Opera Santa Barbara just presented An American Dream — the emotionally moving story about a Japanese family in America being sent to an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The performance starred Santa Barbara’s own Nina Yoshida Nelsen, a stunning mezzo-soprano whose family narrative contributed to the development of the opera.
And therein lies a little bit of local history: the Japanese colony that began here about 115 years ago.
Young Japanese men between 20 and 30 years old, married or single, immigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, desperate to find employment.
In the North County, several hundred found work in the beet fields of Betteravia for Union Sugar near Santa Maria. Another group worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad, newly extended through town.
About 200 Japanese were living in Montecito and Santa Barbara by 1910.
The Japanese in Santa Barbara established their tight-knit community in the area of the 100 block of East Canon Perdido from about 1910 to World War II.
By 1940, some 500 Japanese — issei (first generation) and nisei (second generation; Japanese-Americans) — made theirs homes and launched their businesses in the area.
In those earliest years, eager men could find labor jobs through Frank Mura’s Japanese Day Work Co. or Sadaki Fujitsubo’s Japanese Employment Bureau, and new arrivals likely were made to feel welcome at Sentarou Asakura’s new hotel.
In this little Nihonmachi, or “Japantown,” could be found grocery stores run by Tsunehachi Kakimoto and Kaksu Fukushima. Barbers Hiratsuka and Tanamachi and later Tsunio Takeuchi were cutting hair in their neighborhood shops.
Room and board facilities would be found along the 800 block of Anacapa Street and around the corner on Canon Perdido, run variously by Kindo Fukushima, Genzo Tomita, or the families Nakagawa, Uyeno and Kimora.
Frank Hanatani and Henry Kimoto were successful merchants with a Japanese arts goods store on State Street, and more interestingly, they had a kimono boutique at the Potter Hotel.
In 1907, the Japanese Congregational Mission was established to teach English to the many new Japanese immigrants, so they could succeed in American society.
In the process, a number of Japanese converted and stayed on with the church.
The much larger Buddhist Church was founded soon after, and both provided cultural, civic and spiritual support, as well as recreational activities.
The following year, the immigrants formed the Japanese Association “to promote the happiness and interest of its members by cultivating among them, and assisting in improving and ameliorating their moral and social conditions; to encourage and advance educational and moral influences among them,” and to assist and relieve the sick and destitute.
In 1915, a momentous event occurred for the tiny Japanese community in Santa Barbara with the arrival of Baron and Baroness Uriu Sotokichi. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, Baron Uriu was admiral of the Japanese navy and Japanese commissioner to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco the previous month.
The local Japanese proudly held a grand reception at the Potter Hotel for the admiral. He encouraged his countrymen in their native tongue to demonstrate “friendliness, good example and fair dealing to earn the respect of the Americans they dealt with, thereby adding their influence toward the prolongation of the traditional friendship that existed between the two nations.”
Japanese Growers
By the 1940s, the Japanese were also excelling as nurserymen, estate gardeners and truck farmers. (A news story at the time glowingly described the Japanese as having “a peculiar knack for making plants thrive.”)
Truck farms were small farms that grew a little of everything, as opposed to large farm businesses that grew only one or two different kinds of produce. These truck farmers sold to local restaurants, stores and wholesalers.
The biggest food retailer/wholesaler in Santa Barbara was the Jordano family. Long-timers here will remember when the four Jordano brothers (and later the second-generation cousins) maintained their own Santa Barbara County-wide supermarket chain, as well as wholesale meat, produce and liquor divisions.
In Santa Barbara, a number of Japanese had small truck farms and flower fields on the Mesa to fill their produce and florist shops; the Fukushimas, Fukugawas, Ueharas, Harukis and Kakimotos among them.
Kameki Fukumura had a truck farm in the old “Dead Dog Canyon” (Meigs Road, today’s Honda Valley). He sold his beans, strawberries, celery and peas to John Jordano Sr., the produce buyer.
His son, Riyokiu “Roke” Fukumura, would later work for Jordano’s as a buyer. (And at 100 years old today, Roke still wrangles vegetables and fruit at Tri-County Produce!)
Tsunehachi Kakimoto had a produce market and, upon his passing, his son, Ikuo “Ikey,” continued the business, selling produce to Jordano’s.
World War II and Internment
After Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, incarcerating people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens.
Non-Asian people in the community were genuinely disturbed at what was happening.
While there were plenty of racists who applauded the order, many more locals were stunned to see what was happening to people they knew as their friends, neighbors and fellow businessmen.
Santa Barbara was disturbed to see these residents losing their homes — at a tremendous financial loss — and forced to pack up and leave.
People were sobbing in the street when the beloved Asakura family was moving out.
Some locals did attempt to reach out on behalf of their Japanese associates. John Jordano Sr. tried to speak to the authorities about the value of these vendors as suppliers to the community.
The internment would create a loss of up to 80% of the produce coming from truck farms in Southern California, which would affect the food supply.
More specifically, Jordano explained that Ikey Kakimoto was an all-American boy: he was born here; he played second base for the Santa Barbara High Dons’ varsity baseball team when the entire community had cheered him on; he was a member of the school’s ROTC; and a member of the all-volunteer California State Guard!
It was to no avail.
Jordano tried to console and encourage Ikey, telling him a job would be waiting for him at Jordano’s after the war if he needed or wanted it.
When the Japanese families were returned to their Santa Barbara community in 1945, they had absolutely nothing — no job, no homes, no money. There were no news articles noting their homecoming.
The Japanese Congregational Church and the Buddhist Church on East Canon Perdido served as hostels for the displaced residents, while they looked for employment and homes. But some businesses that hired returning Japanese men were scolded for “giving a job to a Jap.”
On the other hand, kindness also abounded.
The Jordanos told the Japanese to come in and get all the groceries they needed for their families. Furthermore, they extended them an open credit line with no due date … it was to be paid back when they were completely back on their feet and able to do so.
The Jordano family knew these Japanese in the community as honest and trustworthy neighbors. They had complete confidence in them.
When Ikey came home, he took up John Jordano’s offer for a job. He ended up serving the company with one of the longest work records, more than 35 years.
To encourage young Japanese-Americans in the community after the war, from 1948 to 1951, the Japanese Congregational Church and Santa Barbara Buddhist Church teamed up to organize a baseball team called the Nisei All-Stars.
The Japanese Congregational Church was later renamed Bethany Congregational Church of Santa Barbara to minister to all the community and moved to 556 N. Hope Ave. It is one of the oldest churches in town, and still maintains a service in Japanese.