All they will call you Woody Guthries lyrics. When the craney when the plane crashed in 1940 eight, Woody Guthrie was in new york at the time, and one of the great folk rebellious icons that he is, he heard the news reports and he really was upset at the omission of these names. He had traveled to the San Joaquin Valley in the 1930s and 40s and was familiar with the plight of migrant farm. He was upset by the omission of the names. He said that is no way to treat our brothers and sisters and he wrote a poem about it. And in this poem, he attempts to restore the dignity of those anonymous passengers by giving them fake names. Assigning them names. And he said, goodbye juan, wonte rosalita you have a name when you write that big airplane. All they will call you will be deportation all they will call you will be deportee. And that really caught my attention. ,s that all they will call us because i, matt because i come from a family of farmworkers. Who is they, and who is all, and what do they call you . Title ofhat for the the book. During world war ii, there were no pay there were negotiations between mexico and the united states, this was the early 40s. And the result of those conversations was how could mexico, or the basis of the conversation was how could mexico be an ally to the u. S. And its time of need. And the result of that was what settle program, from the word arms, in this case meaning working arms. America said we could use more workers here so they you so they look to their brothers and sisters in the south, and mexico. And they started this program to literally train and bus people and, mexican workers and. The , the imported about 4000 workers to the Central Valley, a little bit north of fresno. And it was such a success by the farmers standards, they began working in the fields right away. It was such a success the farmers said, bring more, bring more. And in the next two years they had upwards of 40,000 or 50,000 workers coming in. And they were not only being used for Agricultural Labor am a they were being used for railroads and all kinds of things across the country during world war ii, while our country was off at work. And so after the war is over, what do we do with all of the brothers and sisters we invited in to work with us, and gave these work visas to . Well, it is time to get them back. And in fact, some of the politicians here in the Central Valley at the time would come out and state that, the kind of workers that we are specifically looking for is the kind of worker that does a great job here, doesnt come to look for trouble, and then we can send are done. When we they would say that publicly. So, in 1948, here we are a few years after the war ended, 47, and actually in 1947, they do mass roundups across the sound across the San Joaquin Valley. Cases the workers contract for up, in some cases there were here without papers, and in some cases they were just rounded up as a part of the roundup. And in many cases, even throughout history from the 1930s 40s 1930s, 1940s, 19 50s, some of them were american citizens that they were sending back. The dragnet was so wide that they kind of rounded up anybody who looked mexican. Round skinned people, everybody get in and send them back. That is what was happening on that morning in 1948. They had rounded up a group of workers and there were sending them back, they were deporting them. This time they had just started to use the douglas d. C. Three airplanes. Those airplanes were specifically the workhorses of world war ii and then had a surplus of airplanes. What do we do with the airplanes . Change the name, they were actually called c 47 airplanes during the war, and they said lets call them the dc aircrafte the Douglas Company was making them. Lets get rid of the stink of themn these airplanes, fix up and use them to deport these folks. And that is what they did. And in 1948 this airplane left oakland, california on january 28 that 9 30 in the morning, and it took off and was headed 41 at what the sandwich toward the sending border, to reportedly drop off 28 mexican citizens, all men except for one woman. The plane also had a pilot Chemical Plant eyelets, copilot, a stores who was the pilots wife, and an immigration officer. And about one hour over the fresno coming into county, leaving the bay area, flying over the Diablo Mountain rage, the plane experienced difficult he with the left engine. It caught fire and torched the wing off and the plane began to as it into the air right came into the San Joaquin Valley and it crashed into los gatos canyon, a back 60 miles southwest of fresno. And it was annihilated. Ranche folks who were owners, the gaston family owned the property and they sought. Countyas a nearby fresno prison road camp there, a minimum security place. All the prisoners were in the yard of a also happen. Dell witnessed it. They all witnessed it. And a lot of those folks were people i interviewed for the book, the eyewitnesses. And it changed the lies, not only for the passengers but the people who witnessed it. So that is what happened that morning. The immediate reports of the incident, at the time it was labeled the worst airplane disaster in californias history. 1948, january 28. Reportst of the media referred to them as deportees. The Associated Press actually as one of the more popular ones, the 28 mexican deportees being sent back to mexico were all killed. But out of all the papers, there was no mention of the names, with the exception of one newspaper. Actually, my bad. With the exception of two newspapers. The fresno bee made an attempt to publish the names after the accident. Spelt,es were badly erroneous, they looked like they were spelled phonetically. That it was an attempt great and i think the only published about a dozen of the names. The only newspaper that actually did publish them, the popular belief at the time or even now was, maybe they didnt have access to the names, or where were the names . How did they find the names . An i thought to myself as author who was explored this idea, there was a manifest. It was a government program. Some has the names, right . Article, published and a spanishlanguage independent newspaper, only published in fresno at the time. Was specifically public specifically published for the mexican community, the farmworkers. It was published right here in chinatown in fresno. And that newspaper lists, it says here are the names of all the dead compadres who died in this plane crash. Not only their names, but here is the home towns where they are from an era the surviving Family Members. And it lists all of them. When i found that article, it was a jackpot, you know. So the spanishlanguage newspaper did them justice and gave them their due, just saying their names which was a basic human right. It wasnt trying to, you know, skew some bias or anything like that. It was just here are the names, here are the Family Members. Published it. Aper that newspaper came to me by way of one of the Family Members, the i finally first came to first Family Member, Jaime Ramirez of the ramirez family. And he said to me when i first met him at his restaurant, he said to me, do you have a list of the names . Thei said, yes i do but list i have is an accurate. And he said, will i have a list. And i said, what list do you have. And he said hang on, and he opened this envelope and he reached in and he put out this old, tattered, stained, wrinkled newspaper, and it is from 1948. According to him, the Mexican Consulate had sent the family this newspaper as evidence of the Family Member death, and the family kept it for over 60 years, that newspaper. And he gave a newspaper to me. And that is the only surviving newspaper that i have found, and i have researched. One of the things i learned was, i didntand that is the only sug feel like i needed to and view the story with any kind of political agenda, overtly political agenda, because the story was such a human story. And the story itself was a metaphor. It was imbued with metaphor. Here is this one vehicle transporting, you know, 28 mexican people, four of them pilot, a world war ii hero, the copilot, also a world war ii hero. You wouldnt want any other pilots line that plane. If you were going to plan a plane, thats the pilot you would want flying with you. He had crashrelated that same plane for during world war ii, and the indiaburba pump hump. That was like a graveyard for those planes, anticrash landed one of them safely in that area. He had like 2000something hours in that specific airplane. That was the pilot you wanted. And he was a newlywed. He was 30 years old are you and his wife was the stewardess the pilots name was Frank Atkinson and his wife was bobby atkinson. They had only been married the year before, you know. And they were just starting their lives. In fact, this was going to be his last flight and then he was going to retire and go back to working for the military again in some other duty. And so his wife was not a stewardess, in fact his wife was , at the time im not sure what she was doing but she wasnt a stewardess. She had no business being on the airplane, in other words, and what happened was the stewardess couldnt make it that morning and they called in sick. According to the family, one of them was hung over from a Party Tonight before, thats what the family centered so she called in sick. And i guess at the time you can fly one of those planes without legally having a stewardess on board for the service. So frank said to wife, hey would you want to come with us . You dont have to do much, just come on board, its a quick flight, three hour trip. And she said, i will go and will get paid extra. Cool. And she jumped on the plane with them. Adequate to the family, only two weeks before that accident, frank had experienced difficulty in another airplane of his wife made a comment to some friends and family and said, if something were ever to happen to frankie, i would want to believe i would want to be with him. And that was only two weeks before that plane went down. So i was able to interview the aikens and family the atkinson family. He was an amazing and man. Commentse most amazing from one of the people read the book, Jaime Ramirez, the grandson and nephew of the babylon of the passengers, he said one of the most profound stories in the book is the story of Frank Atkinson. He said i could identify with Frank Atkinson. That blew my mind. Saw in Frank Atkinson, and i said why, what makes your identify with him . And he said, as the young man i could relate to what he was doing for his family. Frank atkinson, as a young man during the depression, would go out and cut rail ties and make . 50 or whatever and give it back to his parents to survive. And he said, i remember doing that same thing in mexico for my mother. I would go out and work and give her the change is making. So i knew in this book, all i would have to do was talk about the humanity of each of the people on board that airplane, all 32 passengers. Frank atkinson, his wife, the last love letter he wrote home to his wife in 1940 seven, actually it wasnt the last one but with a love letter he sent home to her and they were preparing for their wedding. And it with one of the last love letters that a passenger sent to his wife, about he about how he struggled here working for one farmer, working for another farmer, and telling his wife i know we have a few garbanzo beans left on the farm, save that money and im bored to be coming home soon. And when you see those two letters sidebyside, all the glaring humanity is sort of illuminated net erie so in january 30, 1948, the Funeral Services happened here at Holy Cross Cemetery here in fresno, california, in the Central Valley. 400 500 people here. The service had 28 coffins lined up. And on that day, january 30, while they were doing the service, they only interred a few of the coffins, because it would take days to inter all 28 coffins. So before the audience they interred a couple of coffins. And then once everybody dispersed and went about their lives, the coffins were put underground, buried over, and as i understand it there wasnt initially but years later someone donated a placard. That part uncertain because there is no record of it. Diocese,was the fresno maybe it was a local person who was interested, it ago someone donated a placard. And it was anonymous. Placard actually says, 28 mexican citizens died in a plane 1948, rest in 28, peace. Just kind of 28 people died, rest in peace, kind of ambiguous. And its a small placard and it was set there. And that is all it had for years. And just a giant patch of green grass. They dont allow any other headstones anymore. Walk by and say, i should inquire about buying that spot for myself and my family, and they cant. Wheree its the patch they are buried. But it wasnt until i came upon the story in 2010, i learned of it, this is the first place i came to. I said, i have defined our they are buried. And it was astonishing that they , that i found out that they were actually buried in what was considered at the time the largest mass grave in californias history up until that time, in 1948. So all the remains of the 20 passengers were pushed into this grave, covered over, and an anonymous placard read and that was it for 60something years. And i knocked on the door the diocese here and i said, do you have the names. And they said, we will look it up in the file. And they looked in the filing came back and said actually we dont have the names. We have the file, but on that file where every name should be typically, it just says mexican national, mexican national, mexican national, 28 times. That was it. And even they were kind of astonished by that because they werent around at the time. The cemetery rector was new and he said, that blows me away. So i said, im looking for the names. I said it would to the hall of records here in fresno county. They wont give me access to the names because i have to be related to them and they can only give me access to that one person. But you all have official business, maybe you can go. And he said, i will do that. And about a week later he called me and he said, i have a list of names. They gave it to me. Here, at thetood headstone, at the anonymous placard, and looked at the list of names together. And we were excited because it was a first, middle, and last name. We could tell some of them were still wrong but it was a start. And those were the names that led me to the search. And i asked him that day, i said, you know, what would it take. Of my league, you are a cemetery director, what would it take to put the names on headstone here . And he said, it would take a few things. Permission from the bishop and money. I said, about how much money . And he said, at least 10,000, probably. Gettingid, you work on permission from the bishop and i will work on raising the money. That,out a month prior to i was with a good friend of mine, a local musician, and he and i had been collaborating this project together and we said to ourselves, once we find toist we should find out how put a headstone there. So on that day i was standing with the cemetery director, ird had that idea with my friend, lance. And so lance and i led the charge of trying to raise that money and we raised 14,000. We got permission from the bishop and on labor day of teen we installed the headstone, writer behind me. Fourhat headstone is now a by granite slab. It is in english and spanish and tells the story of what happened and it has the names of every passenger aboard, including the crew, as well. Leaves arounds 32 the stone, because of Woody Guthries lyrics, who are all these friends scattered like dried leaves, the radio says they are just deportees. Talk surrounding immigration today, all the red rhetoric around immigration, has become a vast sea of noise. Ite of it is of value, creates a viable dialogue, but a lot of it, especially today as we enter a new administration, we start to hear everywhere, not just from politicians for people in general, we start to really polar, usamped up versus them or immigrants versus american. That kind of rhetoric is out there. I think what gets lost in that, and the part of his part of it is intentional, is the humanity. The human face behind it. And i feel like this book really provides the opportunity for us to look through that rhetoric, to cut through it, and to just look at one situation, one isolated situation. 28 mexicans, for american andzens, all crashed, regardless of race, regardless regardless ofus, spiritual beliefs or backgrounds, they all met the same fate together, none spared. None. In the end, they were in one vehicle transported to that great other place in the sky. And that is what i hope you will take from it, that we are all in this together. Cities to her journey of the literary world in fresno continues with the author of the. Ok harvest sun the author recounts his race and identity in the california Central Valley. Harvest son looks at the immigration of my parents from japan to america, and trying to plant roots in california soil. And it looks at the contradictions of america, the racism, and the struggle. Japaneseamericans had a very vibrant agricultural community. Partly because when the immigrants came, this was the only entry point for a lot of them in the American Economy and american communities. Serving the relocation certainly the relocation interment during world war ii shifted that. Itseneration has shifted very classicallyimmigrant story. My generation is the thirdgeneration america thirdgeneration america. And the spring and summer of 1942, Relocation Centers in unsettled parts of california, arizona, utah, wyoming, and arkansas. The experience of my parents drink relocation and world war ii interment of jack and east japaneseamericans i think was very common. There was crisis, there was turmoil, there was hysteria, and they didnt know what to do. I think like many of them they just had to accept what was happening, do their own type of civil disobedience, but really except this broaderframed history that was unfolding along with all the chaos and uncertainty. Growing up, they rarely talked about it, and i only started piecing together stories i heard here and there, reading about it, and understanding what a dramatic moment it was, when you are trying to establish yourself. America and trying to literally plant roots here, but also at the same time understanding this is a country that didnt want them. The told them they were enemy. The told them they needed to go back home. Of course, the irony for my parents is they were born here. Back home was here. And it was that struggle, i think, that as i grew older and began to understand part of the idea of struggle, i think of the struggles i went through were dwarfed that moment in history, and how they had the resilience to look through that and then come back and literally plant valley, in ourhe farm. My parents did not talk about it. My dad was the traditional stoic farmer, hartley said anything. My grandmother only spoken japanese and my japanese wasnt very good. They wouldnt talk about it and i think it is because they carried within them a kind of a shame, and guilt, that is embedded when you are accused of being something that you are not. So as a writer, i began to probe, ask questions, read more about it, talk to other families, and gradually, and it took time, gradually i began to hear stories from my father, a story from my mom. , when weuld talk about were once burning wood from dead trees, he said, let me tell you about a fire i once made. And he told the story about how, when they had to the, my dad was so mad he decided to burn all the possessions that they had that they couldnt carry. As he didnt want to leave it for people who didnt want them. And i thought, this is my dad, this quite a lot reserved farmer, showing this protest . Matter. Japanese lives so gradually, as a writer you begin to piece together the stories. And the one take away that i had was that, the one take away i had from that was this idea of silence. And it is hard to write about silence. Because writers think about words and dialogue. The part of my writing was embedded in this history of understanding what that silence means, and how that silence carried everything, from their shame and guilt, but also their resilience that they had to back here inome california to say, we are america, we are part of america. We did not own land before the war, as most japaneseamericans did not. When my parents came back after the relocation camps, my father realized in the way to get ahead in america was to own property. Gamble andthis huge he bought 40 acres that we farm now. My grandmother, she was appalled. Story,eard about this the argued because my grandmother said, why do you buy land here in america, because they take things away . And she was absolutely right. Of worldf the hysteria war ii, they took everything away from japaneseamericans. She was right to have this bitter attitude my father, at the same time, understood that in order to establish yourself you needed to become a farmer, you needed to transition from farm worker to farmer, so he bought this land. That date that they did they were leaving this rented shack that they lived on to move here to this house that was on this property, my grandmother refused to go. So she stayed in this little shack, and my dad got mad and he said, look, i am going to wait in the car until the sun sets. My grandfather was happy, he said i am waiting in the car. And aswaited in the car the sun went down, my grandmother came out of the house carrying this black suitcase with a stenciled number of our family, as our family interment number, and they got into the car and in silence they drove to this new farm. And that is our farm started. Wasnt this magnificat magnificent, cheery right. It was really capturing that whole sense of history that i try to write about. It is one of my favorite stories, that i ended up writing about. And speaking a lot about how things begin, and how farms are part of this whole wave of history that embodies all the elements of history. Challengesced many and it is really into generations. My dads generations. In postworld war ii, nobody wanted to buy food grown by the enemy, which was the japaneseamericans. So they struggled. Amazingly, they did what a lot of good farmers do, they united together, they formed cooperatives, they started jointly marketing things, and they found a way to work through the system and work the system. When i came back to the farm, the overt racism wasnt there but there was still embedded and one of them was large versus small. There was this drive, you need to expand your farm and grow things that are cheaper, more efficient, and more productive. And i came back thinking, that is not the farm i want to do. I want to grow something that has quality, that has flavor, and again, that had that back story that came with it. And so that is one of the intons why i talked my dad farming organically. Because i think as a consumer, it is part of the public who appreciates this value that we are growing. And to the course of our familys history, if you think about it, we were driven by we were driven bynything values more than anything else. My grandparents didnt come to america because they suddenly wanted to become the wealthiest people in the world. They were driven hereby dreams and hopes. My parents came back from the relocation camps to farm because they were driven by an initially desperation, and also the sense of wanting to become americans and plant roots here. And i came back to the farm knowing that i wanted to continue the legacy in many ways. Lots of farm kids that grew up in the 60s. I couldnt wait to get off the farm. I grew up in a really lively japanese community, and all of us went off to college. And that was the goal for all of our parents in our generation, to get the kids off the farm, get them educated so they could find something better. I iran off to college that thought would never bring the deck to farming. I went to berkeley. I studied sociology. I thought, that will never bring the deck to farming. Did spend two years living in japan as an exchange student. And that changed my life. It was retouching a culture that was around me, but yet realizing i was not japanese, im japaneseamerican. During that two years i spent, about half the time i was working a small rice farm that my grandmother had left and working alongside her brother in japan. And i remember thinking, this is exactly what i am trying to run away from. What is it . The call andally lamp. The dynamic was, i didnt understand how to grow rice. How to growerstand rice but i understood how to grow peaches. And i realized, i need to come back here to see what this is like bird so i came back and shocked my dad, saying i want to come back and farm with you. He was shocked. He thought none of his sons, none of his children were going to farm. Just like most farms around here. So the transition was wonderful in the sense that, my dad was very quiet and very reserved, so when i came back to the farm and started making mistakes and started doing things, there was a few soft grunts, nodding the head, and then silence. Go that is when i begin to crazy. I said, tell me, am i doing it right . Am i doing it wrong . How do you feel about it . And he was wonderful because he just allow me to fail. And that was the biggest take away i had. He comes when i came back i started looking at the landscape for farming and understand the growing pressure to grow in size, to grow crops that are designed for a massmarket. And i came back wanting to do Something Different and that is why we started farming organically, and hoping at the same time that the pressures fruit that we group would fit in an organic marketplace that valued quality, character, and valued the back story of the fruit that we grow. Worked. Ll my daughter, who begins to farm with me, we often talk about my role, is it a teacher, is that a mentor, or is it just somebody who passes on something enhance something down . Turns out, its a little of everything. I think my daughter wants us to be partners, which is not quite what i was expecting. It is if you think of the best teachers you had, they were teachers, not partners. But then i started thinking about it and i thought maybe this is part of a millennial way of looking at the world, where the world is much more inclusive as a post to ironical that as more inclusive as posed to more heirarchal. I have to stop myself from thinking, this isnt quite the story i thought was the narrative, i thought was can happen. But it is a very different and unique narrative, at the same time. Irony being japaneseamericans and understanding that legacy of immigration that affected my family when we arrived from japan, and understanding isifornia agriculture that swirling and turning and growing, expanding, all at the same time. Immigrantsissue of and immigration are part of the fabric of agriculture. A continues today, so the workers we have are part of this whole new definition of what does it mean to be an american, and an immigrant. And they are all part of the food system that we have. I hope people take away from my stories and my books, a sense of authenticity. This is the real world. Journalist who spends one summer on a farm and writes about food. , my family hasis been part of this for generations. This is what i live and breathe, and heard from at the same time. Because i try to lie i try to write about that authentic life of farming and being a family the same time, and the struggles and challenges we have within forces,k, economic environmental, climate change, prices, shifting weather, those are all part of what we do here on the farm. That is part of the story of the food that i try to write about. People take away that real taste of the food, from the stories that i write. Next, cities to work shows us the economic landscape of the San Joaquin Valley. I had a choice a long time ago when i started my career in baltimore. I could have gone around the country in each place and made written books and stories, but i decided to come back here to this place that shape to meet, and to try to understand what it was and who the people were. And i began with my own familys story, and that linked up to the other stories. When i hear the stories of african, stories of africanamerican immigrants, theyre not that different from my grandfathers story. My grandfather came here in 1920. E was a poet end of an the armenian name means the sun of, so we were the son of joseph. He was going to be a poet, and then genocide broke out and he had to hide in an attic in istanbul from 1915 to 1970 and he went up there with his books. All these french poets and and hetory writers, became a lover of french symbolism. When he came down, he had a choice. Was he going to remain in turkey after the genocide . He had a chance to go to the sorbonne in paris to study but he had this uncle who had come to fresno, california, to start again. And he was writing my grandfather these letters, saying there is a new armenia here. There is a place of value, surrounded by mountains just like our old place. Jaderapes are as big as eggs, and the watermelons, if you carved them out you could float down the rivers with them. And my grandfather had a choice of paris in fresno, and he came to fresno. And he carved out a life here of farming, being a grocery man, and writing his poetry. His son became jocks, great football and baseball players. My dad had a scholarship to usc. So the literary thing skipped a generation and then it landed on me. Right now we sitting in my office in northwest fresno, surrounded by i dont know how many tons of documents that have to do with the history of california and the story of water. So that is where we are at. For me, it is like, this is like heaven and hell. Getting up every day and having to, i am writing about something, where did i first read about that . And in sorting through all this stuff, trying to figure out where it is. So you will thing you will see thousands of postit notes with topics, each color represents a different topic. That is about as scientific as i get. The middle of california is called the central phallic, the Central Valley, and it goes from bakersfield to fresno. His 400 miles long. Its the longest valley in the united states, if not the world. About the San Joaquin Valley. The Central Valleys made up of two valleys, the san joaquin in the sacramento. The San Joaquin Valley is where all these dramas have taken place, the steinbeck stories, the saroyan stories. Is a place that is geographically exiled from the rest of california. It is physically exiled. It is surrounded by mountains. And it is psychologically exiled. It is a place that has its own kind of ethics. It is backward. If you come here, it feels very much like the south. It feels like the self for a reason, because when my grandfather arrived here in sons of the cotton plantations were coming here too. The boll weevil was ravaging the cotton fields of the south, and the sons of the plantation had to find a new place to farm cotton. The victim west and landed in this valley in a place called tulare lake, which was actually a lake. It was about 50 miles from here. It was a lake that was 800 and itmiles in girth, was the most dominant feature on the california map. And the sons of the plantations came west and drained that lake drive. There were four rivers, and they ended up damning those rivers, turning the meanders of those rivers into straitjackets. If i showed you those rivers today, you would see they are as straight as an irrigation canal. And have been confined, then they controlled the flow of those rivers. They actually put pumps along those rivers that would make the rivers run backwards so they could control that flow. And all those rivers were captured in the name of agriculture. So, our rivers here in the San Joaquin Valley are rivers of agriculture here. 95 of the flow have been taken by farms, and that flow gets shut off by a dam and that flow gets shunted through this lack this of irrigation canals throughout the valley. So it is the most industrialized farming in the history of man, and it has created these factories. And to begin with the nonfiction literature of this place you need to start with which wasand fields, a book written in the depression time by karen mc williams. And it put on the map just how industrialized this agriculture was, and how we created this feudal society, where we had farmers who didnt even call themselves farmers, they called themselves growers. And they had captured tens of thousands of acres of land and had industrialized it. And then, to find a workforce, they went south of the border and imported a workforce. And we basically imported, you know, a whole lower class that came here. And so that struggle created kind of a vast plantation society, and away. Structure still exists today. Its a place of tremendous disparity, where the land and the machines are controlled by maybe 300 families up and down this valley. The vast majority owned land and the water is controlled by a handful. So that is the story i have been where to tell, picking up kind of factories where kind of where kind of factories and fields those quotes took place. If we were to take a drive, i could take you on a drive that would take 20 minutes. We would begin in the suburbs its a verye, where conservative place that probably voted 60 , 70 for donald trump. And out there are these big megachurches and megahouses. And we would drive from those suburbs to downtown fresno, where you have the highest concentration of poverty in the country, in these neighborhoods. And then you would drive 15 minutes beyond and land in a rural vineyard in the middle of a place called fowler, or selma, which is the raising capital of the world. And we would be surrounded by a whole different kind of life, a beautiful life, quiet. Agriculture is also rural poverty. Drive,hat halfandhour you see three different kinds of landscapes. And i would say you wouldnt sign that you wouldnt find that anywhere else in the country, those three places in one drive. It is quite a canvas to write about. Its a hard place to write about because you have to make certain , and it can be a depressing place to write about. I think thats why so much of the great literature that has come out of this place has been fiction and poetry. Fresno has a rich history of great poets. Everwine,e, peter and we have great fiction, beginning with steinbeck and a saroyan here. Nonfiction has been more difficult, because you have to theinto this place, brokennest of this place, and it doesnt make you a really popular person to tell the stories. I live here, and yet you are writing these stories that not everyone embraces. Because you are telling the history, warts and all, of the place. I think, among the wisest people i ever interviewed was a woman named bertha toney. I found her while i was doing the king of california. She was 100 years old at the time. She had come from texas, followed the cotton trail west. In onent come all migration. They stopped along the way. She referred to her children, she had seven or eight of them, as a stopover kids. She had a kid each place. And they landed in corcoran and they picked the cotton. And as i was interviewing her in that little house on the outskirts of that city, that town, she was taking me all the way back to the slave days of her grandmother. So from that one interview, we were spanning 150 years of history. Remarkable lady. She got on a piano and started and above the piano was all the photographs of her children, grandchildren,. Reatgrandchildren and wisdom. At her voice is one of the powerful voices that i had the privilege of capturing. And her story is told in the king of california. So it has been a joy to be able to do this, to be able to travel with this old, beat up little sony tape recorder. I dont even use the digital ones, although i should. And just capturing these stories , and telling the history of a place. I think if you are going to be a nonfiction writer and live in you have to write in yourehat is going to, going to have to tell stories that are going to upset the people. And so that is not an easy thing to do, where you are basically telling on your place. Its much easier to come in from the outside, right with ever you need to write, and then leave. I live here. So i am a pretty polarizing figure here, writing these stories. Thery to write them nice thing about the king of california and hopefully this next up, that people read them and hopefully see that you tried together the story from the people. But it is hard to hold back on certain judgments, and ultimately some of these books, pieces become indictments of the place. And when you live in that place, it is difficult. Am waiting for that great hmong fiction writer, the great punjabi fiction writer. Are tellingtures them the same message that my culture told me, which was become an attorney or a doctor and make money, then they are going to have a hard time. But that is what you hope for, that the story continues. As the story is evolving. Thiskind of landscape, big, that many issues, its going to evolve. And some has to be here to tell that story. Next, cspans cities to exhibitions to an at California State University in fresno, california. The exhibition tells the story of the japaneseamerican experience. Of thecommanding general western Defense Command determined all japanese within the coastal areas should move inland. Notices were posted. All persons of japanese descent were required to register. We have to put ourselves in thinkshoes, and not through the lens of 2017. Things were very different back then. And so what we are trying to do is humanize the experience and explain to people the environment the people were in, so they can understand how people endured that period. We are at the special Collections Research center at the California State University in fresno. We are talking about the anniversary of executive order 9066, which president franklin 19,evelt signed on february 1942. After the bombing of pearl harbor in 1941, the president , franklin roosevelt, decided that japaneseamericans needed to be evacuated from all areas of the either theyecause, may not be loyal to the united some kindjust seen as of threat. So they rounded up all of the japaneseamericans, including children and then elderly people, and sent them to these camps. So executive order 9066 was the executive order that authorized the removal of all japaneseamericans from the west coast. People wonder, why didnt they Say Something at the time, well they did. You will be just didnt know about. To the Supremet Court but was denied. He lost that case. Thatsnt until the 1980s that decision was overturned, not by the Supreme Court by a federal court. Fresno and the Central Valley has always had a large japaneseamerican population because of the agriculture. That is what they are known for. So obviously, when all the japaneseamericans were theuated, on japaneseamericans from this area were sent to two camps, well one camp in particular. There were 10 camps in the nation, and they were all out of the west coast area. To californiamp except for mans an art. The rest were in colorado, arizona, wyoming, in their states. But a lot of our japaneseamericans were affected and that is why we have this focus on it. We had the japaneseamerican collection for a long time. It comes from different donors over the years, it sort of comes in fits and starts but in more recent years we have gotten a lot more material and there has been a lot more focus on it. We met up with the numbers of thick a number of families, not just japaneseamerican families but other families. Ran the Fresno Assembly center, his family gave us a number of items that were important. The story has become a major focus of ours, although we have always done this, had materials on this topic. Anniversaryhe 75th of executive order 9066, it is important because we have to remember that two thirds of the people put in these camps were american citizens. So what was done to them as never really been talked about from their point of view and that is one of my main focus is and goals, to talk about how they felt about it. You guys for many years, for decades nobody talked about it, especially from their perspective. So one of the main goals of this exhibition is to explain to howle what happened, and the people actually felt themselves, who went into these camps. In the collection we have a number of photographs, some of them really well known but they illustrate what people, what the environment was like before the japaneseamericans were sent to camps. And these are just examples of the racism and prejudice that was going on at the time. People didnt distinguish between japaneseamericans and japanese nationals, who we were obviously at war with after pearl harbor was attacked. So, we will show these to remind people of the environment that the japaneseamericans were in. These photographs illustrate what they had a few days to get rid of their property, their farms, everything had to go. They were only allowed to carry only what theyt, could carry is what they say. If you couldnt carry it, he couldnt bring it to camp. He been mined and they didnt know how long they were going to be gone, they didnt know where they were going, but they were given a few days to dispose of everything. The photographs show them packing up, so you see a variety of duffel bags as well as suitcases. They were taken by either bus or then, and as i understand government didnt want people to know that they were transporting japaneseamericans, so they had to be out of sight. They had to put the shades down on the trains. They didnt they werent allowed to be seen there he didnt want people to know this was happening. This is a shot of a family and tagsee they all have these on, they are id tags. Every family were issued an id tober, and they were told wear the tags when they were being transported so they could be identified. Names,dnt use their they just used their numbers, which is part of the shame and dehumanization of the whole experience for the japaneseamericans. How theps show japaneseamericans were evacuated. So thee colorcoded, first one talks about exclusionary. You can see its all the state of california, and it went up to washington state, and oregon was included. This map shows where each of the Assembly Centers are. Lived,ng on where you you were sent to a Different Assembly center, and this explains where all the Assembly Centers were. There was one in pinedale, and there was one at the fresno fairgrounds. The Assembly Center was just a where peopleation, lived in the horse stalls, and there are accounts about that, how hot it was in the summer and how there was no airconditioning. Hitting the hate was an appropriate term because they do literally had to stuff the and that isith hay, what they slept on. Andse the term interment, that is meant for prisoners of war and military prisoners, and obviously these people were never blame training. They did nothing wrong. So they were technically not prisoners, but they were incarcerated, certainly. They had no choice about going to the camps. People may not know that while families were at the camps they did their own newspapers, and this is the fresno grapevine. This was done at the Fresno Assembly center. Even though there were only there six months, they took the time to create a newspaper for themselves. Trying toey were create a sense of normalcy for themselves, as well as to share information. They didnt know how long they were going to be there and this was a way to communicate with each other, and maybe create a sense of community while they were in the Assembly Centers. The grapevine is from the Assembly Center, and the reference to grapes, they did campall themselves, the residents themselves wrote, produced, and printed all these things out. So you can see how they sort of mimeographed it here, it is not a real newspaper. They didnt have renting presses but they did the best they could. People might be surprised to see that they actually had your books, and this is like a real yearbook. 1943, 1940 from four, from mens and are which was the only camp in california. And they had College Classes and these people graduated while they were in the camps, so this was their yearbook. I just want to point out their work a lot of japaneseamericans who enlisted in more while their parents were in the camps. Some of them chose to sign up to join the war. Of onlye made up japaneseamericans and the 442nd infantry. They didthey came home come back to the camps to visit with parents and other Family Members. One of the highlights of our the going for broke National Association will do an exhibition in the space, to talk about that military aspects of world war ii and how the japaneseamericans helped win the war. And it wasnt just them fighting. They also helped the military with intelligence. Whole section called mis, military intelligence service, and anyone who could speak japanese and read japanese was recruited to work for the government. Some were actually sent to japan. We will move on to some of the exhibition that are on loan to us. There was actually a blanket that was issued to them in the camp, and you can see this as their family id number. This is what they could carry, so whatever they could put in this top layer and on the bottom layer, this is what they were able to bring to the camp. The family kindly gave us this army blanket because a lot of the camps were very cold. They were hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. Since they didnt know where they were going, a lot of them did not bring appropriate winter clothing, so they were issued Army Blankets or given old army coats. This is an example of one of those. Piece ofnother luggage, a duffel bag. Is 40896. Eir number they were from the semikeene valley. What is interesting about this is they had to make their own duffel bags. As you can see, this company was a local company from fresno. We have a wood carving from the posting camp that was being lent to us. We dont know who made this. It is quite beautiful. You see the guard tower and a lot of the intricate details. The people had a lot of time in camp. A lot of them did not have jobs. They were allowed to work later. N off camp i think a lot of them took up arts and crafts and did little craftwork. This is a sculpture, and i have the translation here someone carved in japanese. It is part of an ethic the apaneseamericans have, endure, make the best of things come and go on. I think that is also one of the elements of the exhibition will is thato understand they went through this whole experience, but over the generations they have hopefully come to terms with it, and many of the families have gone on to prosper and incorporate this history into their family histories. There is a lot of history that i think people do not realize, and it is especially pertinent we talk about pertinent today. We talk about how certain groups are being targeted, and i know the japaneseamericans have taken up the banner to fight against any Civil Liberties violations, for example, with muslimamericans. They do not want this to happen again to anybody. And that is why i think history is important. I would like people to understand this is something that is not that far along, far away. It happened 75 years ago, but in the span of history, it is not that long ago. When people say, could ever happen again, we have to understand it did happen not that long ago, and it could happen again, so that is one of the main reasons we are doing this exhibition. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] announcer cspans cities to her take the to springfield, missouri to explore the literary scene and history of the birthplace of route 66 on saturday, generally sixth january 6. In 1858, john brown, having left kansas, comes back to the territory and begins a series of raids into western missouri, during which his men will liberate enslaved people from missouri and help them escape to freedom. In the course of this they will kill a number of slaveholders. The legend or the notoriety of john brown really grows as part that peopleggle locally understand is really the beginning of the civil war. Announcer sunday, january 7 at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv, we visit the nra National Sporting arms museum. Theodore roosevelt was probably our shootingest president. He was a very avid hunter. The first thing he did when he left office was organize and go on a very large hunting safari to africa. This particular rifle was prepared specifically for roosevelt. It has the president ial seal engraved on the breach, and of course roosevelt was famous for the bull moose party, and there moosee and move a bull engraved on the side of this gun. Announcer watch the cities to her of springfield, missouri on cities tour of springfield , missouri. Of theer now, a portion state Innovation Exchange conference in washington, d. C. Democratic legislators from around the country heard from speakers on supporting state and local officials in defending and advancing innovative policies