You probably don’t know who Bob Fletcher was, but let us begin by saying that he was employed as an agricultural inspector in California’s Central Valley in the early 1940s. Then, one moment changed his life and the lives of many others on that infamous morning when Japanese military forces attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, on Dec.7, 1941.
More than 2,400 soldiers perished in the 8 AM attack, and President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared this:
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
The surprise attack drew the United States irrevocably into World War II. That also meant that more than 110,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens would be forced to internment camps far from home.
Because of his agricultural background, Bob Fletcher was friendly with a number of Japanese-American farmers in Central Valley. One of them was a gentleman named Al Tsukamoto who reached out to Fletcher.
He was upset that he and two other farmers, Mr. Okomotto and Mr. Nitta, would lose everything while they were being interned. Tsukamoto begged Fletcher to run the farms, pay the bills and pay himself a profit.
Fletcher wanted to help all three family farms but felt overwhelmed because he knew nothing about growing Flame Tokay table grapes, the main crop of the farms. Tsukamoto lent him his own home to live in as he cared for the crops.
Fletcher agreed to help run all three farms but would sleep in a vacant bunkhouse on the property. He didn’t feel right in taking over the farmer’s home.
It was quite an arduous job he had tending to more than 100-acres of produce, but at 33, Bob Fletcher was young and strong and knew his farming friends were decent people and deserved to keep their establishments after the internment camps closed.
However, Fletcher took some hits from folks nearby as they hurled insults and called him “Jap lover.”
He ignored them, continued his long hours working on the farms and kept his promise to Mr. Tsukamoto. Other interned Japanese were not so lucky because their homes and farms fell into foreclosure or were stolen from them.
Bob Fletcher had good news along the way. He fell in love with a woman named Teresa, got married and lived in the bunkhouse with his bride.
When the Nittas, the Okamotos and the Tsukamotos came home after the war, all three families were overjoyed. The farms had managed a profit, and money was waiting for them.
Fletcher refused to keep the earnings to himself, and instead, split it with his farmer friends. He placed their share in the bank, and it continued to draw interest.
Bob Fletcher remained close friends with the Japanese families for decades, and they revered him as a hero for having their backs.