Title:

Harvesting tomatoes on the farm of Herman S. Heston in Newtown, Bucks County, Pa., are five Issei farmers who were obliged by neighbors' protest to leave another farm at Great Meadows, N.J., shortly after arriving there in April 1944 from the Gila River Relocation Center. A few days later the men were employed by Mr. Heston through the WRA relocation office in Philadelphia. From left to right, they are Kazumasa Kitagawa, Katsuji Taniguchi, George Yamamoto, Ted Miyamura, and Tarazo Matsumoto. The Nisei wife of Mr. Miyamura came from Gila River to join him in August. She is employed as a domestic in the nearby home of Mr. Heston's sister. The wives and children of the four other Issei are still at Gila River. At the Heston farm these men occupy a large shed which has been converted into living quarters. The Heston farm has been owned by Mr. Heston and his family ever since his grandfather came there in 1864. Mr. Heston speaks highly of the Issei. I have found them loyal, hardworking, clean, and pleasant to work with, he said. We like them a lot and have a high regard for them. Prior to evacuation in spring of 1942 from California, Mr. Yamamoto was a farm foreman at Brentwood; Mr. Matsumoto and Mr. Miyamura were farmers at Whittier and Stockton, respectively; Mr. Taniguchi was a vegetable grower, packer, and shipper on the cash-rent basis at Brentwood; and Mr. Kitagawa operated a fruit stand in Los Angeles. While at Gila River, the men worked on the project farm. -- Photographer: Iwasaki, Hikaru -- Newtown, Pennsylvania. 8/?/44

Contributing Institution:

The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.