The Japanese in O.C.: A brief introduction

At work in Orange County's once-burgeoning celery industry.

One occasionally hears claims (often made by Angelenos) that “Orange County isn’t very diverse.” But anyone who's spent more than a weekend here could tell you differently. People have been coming here from all over the world since long before this land was Orange County. The Japanese are among those who arrived early, stayed, contributed significantly, and became part of the very fabric of the region. 

Although Japanese laborers came to Orange County as early as the 1880s, the greater influx arrived around 1900. Most were from agricultural areas of Japan south or west of Tokyo, and their skills and talents were needed in a young county whose economy hinged almost entirely on farming. Many Japanese immigrants began their lives in California as field workers and gradually became farmers in their own right. Within ten years they were doing most of the work in our lucrative celery fields, were leasing land as sharecroppers, and were introducing the area to crops like strawberries, tomatoes, and peppers. In 1908, a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” between Japan and the U.S. prohibited the immigration of more Japanese laborers, but allowed the wives (including “picture brides”), children and parents of those already here to come to the United States. Unlike the earlier influx of Chinese laborers, the Japanese started families here and put down roots. 

Garden Grove Japanese Language School, 1991 (Now demolished.)

Also unlike the Chinese, the Japanese-Americans (a.k.a. Nikkei) were not primarily clustered in just a few small neighborhoods. Although certain communities, like Talbert (Fountain Valley), had more Japanese residents than others, Nikkei could be found across much of Orange County. 

Instead of gathering in “Japantowns” the community was brought together through involvement in groups like Japanese farming associations, women’s clubs, sports clubs (for kendo, judo, baseball, etc.) and Japanese prefectural associations (based on which region of Japan one’s family hailed from). Children, although American-born, were sent to Japanese language schools in the afternoons or on Saturdays, to learn the language and culture of their ancestors. 

Dedication of Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church, Warner Ave., Dec. 9, 1934.

Churches were also extremely important factors in creating and maintaining a Nikkei community in Orange County. They were social and cultural hubs as well as spiritual ones. The earliest such churches here were the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church (in what’s now Huntington Beach), the Anaheim Japanese Free Methodist Church, and the Orange County Buddhist Church and Japanese Language School in Talbert. The ministers of these churches often also served in a broader community leadership role, providing advice and mediation on a wide variety of issues. (All three of these churches remain today, although both the Presbyterians and Methodists have removed the word “Japanese” from their names.)

In 1935, city and county leaders held a banquet in Santa Ana to honor their Nikkei friends and neighbors. Obviously, not all of Orange County's roughly 1,700 Japanese Americans attended. But representatives of five local Japanese organizations were on hand, as well as prominent local famers and Los Angeles’ Consul General of Japan. There was entertainment and traditional Japanese dance, but the real point of the evening – as driven home by one prominent speaker after another – was to underscore the growing friendship and interdependence between Orange County’s Anglo population and the once-seemingly-foreign Nikkei community. 

Japanese Community Center & School, Crystal Cove. Built 1932. Is "Cottage 34" today.

Only eight years later, after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II, President Roosevelt enacted Executive Order 9066, which ordered everyone of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast to be rounded up and forced into incarceration camps. (Most from Orange County were sent to Poston, Arizona.) In this flagrant and massive violation of civil liberties, about 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans were uprooted from their homes and land, including about 1,900 Orange Countians. Most were U.S. citizens. In some cases, neighbors held their land, equipment and animals for them until they could return. Far more often, they lost their homes, businesses and farms forever. And while some returned to Orange County after the war, the community was never the same again. 

Those who did return found a rapidly changing region, with less agriculture and a booming population of newcomers who often looked upon the Japanese more as vanquished enemies than as old friends and neighbors. Still, the Japanese- American population grew to include some of the region’s most prominent individuals, from Superior Court judges to successful business owners to elected officials.    

Living quarters, Poston, Arizona, during World War II

After raising $50,000 amongst themselves, in 1970 a consortium of local Japanese-American families created a beautiful Japanese garden and tea house adjacent to the shining new symbol of Orange County government – the Orange County Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Despite all that had happened to them, they presented this magnanimous gift in gratitude to the county and in honor of their pioneer parents and grandparents who helped build the county. 

Today, more than 31,000 people of Japanese descent live in Orange County. A small percentage of them are descended from our pioneer Nikkei families. And like most locals, too few fully appreciate the important role Japanese-Americans played in shaping and building Orange County. 

Japanese garden dedication, Santa Ana Civic Center, Nov. 15, 1970

[Author's note: My thanks to Patti Hirahara, Stephanie George, Blythe Wilson and Doug McIntosh for their help. For more on the history of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans in Orange County, see the book Sowing Dreams, Cultivating Lives : Nikkei Farmers in Pre-World War II Orange County by Stephanie George and Carlota Haider. For more about Wintersburg, see Mary Urashima's blog: Historic Wintersburg or her book of the same title. To dig even deeper and do your own research, visit the amazing collections at the Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral & Public History at CSU Fullerton.]