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Man w ho saved farm s of i nternefJ Japanese Americans diesBY ROBERT D. DAVILATHE SACRAMENTO BEESACRAMENTO • BobFletcher, a Sacramento farmer who saved the farms of interned Japanese American families during Worid War EL, died May 23. He was 10L In 1942, a fewmonths after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government forced Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese descent to report to barbed-wire camps. Many lost their homes to thieves or bank foreclosures.A state agricultural inspector, Fletcher acted instinctively to help Japanese American farmers. He quit his job and went to work saving farms belonging to the Nitta, Okamoto and Tsukamoto families in the Florin comm uni tv ofVSacramento.In the face of deep anti-Japanese sentiment — including abullet Fired into theTsukamoto barn— Fletcher worked 90 acres of flame TokavWgrapes. He paid the mortgages and taxes and took half the profits. He turned over the rest— along with the farms— to the three families when they returned to Sacramento in 1945.“I did knowr a few of them pretty wrell andnever agreed with theevacuation,” he told The Sacramento Bee in 2010. “They wrere the same as anybody else. It was obvious they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor.” Fletcher’s heroism was widely celebrated in the community, including a centennial birthday party for him in 2011 that drew more than 150 people. His inspirational story is recounted in history books, including “We The People: A Story of Internment in America” by Elizabeth Pinkerton and Mary Tsukamoto, w'hose farm he saved.“Few people in history exemplify the best ideals the way that Bob did,” said Tsukamoto’s daughter, Marielle, who was 5 when her family was interned. “He was honest and hardworking and had integrity. Whenever you asked him about it, he just said, ‘It was the right thing to do.’ ”Fletcher, who settled in Sacramento as a farmer after the war, alsoserved people in otherways. He spent 20 years as a volunteer firefighter with the Florin Fire Department and retiredin 1974 after another 12years as paid chief. He helped start the Florin Water District in 1959 and was a board member for 50 years.
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Victorville Daily Press
Victorville, California, US
Sat, Jun 01, 2013
Page 10
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WI, USA 26 Nov 2021
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