite the poor living conditions and general confusion of the time, the center residents
quickly formed a wide variety of social activities. Several enterprising souls put together a camp
newsletter, The Village Crier, to report on the happenings. Activities during this time included
concerts by a glee club and an impromptu band, games of Go and Shogi, Buddhist meetings,
softball games, bridge, art classes and talent shows, according to copies of The Village Crier,
obtained from the Bancroft Library.
The tone of the writing is generally sunny, although in one early issue an editorial appeared,
signed only by the initials G.T.: "We are 3,000 strong with physical features that are alike. Does
that make us think or do the things identically as the next person? Surely, we have minds of our
own."
The author also advised readers, "Belief and faith in the ultimate
success that is our heritage will help us through this adjustment
period. We are not lost. Be strong."
Such was the community spirit of the temporary camp that when
relocation plans were announced, the residents held "Hello,
Arizona!" parties, decorated with paintings of desert scenery.
Ninety percent of the Salinas Assembly Center evacuees were sent
to Poston Relocation Camp in Arizona; 1,222 of them were from
Santa Cruz County. The Watsonville-area Japanese were split
between Poston Camps I and II, according to Lydon.
Watch Tower, Poston,
Arizona, 1942
12
�In Nakano's book, one woman remembers her arrival at Poston Camp: "We arrived in the
middle of a dust storm ... There were times when the electricity went off and we had no water."
Evacuees found these "resettlement communities" surrounded with barbed wire and guarded
by military police.
Accommodations were primitive, to say the least, and arrangements were especially hard on
the very young, the very old and the ill. Most parents and caregivers had to carry several
buckets of water to their living quarters each day.
Sleeping, eating, bathing and using the toilet was a group experience in the camps. The lack of
privacy was particularly difficult for Japanese women. People waited in lines to eat, get shots
and to get jobs.
Accommodations were similar to the temporary camps, modeled on Army barracks. Although
the rooms were bare and bleak, the residents did what they could to become comfortable.
Women ordered material from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue to make curtains, and the men
scrounged lumber from wherever they could to make furniture.
As time passed, evacuees made a wide variety of items
and even created gardens in the desert landscape. Ichiro
Yamaguchi remembers, "In Camp II they had a crafts fair
which was very interesting. I saw all the nice things and
was amazed. People had the time to do these things. They
had no place to go."
The long-time farmers even managed to raise crops and
raise animals, which helped supplement camp meals,
Making Mattresses Out of Hay,
according to Nakano. The government only allotted about Poston, Arizona, 1942
40 cents per meal. At the beginning, the food was
generally abysmal, cooked by inexpert hands and made from whatever was cheapest to buy.
One woman said in Nakano's book, "At one time we were served liver for several weeks, until
we went on strike." But by the end of 1943, the camps produced 85 percent of the vegetables
the evacuees consumed.
There were also a variety of leisure activities at the camps, especially for the children. Scout
troops were organized, as well as dances, concerts and all sorts of athletics. There were also
schools for the youngsters, although the quality of education was uneven, due to the lack of
proper materials and teachers.
Not surprisingly, tensions often ran high. Rumors were always flying. Yamaguchi wrote, "I don't
know how many times I heard that the Golden Gate Bridge fell down, that the Japanese (from
Japan) came and bombed it."
Evacuees could also work, both inside and outside the camp. Inside, they did a variety of jobs,
although the most they could be paid was $19 a day. They could also hire themselves outside
the camp for farm labor. College-age students were also allowed to leave to pursue their
educations.
13
�Group of Internees, Poston, Arizona, ca. 1942-1946
Some did leave the camps and resettle in the interior of the United States. One survey quoted
in Marshall and Johnson's book found that only 33.4 percent of the Watsonville Japanese had
returned by 1946. Some, such as the Shikuma and Sakata families, went to Colorado and
Oregon to farm.
However, many chose not to leave. This was partially due to the questionnaire that had to be
signed prior to leaving the camp, which became known as the "Yes-Yes-No-No" form, which
asked about the person's loyalty to the United States.
Those who answered the loyalty questions with "No" were sent to Tule Lake, the maximum
security center, which also served as a prison for those Japanese who had failed to register for
the draft. The loyalty questions proved horribly divisive for many Japanese families, according
to Nakano.
In the spring of 1944, Executive Order 9066 was rescinded, and the loyal Japanese were finally
allowed to go home. By the end of 1945, the camps had closed. But for the Issei and Nisei,
there was no closing the door on the pain and bitterness they felt for the wasted years in camp.
Some Japanese did repatriate and move back to Japan. Even so, most chose to stay in the
United States and to remake their lives there. By 1949, more than 57,000 had returned to the
West Coast.
14
�Chapter 4
A Time to Reflect: 1945 to Present [1992]
The Issei had come to the Pajaro Valley with dreams of a new land where they could prosper.
Now, after the war, they and their children had to put the pieces of the broken dream back
together.
According to Kazuko Nakane's book, some found their belongings, which had been stored by
churches or trusted neighbors, while others discovered their homes in disarray, their things
stolen or broken. There was prejudice on the part of some Caucasians, while others welcomed
the return of the Japanese with open arms.
The Watsonville Buddhist Temple, which was closed during the war years, reopened in 1945 as
a hostel for the evacuees returning to the area. The Rev. Yoshio Iwanaga, who had been placed
at the Poston II camp and continued to hold religious ceremonies there, also returned to his
church in 1945. He was not only the minister but also hostel administrator.
It took several years, but the lives of the Japanese slowly returned to normal. For the most part,
the farmers went back to farming, and once again the valley bloomed. Strawberry production
had dropped to almost nothing during the war years, but by 1953 was stronger than ever, with
almost 800 acres devoted to that crop, according to Johnson and Marshall.
The Nisei married and began to have their own children. Many Nisei men and women found
expanded job opportunities after the war. Previously, the Japanese had been hired mainly as
laborers and domestics. But afterward, a variety of positions opened up for the bettereducated, who became doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers and businesspeople. Popular
choices of business included nurseries, florists, dry cleaners, food stores and hotels.
The Watsonville Citizens League once again became active. Formed as a social club in 1934, it
became politicized by the events of the war. In 1947, a group of Nisei men met to reactivate the
league and to pledge its commitment to community service. During 1948-49, the WCL provided
aid to returning evacuees, helping them file claims for losses and assisting those who needed to
re-register to vote.
In 1949, according to Sandy Lydon, the WCL officially became a chapter of the national
Japanese American Citizens League, and changed its name to reflect that. The Japan Society,
which had been the Issei service group, acknowledged the change in leadership and passed its
torch to the Nisei by deeding the younger group its property on Union Street.
In [1956], 1 California's Alien Land Law was repealed by popular vote. [It had been declared
unconstitutional in 1952 by the California Supreme Court in Fujii v. State of California. 2] A
campaign mounted in the late '40s and early '50s by the JACL (in which the Watsonville chapter
took an active role) culminated in the passage of the Walter-McCarran Immigration and
Naturalization Act in 1952, over the veto of President Harry Truman. This law allowed the Issei
to become naturalized citizens. By then, most of the original immigrants were in their 60s and
15
�70s, but even so, dutifully attended citizenship classes, took the test and were sworn in as U.S.
citizens, according to The Continuing Traditions: Japanese Americans, The Story of a People,
published by the Sacramento History Museum.
As time went on, the Japanese American sacrifices during the war were acknowledged, first by
President Gerald Ford in 1976 with a proclamation titled "The American Promise." He stated in
it that, "We know now what we should have known then - not only was the evacuation wrong,
but Japanese Americans were and are loyal Americans."
In 1980, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians was established by
act of Congress. The commission conducted hearings, heard testimony from more than 750
witnesses and examined more than 10,000 documents. In 1983, the commission ruled that the
evacuation and internment were unjustified, and was the result of "race prejudice, war
hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."
The commission estimated the total loss in 1983 dollars to be between $810 and $2 billion,
although other sources say the losses may be as high as $6 billion. This accounts for damages
and losses to businesses, disruption of careers, and long-term loss of income, earnings and
opportunity.
The commission also decided that the government owed Japanese Americans an apology as
well as redress for their losses. A fund was set up by Congress for this purpose.
President Ronald Reagan finally signed the Redress Bill on Aug. 10, 1988, and each surviving
evacuee - about 60,000 across the United States - received $20,000.
Today in the Pajaro Valley, the Issei are gone, but their spirit lives on through three generations
of descendants.
Much of the Japanese social life still revolves around the Watsonville Buddhist Temple and the
Westview Presbyterian Church. Both have done much to keep Japanese traditions alive in the
Pajaro Valley.
The Buddhist Temple has been the umbrella for a wide variety of activities. The temple has
sponsored Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Explorer troops since 1924, according to The Seventy-fifth
Anniversary, 1906-1981: Watsonville Buddhist Temple.
Under the auspices of the temple, there are also groups such as the Fujinkai, a women's service
organization, as well as several Buddhist associations and a Dharma school. Classes are held to
teach ikebana, the art of flower arrangement, and the Japanese tea ceremony. There are also
kendo (a martial art), camera and gardening clubs.
Many of the Christian Japanese attend Westview Presbyterian Church. The church began as a
mission in 1898 and continues to carry on that tradition with a variety of community projects.
Among their benificiaries are the Second Harvest Food Bank, the Pajaro Valley Shelter and
disaster victims in all parts of the country. Currently, the church is raising funds to help
hurricane victims in Hawaii and the South.
16
�Active church organizations include the men's fellowship group, the women's society and a
service group called JOY (Jesus, Others and You).
Westview, the Buddhist Temple and the JACL all provide funds for the Kokoro Nagakko, the
Japanese school based at the temple. The school provides students with knowledge about the
Japanese culture, and is open to students of all races.
The Watsonville Japanese American Citizens League continues to be active as well. In 1984, the
Watsonville JACL, along with chapters from Salinas, Monterey, Gilroy and San Benito County,
co-sponsored the placement of a plaque at the Salinas Rodeo Grounds. The plaque reads:
This monument is dedicated to the 3,586
Monterey Bay area residents of Japanese ancestry,
most of whom were American citizens, temporarily
confined in the Salinas Rodeo Grounds during
World War II, from April to July 1942. They were
detained without charges, trial or establishment of
guilt before being incarcerated in permanent
camps, mostly at Poston, Arizona. May such
injustice and humiliation never recur.
Monument to Monterey Bay Area Residents
And in 1992, the Nisei achieved another milestone Detained in Salinas in 1942
in their recognition. Fifty years earlier, they were
supposed to receive diplomas from Watsonville High School, but could not because they were
in the Salinas camp. On June 13, thirteen of them were handed their diplomas in a special
ceremony.
The local JACL was instrumental in gathering funds in 1965 for the new Watsonville hospital,
and also raised all the money needed to buy a building for the league. They have also done
much to help the Issei in their old age, establishing the Kizuka senior center and providing
activities for them.
The Nisei are now seniors themselves, and the Sansei are picking up where they left off. And
the children of the Sansei, the Yonsei, will eventually leave their mark on the Pajaro Valley as
well.
It has been a long, hard journey, but at last the Japanese Americans can truly call the Pajaro
Valley their home.
Editor’s Notes
1. The date of 1948, originally given in this publication is incorrect. The correct date is 1956.
Source: Okutsu, James. "Asian Land Laws." Asian American Encyclopedia. Marshall Cavendish,
1995. Vol. 1, p.18.
2. Ibid.
17
�Issei
The first generation. The Issei were born in Japan. Most immigrated to the United States
between 1890 and 1915
Nisei
The second generation, the children of the Issei. American citizens by birth, almost all Nisei
were born before World War II
Sansei
The third generation of Americans with Japanese ancestry, most Sansei were born during or
after World War II
Yonsei
The fourth generation, the children of the Sansei
Gosei
The fifth generation
18
�BIBLIOGRAPHY
Iwata, Masakazu, "The Japanese Immigrants in California
Agriculture,” Agricultural History, v. 36, Oct. 1962: 25-37.
Johnson, Eleanor, in collaboration with Opal Marshall, The
Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the Pajaro Valley.
Watsonville, Calif., Japanese American Citizens League, 1967.
Lydon, Sandy, A Half-Century of Service; The Watsonville Japanese
American Citizens League - 1934-1984. Watsonville, Calif., JACL,
1984.
Nakane, Kazuko, Nothing Left in My Hands; An Early Japanese
American Community in California's Pajaro Valley. Seattle, Young
Pine Press, 1985.
Nakano, Mei T., Japanese American Women; Three Generations
1890-1990. San Francisco, National Japanese American Historical
Society; and Berkeley, Mina Press Publishing, 1990.
U.S. Army WWI Issei
Volunteer from the
Pajaro Valley, 1918
Sacramento History Museum. The Continuing Traditions: Japanese Americans, the Story of a
People, Sacramento, Calif., 1992.
U.S. Immigration Commission. Reports, vol. 24. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1911b: 431-451.
Westview Presbyterian Church, The Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Mission Work in Watsonville,
California. Oct. 28, 1973.
Westview Presbyterian Church, Nisei Christian Journey: Its Promise and Fulfillment, Vol. II,
Watsonville, Calif., 1983.
Wilhelm, Stephen and Sagen, James E., A History of the Strawberry; From Ancient Gardens to
Modern Markets. University of California, Division of Agricultural Sciences, 1974.
Watsonville Buddhist Temple, 60th Anniversary 1905-1966, 1966; and 75th Anniversary 19061981, 1981; Watsonville, Calif.
Source
Nihon Bunka = Japanese Culture; one hundred years in the Pajaro Valley. It was published by the
Pajaro Valley Arts Council in conjunction with the Council's 1992 exhibition of the same name.
The text is published on the Library's Web site with the permission of the Council. Photographs
are courtesy of Bill Tao. Copyright 1992, Pajaro Valley Arts Council.
It is the library’s intent to provide accurate information, however, it is not possible for the library
to completely verify the accuracy of all information. If you believe that factual statements in a
local history article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library.
19
�
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Nihon Bunka/Japanese Culture: One Hundred Years in the Pajaro Valley
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Japanese American Community
Racism
Evacuation (World War II)
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Borg, Jane W.
Nichols, Kathy McKenzie
Tao, Bill
Pajaro Valley Arts Council
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Nihon Bunka = Japanese Culture; one hundred years in the Pajaro Valley. Published by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council in conjunction with the Council's 1992 exhibition of the same name.
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Pajaro Valley
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Published with the permission of the Council. Photographs are courtesy of Bill Tao. Copyright 1992, Pajaro Valley Arts Council.
Agriculture
County at War
Minority Groups
-
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An Overview of Ohlone Culture
By Robert Cartier
In the 16th century, (prior to the arrival of the Spaniards), over 10,000 Indians lived in the central California coastal areas
between Big Sur and the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay. This group of Indians consisted of approximately forty
different tribelets ranging in size from 100–250 members, and was scattered throughout the various ecological regions
of the greater Bay Area (Kroeber, 1953). They did not consider themselves to be a part of a larger tribe, as did wellknown Native American groups such as the Hopi, Navaho, or Cheyenne, but instead functioned independently of one
another. Each group had a separate, distinctive name and its own leader, territory, and customs. Some tribelets were
affiliated with neighbors, but only through common boundaries, inter-tribal marriage, trade, and general linguistic
affinities. (Margolin, 1978).
When the Spaniards and other explorers arrived, they were amazed at the variety and diversity of the tribes and
languages that covered such a small area. In an attempt to classify these Indians into a large, encompassing group, they
referred to the Bay Area Indians as "Costenos," meaning "coastal people." The name eventually changed to
"Coastanoan" (Margolin, 1978). The Native American Indians of this area were referred to by this name for hundreds of
years until descendants chose to call themselves Ohlones (origination uncertain).
Utilizing hunting and gathering technology, the Ohlone relied on the relatively substantial supply of natural plant and
animal life in the local environment. With the exception of the dog, we know of no plants or animals domesticated by
the Ohlone. Some plant species were, however, cultured by deliberate pruning, burning, and reseeding that encouraged
the growth of selected plants for use as food, herbs, medicines, and manufacturing in their material culture.
Plants utilized by the Ohlone cover a wide range of grasses, shrubs, and tree forms, but the mainstays in the daily diet
can be narrowed down to a few major examples. Acorns were probably the most important of the plant foods, with
tanbark oak, black oak, valley oak, and coastal live oak supplying the acorn meal that came to be predominant in the
Ohlone diet. Other plants recorded as being part of the diet included: buckeye and laurel nuts, and the seeds of dock,
tarweed, chia, holly leaf cherry, and digger pine. Among the berries gathered and consumed are blackberries,
elderberries, gooseberries. and madrone berries. Roots, shoots, and the bark of a number of other plants were also used
as food and herbs.
Hunting, trapping, and in some cases, poisoning game were common pursuits for most of the adult males in Ohlone
culture. Larger game animals that were hunted included deer, elk, bear, and antelope, with whale, sea lion, otter, and
seal also being hunted on the coast. Smaller animals that were occasionally eaten included rabbits, tree and ground
squirrels, rats, skunks, mice, moles, dogs, snakes, and lizards. Many species of birds were hunted or trapped; among
these were geese, ducks, doves, robins, quail, and hawks. Along the major freshwater ways on the coast, fish were a
regular food item. The more important fish included steelhead trout, salmon, sturgeon, and lampreys. Shellfish were
1
�extremely important to the Ohlone. For the people who lived near Monterey and San Francisco bays, the most
commonly eaten shellfish were mussels, abalone, clams, oysters, and hornshell from the tidelands.
A few animals were never eaten by some or all of the Ohlone, apparently for religious or supernatural reasons. These
creatures included eagles, owls, ravens, buzzards, frogs, and toads.
We see reflected in the subsistence patterns and the food available, the development of specialized tools for food
acquisition. The tools and diagnostic pathologies in the skeletal remains of Ohlones encountered in burials allude to this.
Grinding implements such as mortars, pestles, metates, and manos substantiate the manner of acorn and other seed
processing. Scrapers, drills, and knives fashioned from sharp stones indicate the working of skins and vegetable
materials, whereas dart and arrow points were used for hunting and warfare. Anatomical patterns displayed in skeletal
remains are frequently found as dental wear (i.e. extreme abrading of teeth from the sand in stone-ground food), or
pathologies in the long bones caused by periodic starvation.
The Ohlones were skilled in crafts and made useful and aesthetically pleasing tools, weapons, and items of adornment.
They made projectile points, scrapers, and knives from Monterey—banded and Franciscan chert, obsidian, and other
hard-substance rocks. They also used bone, shell, and wood for much of their material culture (Heizer and Whipple,
1971).
Finely cut, chiseled, and polished shells were turned into beautifully designed necklaces, pendants, and earrings; they
were also applied to belts, baskets, and clothing. Feathers were used in great quantities in the making of cloaks, headdresses, belts, and baskets.
Highly informative to the archaeologist are the trading patterns that occurred in Ohlone culture. They have left a tale of
movement and interaction over central California, and even the West Coast. Several hundred different types of trade
items have been documented for California Indians and discussed in the categories of food, beads and ornaments,
household wares, clothing and attire, raw materials, finished articles, and miscellaneous goods (Heizer, 1978). Shell and
shell beads were the most frequently reported trade items by native informants (Davis, 1974). The shell trade items
indicate extensive trade networks from central coastal California to as far as the Great Basin of Nevada, where a string of
Olivella beads dating to 8,600 B.P. was found. Specific sizes and shapes of shell artifacts are so standard for Ohlone and
other cultures in California that they prove to be sensitive time markers when found in an archaeological context.
Another important trade item to the Ohlone was the highly coveted cinnabar which was quarried at the New Almaden
area of Santa Clara County. Cinnabar expeditions came from as far away as Walla Walla, Washington to trade or fight for
the prized pigment. Mission records from Mission Santa Clara note that the Indians of Santa Cruz and Santa Clara
seemed to have been fighting incessantly over the rights to the cinnabar deposit. In 1841, Indians from Tulare and
Sacramento came as a regular cinnabar expedition to the quarry and one of the intruders was killed by the Santa Clara
Ohlones.
Included in other important trade goods imported or exported in Ohlone culture were abalone shells, projectile points,
obsidian, dogs, tobacco, hides, bows, baskets, salt, acorns, and fish (Davis, 1974).
Eight social groups in the lands of the Ohlone were separately distinguished ethnic units. Contrasts in dialect or
language, customs of dress and ornamentation, particular religious beliefs, kinship patterns, and to some degree,
subsistence mainstay distinguish these units. From north to south, the eight subethnic groups recognized in
protohistoric times were the Karkin, Chochenyo, Ramaytush, Tamyen, Awaswas, Mutsin, Rumsen, and the Chalon.
From the studies of Levy (1970), we arrive at the following estimated populations for the eight Ohlone groupings as of
1770.
2
�Subgroups or Language Groupings
Location
Estimated
Population
Karkin
South edge of Carquinez Strait
200
Chochenyo
East of San Francisco Bay, Livermore
Valley, Mission San Jose
2,000
Ramaytush
San Mateo and San Francisco
Counties
1,400
Tamyen
South San Francisco Bay and Santa
Clara Valley
1,200
Awaswas
Between Davenport and Aptos in
Santa Cruz
600
Mutsun
Pajaro River drainage
2,700
Rumsen
Lower Carmel, Salinas, and Sur
Rivers
800
Chalon
Upper Salinas Drainage
900
Population and Location of Ohlone in 1770 A.D.
In the vicinity of the Alma-Adobe site and CA-SC1-1, the language group at the time of missionary contact would have
been the Ramaytush. From information available, we may also assume that the particular tribelet at the site was the
Puichun.
Ohlone culture is seen in this ethnographic sketch as a world in which the people had a close physical and psychological
bond to the environment and to the customs of a small society. For some village members, their entire existence might
be spent within a radius of ten to fifteen miles of their natal village. Each rock, spring, tree, and creek was known
intimately. A heritage of thousands of years lay under the Ohlones' feet as most of the major villages contained deep
deposits, built from the debris of daily life, that sealed the remains of the Ohlone past. The ethnographic story of the
Ohlone is occasionally rich with knowledge about a life that was so incredibly different from the civilization that now
stands in its stead; while on the other hand it is an incomplete story, or only a rough outline, with gaps as yet
undiscovered and untold.
3
�Sources
This article is an excerpt, originally called "Ethnographic Background", from a 1991 report titled, The Santa's
Village Site CA-SCr=239. This report was the result of an archaeological dig by the Field Methods in
Archaeology Class of De Anza College, which was led by Robert Cartier. The report was prepared by Robert
Cartier with Laurie Crane, Cynthia James, Jon Reddington, and Allika Ruby. RAP-ed. Copyright 1991 Robert
Cartier. Reproduced by permission of Robert Cartier. The other sources are references from that article.
Davis, J.T. Trade Routes and Economic Exchange Among the Indians of California". California Publications of
Archaeology, Ethnography, and History, No.3. Ramona: Ballena Press, 1974.
Heizer, R.F., ed. Handbook of North American Indians: California, Vol. 8. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution, 1978.
Heizer, R.F. and M.A. Whipple. The California Indians, a Source Book. Second Ed. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1971.
Kroeber, Alfred L. Handbook of Indians of California. Berkeley: California Book Company, Ltd., 1953.
Levy, R. "Coastoan Internal Relationships". Paper presented to the Ninth Conference on American Indian
Languages, San Diego; Manuscript in Levy's possession.
Margolin, M. The Ohlone Way—Indian Life in the San Francisco Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley: Heyday Books,
1978.
The content of this article is the responsibility of the individual author. It is the Library's intent to provide accurate local history
information. However, it is not possible for the Library to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a
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please contact the Webmaster.
4
�
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An overview of Ohlone culture
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AR-095
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This is an excerpt, originally called "Ethnographic Background", from a 1991 report titled, The Santa's Village Site CA-SCr=239. This report was the result of an archaeological dig by the Field Methods in Archaeology Class of De Anza College, which was lead by Robert Cartier. The report was prepared by Robert Cartier with Laurie Crane, Cynthia James, Jon Reddington, and Allika Ruby.
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Copyright 1991 Robert Cartier. Reproduced by permission of Robert Cartier.
Subject
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Native Americans
Ohlone
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Cartier, Robert
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1991
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Santa Cruz (County)
California
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Local News Index
Description
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An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
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<p>Only the possibility of serious harm to the nation could justify the compulsory uprooting of the thousands of American-born Japanese who are to be removed by the army from Pacific coast areas in which sabotage or aid to the enemy might be disastrous. The possibility did exist, and the presidential order for removal was imperatively needed. This is the opinion of calm thinkers who have the utmost regard for the civil rights of citizens.</p><p>"Unprecedented" is one of the terms of criticism voiced by the American Civil Liberties union. But unprecedented also is the residence in a vital combat zone of many thousands of American born individuals who are claimed as citizens by the country of their parents.</p><p>Few governments would have waited as long as the United States in trying to find a fair method of dealing with a section of the population so many of whom are open to suspicion as to their loyalty. For several weeks officials and ordinary citizens alike have sought a remedy that would preserve every peacetime right of every citizen and respect the undoubted fiction that the Japanese-American community on the Pacific coast was 100 per cent loyal.</p><p>Such a solution simply was not in the realm of possibilities. The presidential order, giving the army authority to evacuate all aliens or citizens deemed of doubtful trustworthiness in an emergency, is the only workable plan put forward.</p><p>Now that the order has been given, it should be made effective in the shortest possible time. Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens too, should be moved to inland points where they can best prove their loyalty to the United States by following the calling in which so many of them are proficient, agriculture. Thus they may help fill a national need and at the same time be self-supporting.</p><p>At the war's end, those Japanese-Americans, or even their alien parents, who have clear records on the books of our war department, will have won higher standing as Americans than they have been able to attain under the burden of dual citizenship which the Japanese government has forced upon them.</p><p>Their acceptance of the present inconvenience and of the tasks assigned to them will be the best evidence of loyalty. Kindly, generous treatment of them in their new status and cooperation at all points with the army in its problem will similarly give evidence of the loyalty of Americans in general to free and honorable traditions."</p>
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LN-1942-03-05-888
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<i>Watsonville Register-Pajaronian</i> , page 5
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1942-03-05
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1940s
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What Other Editors Say: Fair Treatment For Japanese
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Wars-World War II
Evacuation (World War II)
Japanese American Community
Italian American Community
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Christian Science Monitor
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Copyrighted by the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian. Reproduced by permission.
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NEWS
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County at War
Minority Groups
-
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Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
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<p>To the Editor: Your insipid and practically anti-democratic editorial in Tuesday evenings paper (regarding return of Japanese) is a sickening display of shoddy thinking to the mind of at least one soldier who has now served his country for over three years.</p><p>I am including a clipping from the News and hope you may profit by reading an editor who believes in our constitution and rights to all citizens instead of vested groups.</p><p>Perhaps it is too much to expect realistic thinking, or should I say honest, from an appeasement mind.</p><p>Let me assure you many, many soldiers are thinking seriously and discussing thoughtfully the problems of our country. We know full well that our form of government has been the best to date, but we do know that it can be improved by group effort. Those of the status quo school, you come too close to this group to be very helpful, are in for a rude shock if they think the American soldier doesn't know what he is fighting for. We are fighting for equal rights for all races and groups; opportunity for all, not those hereditarily fortunate.</p><p>I will continue my subscription, though I have never been so furious with an editorial as the one you had the nerve to foist on your readers Tuesday evening.</p><p>Your critic for a more democratic country.</p><p>CLARENCE A. MAHLER</p>
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LN-1944-12-22-998
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<i>Watsonville Register-Pajaronian</i> , page -
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1944-12-22
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1940s
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Disagrees On Japanese Issue<br />[Editorial]
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Wars-World War II
Evacuation (World War II)
Japanese American Community
Italian American Community
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Clarence A. Mahler
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Copyrighted by the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian. Reproduced by permission.
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Santa Cruz Public Libraries
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TEXT
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EN
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NEWS
DOCUMENT
County at War
Minority Groups
-
Dublin Core
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Title
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Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
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<p>Cpl. Jack E. Kirby of Freedom, captured by the Japs at the fall of Corregidor in May, 1942, and prisoner in various prison camps in the Philippines until Sept. 3, 1945, writes the following to the Register-Pajaronian:</p><p>"Since my return from the prison camps, I have been noting with growing alarm the discrimination against Americans of Japanese ancestry in this area. I went to school in Watsonville from the seventh grade on with these Americans, ran around with them, and candidly state some of my best friends here are Japanese.</p><p>"The difference in stature between the Japanese here and those over there is the difference between black and white. By stature, I mean not only shape and build but mind and motive as well. You undoubtedly know that outside of the American Indians, the Americans of Japanese ancestry have the highest percentage of volunteer record in our army. Why shouldn't I grant and fight for their equal opportunities.</p><p>"One of the real problems this area is facing is that of labor. I am convinced we need American labor and American laborers should be given first opportunity. If that is the case, let's use it. By that I mean the Americans, regardless of ancestry, English, Swiss, Italians, Japanese. Some people have been propagandanized to the point where they have lost sight of the truth that we fought for and what some of my buddies died for. The statement in the paper last Saturday by a large number of fellows from Camp McQuaide thoroughly expresses my sentiments, too. If fellows who have gone through the hell of war and prison camps can express so positively this conviction, how can some ignorant, pseudo-Americans successfully raise their voices? Let's be Americans about this!</p><p>CPL. JACK E. KIRBY"</p>
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LN-1945-10-11-1042
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<i>Watsonville Register-Pajaronian</i> , page 6
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1945-10-11
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1940s
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Cpl. Jack Kirby Decries Nisei Discrimination
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Wars-World War II
Evacuation (World War II)
Japanese American Community
Italian American Community
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Cpl. Jack E. Kirby
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Copyrighted by the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian. Reproduced by permission.
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TEXT
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EN
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NEWS
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County at War
Minority Groups
-
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Snapshot Stories
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Portrait in Traditional Clothing
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Crowbear, Bianca
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Crowbear, Bianca
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2013
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2010s
Soquel
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90c99ee6a04c62e6e5eae42686600e87
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Snapshot Stories
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs with a unique perspective on local history, collected from county residents.
Most of these photographs were gathered during a series of public events between 2013 and 2016. In most cases the photos are the property of the contributors. Please contact the library regarding the rights for reproduction.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PHOTO
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
4x6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Portrait at Harvey West Park
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Crowbear, Bianca
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Crowbear, Bianca
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
IMAGE
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
PHOTO
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SS-CROWBEARB-03
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
2010s
Santa Cruz (City)
Minority Groups
Portraits
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/db51a1ffd8b1263e0a266eb112679b57.jpg
a1c52df9a499f53a0795d1f7a40425c9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Snapshot Stories
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs with a unique perspective on local history, collected from county residents.
Most of these photographs were gathered during a series of public events between 2013 and 2016. In most cases the photos are the property of the contributors. Please contact the library regarding the rights for reproduction.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PHOTO
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
4x6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Northern Traditional Dancers
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Crowbear, Bianca
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Crowbear, Bianca
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
IMAGE
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
PHOTO
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SS-CROWBEARB-04
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
2010s
Soquel
Minority Groups
Portraits