Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Spring/Section25/Kosaku Sawada

Kusaku Sawada

Overview

Kosaku Sawada was a Nurseryman in Alabama from Osaka, Japan. After graduating with Agriculture from Osaka University, he moved to the United States to seek opportunities. He successfully introduced the new varieties of camellias as well as the culture of camellias into America, so he was well-known as “Mr. Camellia,” “Papa,” and “Pioneer”.

Overlook1April-22-1949

Biography

Time in Japan

Sawada was born as the youngest in a family of six in Osaka, Japan on October 21, 1882. When he was 21, He graduated from Osaka University with a degree in agriculture. At that time, Mr. Mykawa, an official representative of the Japanese government, was recruiting four young people in Japan to promote a rice farming venture around Houston, Texas. Sawada signed and went to Texas with Mr. Kykawa and three young men in 1906.

Early Immigration Life in Texas

No longer after Kosaku started his venture job, Mr. Mykawa was killed in a farming accident. Therefore, the rice venture failed. After that, Sawada began the operation of Alvin-Japanese Nursery in Alvin, Texas with several other Japanese. They imported plants from Japan and planted them in Texas. The citrus grew well but it appeared to Sawada that the fields in south Alabama were better for the citrus industry. Meanwhile, the working condition in Texas was harsh, because Sawada had to face the heating weather and its infertile land without any tractor or machinery. Therefore, Sawada decided to seek new opportunities in south Alabama.

Overlook Nurseries in Alabama

Sawada moved to Mobile, Alabama in 1910; he acquired some land near Mobile for his Outlook Nurseries in 1914, and he moved the operations there in 1918. Unluckily, though the land in Alabama was fertile and feasible to plant, the weather turned cold and killed all the orange trees soon after Sawada bought lands. Starting from the Roaring 20s, Sawada began to try other plants to grow. He conducted many scientific experiments in different areas. Eventually, he found that it would be most profitable for him to grow Camellia. After starting his Camellia business, he kept collecting camellia seeds and planting them in different ways. In the late 30s and in the 40s, he successfully invented the new varieties of Camellia and profited by selling these seeds to other nurseries.

Marriage and Family

Sawada went to San Francisco once in 1916 and married Nobu Yoshioka who came from Japan. Their marriage was arranged by their parents, which means that Sawada had never met her before they married. Yet, Sawada saw Nobu as a good wife. Nobu had a significant contribution to Sawada’s Camellia business. She brought 500 Camellia seeds with her from Japan, which were the first Camellia seeds for Overlook Nurseries. Sawada and Nobu had four children: Tom (1918 - 2004), George (d. 1998), Lurie (d. 2000), and Ben (b. 1930). Three weeks after Ben was born, Nobu died. Then, Sawada began to raise four children by himself instead of marrying another woman. He sent his children to church and Sunday school even though he did not to churchs. He let his children make their own decisions and believed in no-interfere. Yet, he stressed the importance of business education and the ability to sell the stock to their children and saw business skills as necessary to run the Overlook Nurseries. His education turned out to be successful. Tom went to Alabama Polytechnic Institute to study Landscaping and Horticulture in 1938. George studied Business Administration and Commerce at Spring Hill College. Lurie went to Crichton School.

Sawada and His Family

Japanese Identity & First-Generation Immigrant

After Sawada moved to America since 1906, he never expected to return and abandoned his Japanese identity. For Sawada, Japan has changed so fast that he was no longer familiar with it. Also, his people stopped recognized him as Japanese. After working outdoor for decades in the South, his skin turned brown and his hair was short, straight, and black. When he went back to Japan to visit his family in 1923, he felt alienated as people mistook him as Filipino. Moreover, he named his children with names of US presidents: Tom (Thomas Jefferson); George (George Washington); and Ben (Benjamin Franklin). Sawada never taught them Japanese. Sawada believed that the best part of being an American citizen was that his property was protected. He also saw problems in America that its people were exploiting natural resources recklessly. People in the local community sometimes asked K. Sawada why he didn't settle on the West Coast where most Japanese immigrants lived. He answered that if he had wanted to speak and read Japanese he would have remained in Japan. He was in America. He and his children would speak and read English.

World War II and Anti-Japanese Sentiment

At the beginning of WWII, there were two nurseries held by the Japanese in the Mobile area: Overlook Nurseries and Kiyono Nurseries. Nevertheless, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, T. Kiyono’s nursery was seized and sold at auction by the government. Overlook was scheduled to be seized and sold, but Sawada’s good reputation in the community saved Overlook. Nurserymen of the surrounding area of Mobile went as a group to the authorities and pled Sawada and his families’ case. Therefore, the Sawada family was allowed to keep Overlook.

Social Issues

Asian American’s Educational Ramifications

There is a widely shared belief that Asian Americans not only have overcome the bondage of racial discrimination but also have become a successful model minority. The scientific and empirical research has discovered that Asian Americans, compared to other American minorities, are better educated, earning as much as any group, and well assimilated.

Japanese in US South and Alabama

At the end of the 19th century, there was a wave of Asian immigrants in the United States. However, most Asian immigrants chose to settle down on the west coast of the United States where was closest to their hometown and had the largest number of Asian immigrants. Yet, the appearances of Asians in the South were not unnormal. Most of Asian Immigrants worked on agriculture and plantation in the south and they had contributed a lot to the South economy and agriculture. However, compared to those in Louisiana and Texas, the number of Japanese immigrants in Alabama was small. The official census shows that only 21 of the estimated 127,000 Japanese living in the United States by the 1930s were in Alabama.

Anti-Japanese Sentiment and the Yellow Peril

The Immigration Commission in 1909 calculated that of the 79,000 Japanese immigrants on the mainland, approximately one-half were involved in farming. White farmers also valued Japanese for their expertise in agriculture and for the comparatively low cost of their labor. This all changed with the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Japan prevailed in both wars and established Korea as a Japanese colonial site. In less than forty years, Japan had transformed itself from a pre-modern agrarian society to a formidable industrial and military power. Unfortunately, these victories earned the Japanese more fear than respect in America. The California Alien Land Law of 1913 was specifically created to prevent land ownership among Japanese citizens residing in the state of California. After the Japanese attacked the pearl harbor in 1941, many Japanese Immigrants were forced to give out their private property and attended the United States Army to fight against their countrymen.