Shimotsu In 1909 Uichi "Hugh" Shimotsu moved to San Juan from Ft. Collins, Colorado, where he had just graduated from the State Agricultural College of Colorado. A professor told him how land development companies in the Rio Grande Valley were turning brushland into productive farmland by means of irrigation. Shimotsu settled near San Juan in the McAllen area and farmed for two years. Eventually he moved east to San Benito. Shimotsu had first come to the United States as a teenager in 1904. In 1916 he returned to Japan to find a wife. He met 29-year-old graduate of Tokyo Women's College named Takako Tsuji, who worked as a secretary.

Takako & Uichi "Hugh" Shimotsu

In those days it was unusual for a Japanese woman to be unmarried at age 29, and it was even more unusual for her to have graduated from college and have a job. But Takako was an independent and adventurous individual, and she apparently admired those qualities in a man. She respected Uichi Shimotsu for his initiative in immigrating to the United States, attending college and starting a farm, so when he asked her to marry him, she accepted. The newlyweds returned to the Shimotsu farm in the Rio Grande Valley, where Takako's desire for adventure was more than fulfilled. "It was like going into darkest Africa!" she told her children later, for like most border regions at the time, the Valley was sparsely populated and had its share of lawlessness. The few roads in the area were maintained poorly, if at all, and other amenities to which Takako was accustomed in Japan were nonexistent. Despite the hardships Takako worked hard to create a good life for herself, her husband, and the four sons and two daughters she eventually bore. The Uichi Shimotsu Family, Rangerville, c1938. Front: Takako and Uichi, back: Harry, Kenneth, Amy, Calvin and Dorothy. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls. Main Menu Top of Page Two of her sons, Harry and Kenneth, still live and work in the Valley. Together they farm the 1,200 acres of land their father left them when he died. They are also in the packing and shipping business, handling their own crops as well as those of other farmers. In addition, Harry Shimotsu manages 6,000 acres of land for a farming company. From meager beginnings Uichi and Takako Shimotsu and their offspring managed to develop along with the Valley itself. But to hear Harry Shimotsu tell it, all of the credit should go to his mother. His definite opinion is that "Mothers are the best influence in the world, always." But Harry and Kenneth's father, Uichi, was also a special person. As one of the first Japanese in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, he felt responsible for helping other Japanese who wanted to move there.

Kitamura One man who benefited from Shimotsu's help was Suburo Kitamura. In 1920 an article in a San Francisco Japanese-language newspaper stirred the interest of Kitamura, a Japanese issei (Japanese born) living in California. The article told of Uichi Shimotsu's success in growing and marketing cantaloupes on his Texas farm. Kitamura and his wife were anxious to leave California because of the state's discriminatory land laws and because racial incidents had recently broken out where they lived. So they wrote to Shimotsu, who answered with a promise of help. When the Kitamuras and their four-year-old son, George, arrived at the Shimotsu farm on New Year's Day 1921, Uichi took the family in and later helped them find a farm of their own.

George Kitamura and Lee Onishi, 1939. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls. In 1939 George began farming in the Valley on his own, and by 1942 he felt financially secure enough to get married, in spite of the war and the fact that he had no prospective bride in mind.

To solve the latter problem George, who was born and raised in the U.S., turned to a time-honored Japanese method for finding a wife: he employed a baishakunin, or go-between. George's baishakunin was Kumazo Tanamachi from the Valley, and he introduced George to his future wife, Tonia Imai. Since the wedding was near Houston, guests from the Valley needed to apply for permits to drive to the wedding and get extra gas rationing stamps. Also, the FBI followed them back to the Valley after the wedding. George and Tonia Kitamura's wedding. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls. George and Tonia had been married only months when the Selective Service policy toward Japanese Americans was changed and George was drafted. Kitamura farmed 80 acres of his own land and grew crops on 270 additional acres which he leased from a local landlord named Brian Long. With too much to lose if Kitamura were no longer around to farm this land, Long made a personal appeal to the local draft board. George Kitamura, like many Valley farmers, received an agricultural deferment on the day before he was to report for induction into the U.S. Army. The task of providing food during the war was clearly a priority for the nation. Initially this led to an emphasis in the country on increasing the availability of tractors, and later to the mechanization of more farm equipment. Farmers were thus able to increase substantially their production of agricultural goods, benefiting both the nation and themselves. Main Menu Top of Page

Frank Sentaro Otsuki About 1927, two other Japanese families from California, the Kumazo Tanamachis and the Frank Sentaro Otsukis, moved to Texas.

Wedding day of Tomico Otsuki and Henry Omura. Seated--Masako Otsuki Nakayama, Mrs. & Mr. Frank Sentaro Otsuki, Frank Otsuki, Lloyd Matsuoka. Standing--Rae Jingu, Tomico Otsuki Omura and Henry Omura, Goro Matsuoka, Teri Otsuki Matsuoka, Kazue Otsuki Sato, Carl Otsuki. June 15, 1941

On March 1, 1921, the Otsukis and their five children, aged two to ten, along with the Kumazo Tanamachis, arrived in Texas. They too were tired of California's restrictive land legislation, but instead of going to the Rio Grande Valley, they moved to Kichimatsu Kishi's farm in Terry. After arriving in Terry, the families stayed at the Kishi home for several days. After a much-needed rest the Tanamachis and the Otsukis loaded their luggage on Kishi's wagon to move to a new home. Although their house was only five miles away, the ride over muddy roads seemed to take forever. When they arrived the only structure they found worth inhabiting was a barn--three rooms for 15 people. The two families lived there for two years. They added a room, built a Japanese bathhouse, dug a well and made most of the furniture, except for beds, mattresses, and cooking and heating stoves. They had no electricity or running water. The youngest Otsuki child died because the doctor's arrival was delayed by the ferry service. For seven years the Tanamachis and the Otsukis farmed near Terry, but in 1928 the inadequate topsoil and the difficulty in getting their produce to market convinced them to leave the Kishi farm. Frank Sentaro Otsuki accepted Minoru Kawahata's invitation to visit the Rio Grande Valley. He liked what he saw, and the Otsukis moved that same year. Farming was better there, and their living conditions improved.   Three members of the Otsuki family, Carl, Kay, & Frank still live in the Valley with their families. Carl lives in San Benito, Kay in Los Fresnos and Frank in Brownsville. Carl Otsuki, Sept. 1938 Main Menu Top of Page

Kumazo Tanamachi The Tanamachis moved around Texas several time, from Terry, Texas to Nome near Beaumont to Yoakum. Meanwhile the eldest son, Ichiro, was working for two Japanese farmers as a truck driver hauling produce from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston. He convinced his father, Kumazo, to go to the Valley to see for himself. Kumazo talked with Japanese farmers about the land, and soon he too was convinced that another move was in order.

Kumazo Tanamachi. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls. In 1933 the Tanamachis left Yoakum to farm in the Rio Grande Valley.

About a month after their move, one of the strongest hurricanes in history hit the Valley. The Tanamachi homestead was destroyed. As Jerry Tanamachi put it, "That night everything just blew away." Other Japanese farmers in the area were also affected; winds completely wrecked the Kitamura home, and the Shimotsus' house was knocked off its foundation. A month later another hurricane roared through the area and finished what the first had started. Because the Tanamachis had experienced bad times before, they knew their only recourse was to pick up the pieces and start over again. They remained in the Valley as tenant farmers, then in 1935 they purchased 50 acres of land on credit. From that beginning they went on to become a successful part of the agricultural community in the Rio Grande Valley. Saburo Tanamachi. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls. A Texan by birth, platoon leader Saburo Tanamachi, son of Kumazo, lost his life as his platoon was advancing up a hill in an effort to rescue the WWII Lost Battalion. When machine-gun fire hit one of the platoon's forward men Saburo scurried up to help the man, and he too was hit. He died in the arms of his best friend George Joe Sakato. Saburo became the recipient of the Silver Star and Purple Heart.     Main Menu Top of Page

Nagatori

One of the Valley farmers producing food for the country was Herbert Nagatori of San Benito. Herbert Nagatori was born in Hawaii in 1904. His parents had left Japan earlier to work as contract laboreres in the Hawaiian fields. When he was 22 years old Nagatori moved to California, where he briefly attended the Uni. of Southern California. In 1930 he traveled to Texas in search of employment and eventually settled in the Valley, where he married, raised a family and operated a farm. Knowing that he, but not his son, was beyond draft age, Herbert offered himself as a language instructor in the armed services on the condition that his son be given an agricultural deferment. His work for the War Department continued after the war ended, when he was sent to Japan for two and a half years as a translator. Main Menu Top of Page

Tom Tanamachi and Jerry Tanamachi Most Japanese Americans who came to Texas during and immediately following World War II were previously residents at one of the nations's ten relocation centers. Only a few, however, had friends or relatives in Texas to help them when they arrived. One such lucky couple was Tom and Mitsuye Tanamachi. When World War II began, Tom Tanamachi was only 19 and lived with his mother, father and two sisters on a farm in Long Beach, California. The family was split up & sent to two different interment camps.

Kikuko and Jiro Tanamachi. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls.

As awful as that experience was, Tom acknowledged that some good did come from is confinement at Poston Center in Arizona, since it was there that he met his future wife, Mitsuye Nimura. In April, 1945, the young couple married in the camp. Looking for places to send camp residents, the WRA officials took advantage of the distant relationship between Tom Tanamachi & Kumazo Tanamachi in the Rio Grande Valley. Kumazo welcomed Tom who was relieved to see the lushness of the Valley. His own farm in California was now the site of a government ammunition dump. Because Tom & Mitsuye needed a place to stay, Kumazo let them use his dead, war hero son's house. The couple lived there for six years, during which time Kumazo treated Tom like the son he had lost. He not only hired Tom to work on his farm but later found land that Tom could farm for himself. In short, if there was anything he could do for Tom, he did it; in return, Tom showed Kumazo the respect and loyalty he gave his own father. When Tom and Mitsuye Tanamachi moved into the house provided by Kumazo, the other frame house nearby was already occupied by Jerry Tanamachi and his wife, Kikuko, who had married two years earlier in 1943. Unlike Tom and Mitsuye, Jerry Tanamachi and Kikuko Nakao did not meet in a relocation center, but their marriage was a result of the wartime relocation as surely as if they had met in one of the camps. While Kikuko Nakao was being moved from one place to another, Jerry Tanamachi was living in the Rio Grande Valley and working on the family farm. A the age of 28 Jerry was ready to begin married life, but he had no one in mind as a potential partner. His family, however, had friends at a camp who agreed that 21-year-old Kikuko wanted to leave the camp, they suggested that she could do so by marrying Jerry Tanamachi. Because of the preference for arranged marriages in traditional Japanese culture, such a proposition was not as outlandish then as it might seem today. In any case, both Kikumo and Jerry thought it was a good idea, so on June 14, 1943, the two were wed. Jerry and Kikuko Tanamachi and Tom and Mitsuye Tanamachi lived and farmed in the Valley throughout the postwar years. As part of a community of Japanese Texans, the Tanamachi families and their Japanese neighbors made the state an attractive destination for displaced West Coast Japanese, who were used to living near other Japanese Americans. Main Menu Top of Page

Taniguchi Like so many other Japanese Americans living in California in late 1941, Isamu Taniguchi was arrested and sent to a Dept. of Justice internment camp shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Later he was reunited with his wife and one of his two sons at Crystal City Internment Camp, where they remained until their release in 1945.

Alan and Isamu Taniguchi. Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls.

Taniguchi's other son, Alan, worked in Detroit during the war after spending one year in an Arizona relocation center. Isamu Taniguchi had visited the Rio Grande Valley in 1945 with a camp delegation and been entertained by Kumazo Tanamachi. He was convinced that the climate in South Texas was suitable for farming. When they were given their freedom, the Taniguchis returned to their old home in California, but their reception was hostile, and Isamu was embittered by his experience in California at the outbreak of the war. They packed their belongings and moved to the Valley. Isamu Taniguchi . Taken from The Japanese Texans by Thomas K. Walls. Six years later they were joined by Alan, who was beginning his career as an architect. After many prosperous years of farming in the Valley, Isamu Taniguchi and his wife retired to Austin. Isamu, however, did not equate retirement with inactivity. Combining an abundance of energy with a desire to show his affection for his adopted state, Taniguchi designed and build a Japanese garden for the people of Texas to enjoy. Situated on a hillside next to the Rose Garden in Austin's Zilker Park, Taniguchi's Japanese Garden delights visitors with its tranquillity and simplicity. The artistry of Taniguchi's work and his continued civic dedication has earned him a respected position in the Austin community. The same may be said for his son, Alan, who has held the prestigious positions of Dean of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and Director of Rice University's School of Architecture. From his days in the early 1950's as a young architect in the Valley to his current position as head of his own architectural firm in Austin, Alan Taniguchi has gained recognition both for his innovative designs and for his unselfish community work. Main Menu Top of Page