Gift Honors Memory of
Longtime Strawberry Growers and Creates Legacy to Benefit Fullerton
Arboretum
Tom and Chiz Miyawaki Legacy Project
established with a $15,000 gift to the university’s Center
for Oral and Public History.
May 18, 2005 :: No. 210
When it comes to fresh produce in Southern
California, strawberry season is, arguably, one of the most
anticipated times of the year. For more than three
decades, second-generation Japanese-Americans — or Nisei
— Tom and Chiz Miyawaki contributed to this annual bounty
as farmers and managers in the strawberry business.
Among the beneficiaries of their hard work
are Chiz’s brothers Tom and Frank Matsuoka of Culver
City and Kingsburg, respectively, and nephew Kurtis Nakagawa
of Placentia. In tribute to and in honor of the couple’s
memory, Nakagawa and his uncles established the Tom and Chiz
Miyawaki Legacy Project with a $15,000 gift to the university’s
Center for Oral and Public History (COPH).
Aimed at promoting the COPH and the Fullerton
Arboretum’s Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage
Museum — currently under construction — the donation,
explains Nakagawa, is “to give students the opportunity
to be authors, to benefit the university and to educate the
public at large about the Japanese-American contributions
to Orange County.”
A third of the gift was set aside for a scholarship,
for awarding to authors of a student-written publication related
to the dual themes of Orange County agricultural history and
Japanese-American heritage. History graduate students Scott
Behen of Long Beach, Susan Brewer of Newport Beach and Susan
Shoho of Placentia teamed up for the winning submission, tentatively
titled “They Worked the Land: a History of Immigrants
and Farmers in Orange County.”
According to the trio, “They Worked the
Land” will be divided into three general themes. The
first chronicles the lives of the first Japanese-American
immigrants up through the beginning of World War II, including
such topics as how the original wine region of California
became the home of orange groves, the effects of U.S. immigration
policy and laws on the new immigrants, and the evolving conflict
between Japanese-American farmers and organizations like the
American Federation of Labor. The second and third parts are
dedicated to World War II, with the emphasis on such issues
as Japanese-American detention, military service, resistance,
resettlement and emigration back to Japan at war’s conclusion;
and post-war changes in Orange County, its residents and work
force, including an oral history with the secretary of the
California Department of Food and Agriculture, A.G. Kawamura,
who, with his brother, oversees their family farming business
in Orange County.
The remaining $10,000 will be used to publish
the book — scheduled for completion in October 2006
— which will be sold in the museum. All proceeds from
the book’s sales will benefit the arboretum.
As part of the Fullerton Arboretum’s
new visitor center, scheduled for completion in the fall,
the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum
will spotlight the rich agricultural legacy of Orange County
and the Japanese-American community’s contributions
to that chronicle.
Media Contacts: |
Michael Paul Wong, College of Humanities
and Social Sciences, 657-278-2969 or mpwong@fullerton.edu
Gail Matsunaga, Public Affairs, 657-278-4851 or gmatsunaga@fullerton.edu |
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