Henry Hajimu Fujii
Encyclopedia
Henry Fujii was a pioneer and Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

 community leader in the state of Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

. His primary vocation was in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. In the 1930s, Fujii was recognized as a pioneer in large-scale onion farming, advancing the acreage scale of which a farmer could raise crops. In 1936, he established the Japanese Onion Growers Association and served as the organization's president for over 30 years.

As a Japanese immigrant
Issei
Issei is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei , and their grandchildren are Sansei...

 living away from the West Coast of the United States, Fujii was not part of the Japanese American internment
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

, maintaining a residence in Nampa, Idaho
Nampa, Idaho
Nampa is the largest and the fastest growing city in Canyon County, Idaho, USA. The population of Nampa was 81,557 at the 2010 census. Nampa is located about west of Boise along Interstate 84, and six miles west of Meridian. Nampa is part of the Boise metropolitan area...

 throughout World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Although he, like most other Japanese Americans, was the subject of significant racial persecution in the mid-1940s, Fujii maintained strong community relationships and leadership. His community presence served as a significant contributor to the well-being and rights preservation for Asians in the northwestern United States. The Emperor of Japan awarded Fujii the 6th Order of the Rising Sun, Silver Rays
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...

, which represents the sixth highest of eight classes associated with this award. This decoration was presented as a way of acknowledging his efforts in furthering the relationships between Japan and the United States.

In his retirement, Fujii turned to rockhounding
Rockhounding
Amateur geology is the recreational study and hobby of collecting rocks and mineral specimens from their natural environment.-Collecting:...

 and amassed one of the most extensive gem and mineral collections in the northwestern United States. In 1974, Fujii donated a portion of his collection to the State of Idaho, with Governor Cecil D. Andrus
Cecil D. Andrus
Cecil Dale Andrus was an American politician who served as Governor of Idaho from 1971 to 1977, and again from 1987 to 1995; and in Washington as United States Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981, during the Carter administration...

 personally accepting the donation.

Background

Hajimu Fujii was born August 17, 1886 in Tottori Prefecture
Tottori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region. The capital is the city of Tottori. It is the least populous prefecture in Japan.- History :Before the Meiji Restoration, Tottori encompassed the old provinces of Hōki and Inaba...

, Japan. He was the fifth son to Yasujiro and Tsune Fujii. As a boy, he helped raise rice and silkworms on their one-ox, 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) farm. In high school, Fujii and some friends decide to immigrate to America upon finishing school. Hajimu, whose name means "The Beginning," didn’t pass his physical examination because of an eye infection, so his classmate, Katsuji Hashitani, went on to America alone. Fujii taught school for a year while returning to full health and borrowed $500 for his fare to America.

Fujii left Japan for America at the beginning of April 1906 on the ship Keemun. After an 18-day voyage he arrived in Victoria, BC. He continued on his journey by train to Vancouver, BC, finally arriving in Seattle, WA on May 1 where he joined Hashitani. Hashitani told Fujii that his first name was difficult for Americans to pronounce, so he’d taken the name Henry. Hamiju, not knowing any other common U.S. names, took the name Henry as well.

In December 1908, Fujii partnered with Hashitani and George Shigeya Takeuchi, assuming a lease of an 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) farm and house in Emmett, ID. They raised vegetables and fruit, and supplied produce by horse and wagon to the town of Emmett, and Pearl, a nearby gold mine camp. During each winter farming off-season, Fujii, Hashitani, and Takeuchi studied English, taking lessons three nights a week with a local church pastor.

Within five years of arriving in the U.S., Fujii had paid back the $500 he had borrowed to come to America and amassed $500 in savings, as well as funding to return to Japan to get married. On December 29, 1911, he married Fumiko Mayeda at Takashiro, Tottori-ken, Japan. Fumiko Mayeda was born on July 12, 1891 at Kochi, Maniwa, Okayama Prefecture
Okayama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Okayama.- History :During the Meiji Restoration, the area of Okayama Prefecture was known as Bitchū Province, Bizen Province and Mimasaka Province.- Geography :...

, Japan. She was the daughter of a history teacher Fujii had admired when he was a teacher. Fujii returned to the U.S. with his new bride, traveling aboard the SS Inaba Maru and arriving on April 23, 1912.

Japanese land law

Fujii’s ability to purchase land was partly due to his own efforts in fighting the alien land law that had been introduced in the Idaho State Legislature in 1915. Eight years after joining the Japanese Association of Western Idaho (JAWI), Fujii was elected president. His election was the beginning of a 26 year leadership for the JAWI. The association’s usual activities involved such matters as arranging trips to Japan, marriages, funerals, and buying property.

One of the most serious matters of the JAWI was that of the Japanese land law. California, Oregon, Washington, and other western states had passed laws that prohibited Japanese from owning or leasing land. Idaho’s five Japanese associations organized a federation and elected Fujii, as well as other representatives, to fight a similar law in Idaho. This team successfully lobbied to delay passage of the law, defeat it, and introduce a new law. This new law allowed renewable leases of up to five years. With its passage in 1923, Idaho remained the only state in the West where Japanese immigrants could lease land.

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