Farming the Home Place: A Japanese Community in California, 1919–1982
Valerie J. Matsumoto
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.
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About Valerie J. Matsumoto
Reviews for Farming the Home Place: A Japanese Community in California, 1919–1982
Gordon H. Chang
Journal of American Ethnic History
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.
Lauren Kessler
The Journal of American History
Carefully researched, tightly written, well organized, and intelligently interpreted.... An excellent text for classroom assignment.
Sucheng Chan
Pacific Historical Review