[quote=CONCHO]What hapeended to those people who moved to California in, say 1935 ?
I found this article that touches on that topic. Here’s an excerpt:
As World War II wore on, the state of the economy, both in California and across the nation, improved dramatically as the defense industry geared up to meet the needs of the war effort. Many of the migrants went off to fight in the war. Those who were left behind took advantage of the job opportunities that had become available in West Coast shipyards and defense plants. As a result of this more stable lifestyle, numerous Dust Bowl refugees put down new roots in California soil, where their descendants reside to this day.
I definitely recommend reading “The Grapes of Wrath” for a full understanding of the experience. Steinbeck spent a lot of time with migrant workers, and with this novel tried to tell their side of the story.
Another great novel that seems appropriate these days is “The Great Gatsby”. Whenever I see some 30-something real estate tycoon driving his Bentley I am always reminded of the Jay Gatsby character…[/quote]
…not to mention a lot of these farmers got to take over the farms and land of all the Japanese Americans that got thrown into internment camps….
Hey, maybe cheap house prices will come once Obama throws all the Chinese into similar camps…Cheap Carmel Valley homes for everyone!
…….
on-military advocates for exclusion, removal, and detention
Internment was popular among many white farmers who resented the Japanese American farmers. “White American farmers admitted that their self-interest required removal of the Japanese.”[16] These individuals saw internment as a convenient means of uprooting their Japanese American competitors. Austin E. Anson, managing secretary of the Salinas Vegetable Grower-Shipper Association, told the Saturday Evening Post in 1942:
“We’re charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. We do. It’s a question of whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown men… If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we had never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we do not want them back when the war ends, either.”[23]
“Fear, combined with prejudice, was also at work, aided by the January release of the Roberts Commission Report, prepared at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s request.”[16] “That report concluded that Japanese in America were responsible for espionage, contributing to the Pearl Harbor tragedy.”[16] Columnist Henry McLemore reflected growing public sentiment fueled by this report:
“I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior. I don’t mean a nice part of the interior either. Herd ’em up, pack ’em off and give ’em the inside room in the badlands. Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes for all of them.”[16]
Further, “California newspapers endorsed mass evacuation.”[16] The Los Angeles Times:
“A viper is nonetheless a viper whenever the egg is hatched – so a Japanese American, born of Japanese parents – grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”[16]
State politicians joined the bandwagon embraced by Leland Ford of Los Angeles, who demanded that “all Japanese, whether citizens or not, be placed in [inland] concentration camps.”[16] In fact internment was likely responsible for a massive influx in immigration from Mexico.[citation needed] Significant labor was necessary to take over the Japanese Americans’ farms at a time when many American laborers were also being inducted into the Armed Forces. Thousands of Nikkei, temporarily released from the internment camps to harvest Western beet crops, were credited with saving this industry.
