Sept. 2, 2023: Tribute to Farm Workers

In the leadup to Labor Day, we salute all those who work to produce and harvest/process food to keep us fed.

During WWII, labor shortages motivated agricultural growers to turn to Japanese American concentration camps for cheap labor. Many answered the call, if only just to get out of the camps. Almost half had farming backgrounds, but many were city dwellers, often with college educations but no experience at hard labor.

It’s estimated that about 33,000 Japanese Americans participated in the farm labor program between 1942-1944, harvesting thousands of acres of sugar beets in the western states.1

(L): A closeup of a young Japanese American woman in a straw hat, standing in a beetfield, both hands resting on the handle of a farm implement. (R) A Montana farmer demonstrates how to top beets to a group of Japanese American men who appear to be wearing knit caps.
(L): May Uchiyama at Nyssa labor camp in Oregon, July 1942. Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration photographer. Library of Congress USF34-073699-E. (R): 2: Montana farmer demonstrating sugar beet topping to Japanese Americans. Tom Parker, War Relocation Authority photographer, September 1942. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California.
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