George Shima
After failing English in Japan, George Shima emigrated to California and became the state’s first Japanese millionaire and “Potato King.”
Farming & Agriculture
Kanaye Nagasawa
Kanaye Nagasawa was the first Japanese national to live permanently in the United States and became the first Wine King of California. His legacy tells a story of ambition, success, and an American dream that could not be passed on because of discriminatory laws.
Mary Tsukamoto
Born in 1915, Mary Tsukamoto overcame poverty, arthritis, and unjust incarceration to become a pioneering educator and civil rights leader whose legacy still shapes California classrooms today.
Fujishige Farm
When you survived incarceration, a murder attempt, and the war in Europe, you weren’t afraid of Disney.
Bob Emmett Fletcher
During World War II, as Japanese American farmers were forced from their land, a young white agricultural inspector named Bob Fletcher chose to stand by them. He quit his job, worked three farms, paid their taxes, and refused to profit from their loss.
Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony
The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony, founded in 1869, became the first Japanese settlement in America and home to the first U.S.-born Japanese American.