Japanese Americans of Merced County

Before the turn of the century, the American agricultural industry recruited Japanese to labor on California farms. By 1900, the number of Japanese on the west coast grew from a few to 24,000. After years of migrant work, some Japanese had saved enough money to buy or lease land. They bought land near Cortez, Cressey, and Livingston in the colonies formed by Kyutaro Abiko. Other Japanese bought land under the names of their American-born children and established their farms in Merced, Le Grand, Dos Palos, and other communities of this county.

Farm work was not easy, but more difficult for Issei pioneers was communicating with people who did not speak their language. It was a blessing when their children were able to read well enough to explain the laws and help with legal documents.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese militarists dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor. In the hysteria that followed, many politicians and military personnel feared that Issei and their American-born children might somehow help the Japanese who had attacked Hawaii.

Although no evidence had ever been found that any Japanese or their children were engaged in sabotaging this country, over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were relocated in assembly centers. A few months later, these people, who had committed no crime nor had been formally charged with a crime, were moved again. This time they were incarcerated in camps which had been constructed in isolated desert locations. The Issei and their American citizen-children were guarded by soldiers behind barbed-wire fences until 1945.

Japanese Americans of Merced County, A Photographic Journal, tells the story of Japanese who came to Merced County to work in the fields and to build their farms. It tells the American story of being ordered to leave their homes and move to concentration camps. It shows the Americans who, even though their parents were never allowed to become naturalized U.S. citizens until 1954, joined the armed forces to defend America in Europe and Asia during World War II. Finally, this collection of photographs shows how the Japanese returned to this community after the war to rebuild, renew, and continue their lives.