Bob Emmett Fletcher

A white farmer took bullets for Japanese Americans — because it was the right thing to do.

July 26, 1911: Bob Emmett Fletcher, the “best friend of Japanese farmers,” was born.

In 1942, most Americans turned their backs on Japanese Americans.

Bob Fletcher didn’t.

Fletcher was a white agricultural inspector in Florin, California — a once-thriving farming town shaped in large part by the success of Japanese American growers. Some white neighbors were grateful for the prosperity the Japanese brought. Others were not. As tensions grew, so did resentment. So when the government forcibly removed Japanese American families and imprisoned them in incarceration camps, many saw it as a chance to claim their land and livelihoods.

Fletcher saw something else.

San Francisco’s Japantown, shortly after Executive Order 9066 was signed, April 1942, photo by Dorothea Lange
San Francisco’s Japantown, April 1942, photo by Dorothea Lange. Japanese Americans waited in line — not because of anything they had done, but because of who they were.
Bob Fletcher was a state agricultural inspector during the Great Depression before he agreed to tend the farms of his Japanese American neighbors.
Farm mother of Japanese ancestry, Florin, California, May 11, 1942, credit Dorothea Lange
Florin was once called the “strawberry capital of the world,” thanks largely to Japanese American farming ingenuity and productivity.
Inside Kara's
Kara’s Drive-In, 1940s. Florin, California was thriving — thanks in large part to Japanese American farmers.
Tsusaki Garage on Florin's Main Street, 1930s
Tsusaki Garage on Florin’s Main Street — an estimated 2,500 Japanese and Japanese Americans lived there before the war.
Tsukamoto family at their farm home before incarceration
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.
A 40-acre farm belonging to the Nitta family that Bob Fletcher took care of
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.
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.

He quit his job and began farming on behalf of the families who had been removed — including the Tsukamoto, Nitta, and Okamoto families. In total, he oversaw ninety acres of farmland. He worked 18-hour days planting, harvesting, paying taxes, and maintaining mortgages. He kept the land productive, and offered to return 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.”

Thanks to his quiet courage — what he called just a “good-neighborly thing to do” — the Japanese American families he supported were able to return home and reclaim property that hadn’t been stripped, vandalized, or lost. That was rare. Most incarcerees returned to nothing.

Years later, Bob and his wife bought a 54-acre ranch, where they raised their family. When asked whether he’d grown up knowing what his father had done, Fletcher’s son said yes — but only through others. His father rarely spoke about it.

Nichiren Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, 1945.
While Japanese Americans were incarcerated, their homes, farms, and temples were looted. Nichiren Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, 1945.
Bob Fletcher's son Robert Fletcher III and granddaughter Jill Stowers. Photo by Kevin 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.
The Fletcher Farm Community Center, photo by Kevin 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.
Bob Fletcher with the Tsukamotos
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.
Bob Fletcher, photo by Randall Benton, McClatchy-Tribune
Bob Fletcher claimed what he did “wasn’t anything special.” He certainly was a special person.

Bob Fletcher passed away in 2013 at the age of 101. But 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 the people of Florin. It even hosts board meetings for the Japanese American Citizens League, the civil rights organization formed to defend the very community Fletcher once risked everything to protect.

Bob Fletcher was a man of few words.

But he let his actions do the talking — by doing the right thing, even when it wasn’t easy.

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