Farming the Home Place: A Japanese Community in California, 1919–1982

Valerie J. Matsumoto

Published by Cornell University Press 1993

Farming the Home Place

A Japanese Community in California, 1919–1982

Valerie J. Matsumoto

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501711916

Overview
Contents

About this book

In 1919, against a backdrop of a long history of anti-Asian nativism, a handful of Japanese families established Cortez Colony in a bleak pocket of the San Joachin Valley. Valerie Matsumoto chronicles conflicts within the community as well as obstacles from without as the colonists responded to the challenges of settlement, the setbacks of the Great Depression, the hardships of World War II internment, and the opportunities of postwar reconstruction. Tracing the evolution of gender and family roles of members of Cortez as well as their cultural, religious, and educational institutions, she documents the persistence and flexibility of ethnic community and demonstrates its range of meaning from geographic location and web of social relations to state of mind.

Author / Editor information

Matsumoto Valerie J. :

Valerie J. Matsumoto is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Reviews

Lauren Kessler:

"Part oral history, part sociology, Farming the Home Place is the chronicle of three generations in the life of a Japanese-American farming community in California's San Joachin Valley. Matsumoto writes clearly, knowledgeably, and with affection for her subject, weaving the story of Cortez, a seventy-four-year-old planned agricultural colony, into the larger tapestry of twentieth-century Japanese-American experience. Her extensive interviews with dozens of Cortez residents hep create a living portrait of a stable yet constantly evolving community."

Sucheng Chan:

"Carefully researched, tightly written, well organized, and intelligently interpreted.... An excellent text for classroom assignment."

Gordon H. Chang:

"Farming the Home Place, enriched by material gathered from over eighty interviews that supplement research into local archival and manuscript collections, is a sensitive, subtle, even understated book. It will speak to a wide variety of audiences, both academic and popular, for its implications are many for the understanding of the nature of community and ethnicity in American life."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Valerie J. Matsumoto Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. Cultivating a Fallow Field Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Taking Root in a Harsh Land Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter 2. Growing Up in Cortez: The Prewar Years Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Chapter 3. Merced Assembly Center Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Chapter 4. Amache Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter 5. Reweaving the Web of Community Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Chapter 6. Rice and Reflection Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Conclusion. Sustaining Fruit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Appendix A. Notes on Research Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Appendix B. Oral History Interview Questions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Appendix C. Recipes from Cortez, with List of Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257

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