Henry Fujii oral history interview and related material, 1965-1971

Scope and Content: Tape-recorded interview conducted by Dolores Goto, April 3, 1971. Mr. Fujii was born on August 17, 1886 in Kureashi, Japan. His father was a farmer and he was the youngest of four brothers and two sisters. He attended an agricultural high school in a nearby village. He immigrated to the US in 1906, and eventually worked for the railroad in Nampa, Idaho. He traces the history of anti-Japanese sentiments in Idaho back to 1892 when 1,000 Japanese immigrants went to work for the railroad and an Oriental Protection Association was started to counter the movement of local citizines. In 1892 the Japanese government sent a counselor to investigate the problem. In 1915 an anti-Japanese land law was first introduced in the Idaho legislature. While the bill failed every year, no one worked to help the Japanese. Mr. Fujii was the head of a group working against the Land Law. Due to the efforts of churches and the sugar companies, most Japanese were able to lease land by 1923. Mr. Fujii described the resurgence of anti-Japanese sentiments after Pearl Harbor. He married in 1911 and later gave up a partnership in a business in Emmett so his children could attend school in Nampa, Idaho. Mr. Fujii had good recommendations so he was not picked up by the FBI during wartime. After retiring from farming in 1965 he took up rock collecting as a hobby.

Scope and Content: Papers relating to the Fujii family, including a newspaper article on the history of the family.