Financial Distress
Going into the 1930s, the Kishi colony was surrounded with overwhelming positivity as everything pointed towards continued success. Workers could make use of the most modern technology in farming equipment and trackers alongside the already successful farming techniques. However, disaster struck as the colony’s entire cabbage crop had to be destroyed after contracting “yellow disease.” The colony’s stroke of misfortune continued as successive freezes laid waste to the other crops and the colony orchards. The enormous loss of crops meant that farming in the Kishi Colony as it was was no longer sustainable. Coupled with the onset of the Great Depression, the colony’s unfortunate fate was sealed. The many land mortgages and loans that Kishi had taken out in order to provide funding for his search for oil now threatened the continued survival of the colony. [1]
Correspondence between Kishi in Japan and his son, Taro, in Texas provides insight into the frantic efforts to save the colony by its members. Lutcher Stark was one of the few who had leased land to Kichimatsu Kishi in order for the colony to cultivate cabbage and mustard. However, even after foreclosure, Stark did not wish further penalty upon Kishi and instead provided a way for Kishi to buy back the property. Stark said, “he did not wish to make extra money, nor royalty, nor oil or mineral interest.” Taro communicated that “Lutcher Stark says that he will do everything within legal bounds to help you, as his wishes are for your success.” Kishi could buy back the land for $20,000 and had to do so before the July 15, 1931 deadline. Tokuzo Hirasaki, one of the colonists, said that “if the new irrigation canal had come a few years earlier, they might have been able to return to rice farming and repay the notes.”
In an effort to quickly raise the sufficient funds, Kishi was staying at the residence of his brother in law, K. Kobayashi at 110 Suwa, Tozuka-Machi, Tokyo, while his son Taro Kishi stayed at the farm in Texas. The exchanges between father and son were done through coded telegraphs from Kichimatsu to Taro and typed letters from Taro to Kichimatsu. Many times, the letters asked for funding, whether it be remittance for gasoline for the tractors, pay for the workers, or groceries. Another correspondence discussed the price of oil gathered from the East Texas Field as if Taro was communicating with Kichimatsu about finding a market for oil in Japan. At the same time, various oil companies began the search for oil along the property, with some successful and some not. In the end, the looming July 15 deadline looked more and more like an impossible date, and the fatherson duo had a set of correspondences with Lutcher Stark about moving the deadline of buying back the land to July 30. Taro went as far as visiting Stark, but he had already left for vacation in Maine. In the end, the family was unable to retain the Kishi Colony land.
Definite foreclosure of the mortgage meant that the colonists who leased land from Kichimatsu would be forced to find a new place to live. The Kishi, Nagai, and Kondo families decided to bear the Great Depression and continue their stay in the Orange County and Beaumont area. Others moved to different parts of the state and the country such as the Lower Rio Grande Valley or Arizona and California. Many still pursued farming, although elsewhere.
The loss of the colony land put an end to Kichi’s income, meaning that he and his wife, Fuji Kishi, were left dependent on their children. Taro and his sister, Toki, as well as her future husband, Tokuzo Hirasaki, made do with farming on leased land from the Lutcher Moore Lumber Company which now owned the land. In an effort to bring in more money for the family, Taro Kishi left for New York where he found a job with Mitsui and Company. There he met Mary Otani of Plainfield, New Jersey who he would later marry in 1931. Interestingly, her father was cousins with Kiyoaki Saibara, a rice farmer from Webster, Texas. The marriage last for about a decade before ending near the start of the Pacific War. Following this, Taro decided to return to his roots, and began farming rice in Jefferson County near Nome and China, Texas.
References
1. Walls, Thomas K. (1987) The Japanese Texans, San Antonio: University of Texas, Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, 1996.
2. Orii, K. (1983) Kichimatsu Kishi’s Japanese Colony at Terry, Texas, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania.
3. Wingate, G. (1974) “The Kishi Colony,” in The Folklore of Texan Cultures, Abernethy, F. E., ed. The Encino Press, Austin.