Brogan’s Japanese garden
New feature honors Japanese American influence on Eastern Oregon farming
By Sean Hart
Argus Observer
Saturday, October 17, 2009 8:24 PM PDT
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| The Harada Japanese Garden outside the fire station on Fifth Avenue in Brogan will be dedicated at 3 p.m. Monday, with a reception catered by Matsy’s Restaurant following in the Brogan Community Center. The garden pays tribute to the Japanese Americans who settled in the valley near Brogan, Jamieson and Willowcreek, beginning in 1939, and the influence they had on area farming. |
BROGAN — Dick Harada, Tom Kamo and Tad Fujita moved to the valley near Brogan, Jamieson and Willowcreek in 1939 and brought with them the knowledge and skills to utilize a different farming style that eventually transformed the entire landscape of Eastern Oregon.
Now, 70 years later, through the efforts of the Brogan Community Society, the Harada family and others, a Japanese rock garden has been installed in the tiny town of Brogan — a little more than 20 miles north of Vale on U.S. Highway 26 — to honor the area’s early Japanese American settlers who quickly became members of the community. The Harada Japanese Garden, which adorns the grounds outside the fire station on Fifth Avenue in Brogan, will be dedicated at 3 p.m. Monday.
Dick Harada’s brother, Hideo Harada, 87, Ontario, said he was proud his family’s name is associated with the garden but noted it recognizes more than Haradas.
“It’s to honor all the Japanese families that were in Brogan,” he said.
A plaque that will be placed at the entrance of the rock garden will honor the following Japanese American families who settled in the valley: Arai, Demise, Enoki, Fukiage, Fujita, Goto, Hamasaki, Harada, Hashitani, Higashi, Hiramatsu, Hoida, Horiuchi, Ikenoyama, Imada, Ito, Kamehira, Kamo, Katsura, Kawamoto, Kitamura, Koga, Kondo, Kuwahara, Maruoka, Matsumoto, Mita, Miyata, Morimizu, Munemori, Murata, Nakamoto, Nakano, Namba, Nishimatsu, Nitta, Ohashi, Okai, Sasaki, Sato, Shibata, Shikuma, Suyematsu, Tamada, Tameno, Tamura, Tanaka, Terada, Tomiyoshi, Tsutsui, Wada, Watanabe, Yabitsu, Yamada, Yokohama and Yoshihara.
“We thank the community for this honor,” Hideo Harada’s wife, Ruth Harada, said.
“The honor for us and for all the Japanese families,” her husband added.
The Japanese influence on farming
Row-crop, or truck, farming was popular in wetter areas along the West Coast, Dick Harada’s brother, Hideo Harada, said.
“Before the war (World War II), they (the Japanese families) raised vegetables on the coast — truck farmers. We didn’t know anything about hay and cattle,” he said. “It’s a wetter climate out there, so it was different crops — strawberries and raspberries.”
In 1942, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the exclusion of anyone with Japanese ancestry from areas designated by the military, many Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were forced to be interned or move inland.
“We didn’t go to an internment camp,” Hideo Harada said. “Ontario was a free zone, so we moved out (to Brogan) with my brother in 1942.”
Before the Japanese farmers arrived, the Brogan-area land was primarily used for hay and grain farming and pastures, but with the row-cropping came onions, potatoes, sugar beets and corn, Hideo Harada said.
“Basically, that’s what happened to this whole area,” Ruth Harada said.
Brogan Community Society President Gary Smith said the contributions of the early Japanese American farmers greatly advanced the area’s agricultural progress.
“They (the Japanese American farmers) were probably doing things in the ’40s we probably wouldn’t have gotten to until the ’50s or ’60s in terms of farming,” Smith said. “They were the pioneers in changing this valley.”
Smith said he was born in the 1940s and that people from his generation were too young to be persuaded by the prevailing negative attitudes surrounding people of Japanese ancestry during the war.
“We were all just a big group. We didn’t know prejudice. Anybody that wanted to work was welcome in Brogan,” Smith said. “We went to school at Brogan with the Japanese American kids. Quite a few of the kids were born while they were here in Brogan.”
The Brogan Community Society, which has performed a collection of improvements to the town with funds from its annual July “Nutty Brunch,” came up with the idea for “a harmonious garden honoring these families” five years ago, Smith said.
“Historically,” Smith said, “it sets where Brogan has been in the last 60 years.”
A dedication ceremony will be held for the Harada Japanese Garden at 3 p.m. Monday outside the fire station on Fifth Avenue in Brogan, with a reception catered by Matsy’s Restaurant to follow at Brogan Community Center.
Lifestyle Editor Sean Hart can be contacted at SeanH@argusobserver.com.
Gary Doi wrote on Oct 22, 2009 1:45 PM:
I am a third generation Japanese American from Hawaii. The story of our ethnic group is one of sadness but also of pride. This story makes one feel good about human nature and the goodness in people. "