Development of Japanese American Farmers' Commnunity in North America

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(1) One of the purposes of this research was to examine the philosophy of Kyutaro Abiko who advocated the Japanese settlement in American society as opposed to the tendency of the Japanese to move as sojourners to the North American Continent, which lasted until approximately 1906. The other purpose was to investigate the historical documents to increase our knowledge related to two of the three colonies which he built there ; they were the Yamato Colony and the Cortez Colony. Those two colonies are geographically close to each other and they were engaged in the similar type of agriculture, but they were not tied with friendly relationships and there were little interaction between these two communities. One of the reasons was related to the fact that the former was a group of Christians with higher education, while the latter included many Buddhists and the members were of various levels of education. Another was thirteen years difference between the foundation of each colony. Through … More years of hardwork, the people of the Yamato Colony already had established a good relationship with the surrounding American society, and they feared the relation would be damaged by the interaction with the new Japanese colony which might cause a new wave of conflict with Americans living there. In other words, the change of relationship with the encompassing society drew a line between the two Japanese colonies. On the other hand, the newcomers modeled themselves after the early settlers and where were similarities in the organizations of the two colonies.(2) Along with Kyutaro Abiko's advocacy, the Japanese immigrants began to settle down in certain areas as they turned from farmhands to leaseholders or owners of farmland, although the settlement didn't necessarily mean their permanent stay in the host society. With the settlement, they organized associations of people from Japan, agricultural cooperatives, various guildlike structures, churches, Japanese language schools, etc. The formation of a Japanese community was seen in the accumulation of these small groups and was in existence around 1908.(3) The birth and growth of the Japanese community is, in some measure, seen in the Japanese immigrant press. Around the turn of the century, the immigrant newspapers which heavily emphasized political discussions declined, and were taken over by commercial, news-oriented newspapers which had a more socializing function. Due to the difficulty of obtaining Abiko's Nichibei, the Rafu Shimpo was examined in this research as one of the most influential newspapers in the Japanese community. The collected data of the Rafu Shimpo indicated the growth of the Japanese community through circulation and the frequency of publication. The result of the survey in 1983 shows the ironical change of the immigrant press that functioned as a socializing vehicle for the immigrants, but eventually declined with the assimilation of their readers into the American society. Less