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by Tim Steury
Is the agrarian tradition of any
real value to our society?
Lon Inaba's grandfather, Shukichi Inaba, arrived in Harrah,
Washington, on the Yakama Reservation, in 1907. The reservation was
billed as the land of opportunity for Japanese immigrants, says
Inaba, and his grandfather broke land out of sagebrush and grew
potatoes and hay.
But suspicion and fear of the Issei among Caucasian residents
led to the alien land law of 1921. Even though the Washington
constitution already prohibited Japanese immigrants from owning
land, many warned of the Issei threat to white residents. According
to Tom Heuterman's Burning Horse, Wapato attorney Joseph
Cheney in The Wapato Independent warned his fellows that
Japanese Americans would work for less than Caucasians "because
they could live for less, maintain the lowest standard of living,
pay higher rent for land, and slave to make money."
The new law prohibited Japanese Americans from even leasing
land. So Shukichi Inaba became a sharecropper. "That's when he got
into vegetables," says Inaba. "There wasn't enough in the hay and
potatoes to be able to pay a share."
The Inabas farmed in Harrah until World War II, when Inaba's
father Ken and his family were sent to an internment camp in Hart
Mountain, Wyoming. His mother's family was sent to Minidoka, Idaho.
"Most people don't know it," says Inaba, "but guys in this area
weren't supposed to be evacuated. It was supposed to be west of the
Cascades."
But the Grange lobbied heavily to extend the incarceration into
a secondary area that bordered on the Columbia River.
"Dad's family didn't expect to get moved out." So they planted
their crops. The day after they were evacuated, the neighbor
harvested the Inabas' peas-and pocketed the proceeds.
But incarceration and xenophobia are not what Inaba wants to
talk about.
"I want to talk about community," he says.
Perhaps living well is indeed the best revenge. After Japanese
Americans were allowed to return home, Inaba's father reclaimed his
land and built a very successful produce business. When his
children went off to college, most of them to Washington State
University, he didn't expect them to return to Harrah to farm. In
fact, Lon '79 initially went to work for Battelle. But then he took
some time off to help his father build a warehouse, and he never
left again. Now, he is the farm manager. His brother Wayne x'80
handles sales. Brother Norm '81 handles the payroll.
Today, Inaba Produce Farms grows sweet corn, onions, peppers,
melons, tomatoes, asparagus, and many other crops on 1,200 acres.
At the height of the season, they employ over 200 people, most of
them Hispanic.
Inaba figures 20 percent of them live in the area year round.
The rest move back and forth from Mexico.
The Inabas are known as good employers. Working with a
Washington state program, the Inabas built four housing sites for
their employees. As we drive along an irrigation canal bordering
one of their fields, Inaba points to a double-wide mobile home,
which belongs to an employee.
"We provide him septic and water and a place to put his trailer.
So he plans to work for us for a while. There's the kind of guy we
want, that has a future with us. We've had seasonal guys coming
back for 20 years."
And that's what Lon Inaba thinks about a lot. Continuity. Roots.
Community.
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Lon Inaba '79 and his mother, Shiz. Photo by
Robert Hubner
Lon Inaba's grandfather, Shukichi Inaba, an
unknown friend, and Shukichi's brother, Tomoji Inaba.
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