He quit his job to take bullets for the enemy aliens.
Bob Emmett Fletcher, later known as the “best friend of Japanese farmers,” was born in San Francisco.
In 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, fear and suspicion spread quickly across the West Coast.
When most Americans turned their backs on Japanese Americans, Bob Fletcher didn’t turn away.
Fletcher was a white agricultural inspector in Florin, California, a thriving farming town built in large part by Japanese American growers. Some white neighbors appreciated that prosperity. Others resented it.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, the government forcibly removed Japanese American families and imprisoned them in camps. Many locals saw an opportunity to claim their land and livelihoods.
Fletcher saw something else.
The attack on Pearl Harbor ignited fear across the nation. In California towns like Florin, hysteria quickly turned into hostility toward Japanese American neighbors.
Courtesy of Californian Museum
Bob Fletcher was a state agricultural inspector during the Great Depression before he agreed to tend the farms of his Japanese American neighbors.
Photo by Dorothea Lange, National Archives and Records Administration
Florin was once called the “strawberry capital of the world,” thanks largely to Japanese American farming ingenuity and productivity.
Photo by Dorothea Lange, National Archives and Records Administration
Florin, California, 1942. In two days, Japanese American families who built this farming town would be forced to leave everything behind.
Courtesy of Tsukamoto family
The Tsukamoto family in Florin, before incarceration. Bob Fletcher farmed their land while they were imprisoned — so they’d have a home to come back to.
Photo by Francis Stewart, Courtesy of UC Berkeley Bancroft Library
Bob Fletcher worked 18 hour days to protect farms like this — 40 acres belonging to the Nitta family, who were forcibly removed from Florin in 1942.
Photo by Francis Stewart, Courtesy of UC Berkeley Bancroft Library
A shotgun blast tore through one of these barns while Bob Fletcher was working. Still, he kept farming for the families who’d been incarcerated.
The Right Thing To Do
He quit his job and began farming on behalf of the Tsukamoto, Nitta, and Okamoto families. In total, he oversaw ninety acres. He worked 18-hour days planting, harvesting, paying taxes, and maintaining mortgages. He kept the land productive and returned the profits to the rightful owners.
For that, he was shunned. Spat on. Even shot at. On one occasion, a shotgun blast tore through the barn where he was staying. But Fletcher didn’t back down.
“It was the right thing to do,” he said.
“They were the same as everybody else. It was obvious they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor.”
A Good Neighbor
Because of his quiet courage, the families he supported were able to return home and reclaim property that had not been stripped, vandalized, or lost. That was rare. Most returned to nothing.
One of those families was the Tsukamotos. Their daughter, Mary Tsukamoto, would later become a leading voice in the redress movement. Fletcher’s choice helped make that future possible. The two families remained lifelong friends.
Years later, Bob and his wife bought a 54-acre ranch, where they raised their family. When asked whether he knew what his father had done, Fletcher’s son said yes, but only because others told him. His father rarely spoke about it.
Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration
While Japanese Americans were incarcerated, their homes, farms, and temples were looted. Nichiren Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, 1945.
Courtesy of Fletcher family
Mary Tsukamoto once said that Bob Fletcher was “the best friend of Japanese farmers.” The Tsukamotos remained close with Bob and his family for decades.
Photo by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Bob Fletcher's son Robert Fletcher III and granddaughter Jill Stowers. They remember Fletcher as a hardworking farmer who liked to talk about the weather and the Civil War.
Photo by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Bob Fletcher donated this land to the community. Today, it houses the Fletcher Farm Community Center — where the local JACL still holds board meetings.
Photo by Randall Benton, McClatchy-Tribune
Bob Fletcher claimed what he did “wasn’t anything special.” He certainly was a special person, and a great neighbor.
Legacy of Few Words
Bob Fletcher passed away in 2013 at age 101. His legacy lives on, not just in the fields he once worked, but in the community center that now bears his name.
The Fletcher Farm Community Center, built on land he once owned, continues to serve Florin. It even hosts meetings for the Japanese American Citizens League, the civil rights organization formed to defend the very community Fletcher once protected.
Bob Fletcher was a man of few words. He let his actions speak by doing the right thing, even when it wasn’t easy.
What a wonderful example of doing what is right, regardless of the personal cost… If we could emulate Bob Fletcher, we would NOT be deporting immigrants or making false claims against them. White people like Bob Fletcher need to be known so that people know that not ALL White people were racist then and now.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Peggy. Our feeling is that Bob Fletcher is someone all Americans, of every background, can be proud of.