Grandpa Seima: “Well Thought of Here.”
My Grandpa Seima was born in November 1899, right at the turn of the century. This month, I celebrate that he was born 124 years ago, and he came to California in 1916 at age 17, 107 years ago! People are always surprised at that as most think of Asian immigrants being relatively “new” in this country.
Grandpa was a pioneer and had already been in the U.S. for 26 years, the majority of his life, when WWII broke out in 1942. Before that, he was a humble farmer, raising 2 sons, and twin daughters in Westminster, CA. Before the war, he would just say they farmed, and my dad would add to the farm work about his days at Huntington Beach High School, enjoying sports, clubs, and the friends he made.
So when Nick Popadiuk of Westminster, CA sent me an email with pictures of this article from the Westminster Gazette, April 25, 1940, asking if I had seen it before, I was pretty stunned. This community newspaper had a whole article about Grandpa: “Seima Munemitsu, Successful Truck Gardener, is Well Thought of Here.”
Nick is a volunteer at the Westminster Museum and came across the article as he was cataloging papers from 1930-40. He said it was unique because this is the only article he saw solely about a resident and it took up a full column, top to bottom - quite unusual in all the editions he reviewed.
My aunt Aki said she never heard about the article when I read it to her. She was surprised that no one ever mentioned it to her even though she was a young girl at the time.
I learned a few details that I didn’t know about - what crops were grown in 1940 like bearded wheat and chili peppers, or that the two cars he owned were a “ramshackle Ford jalopy” and a new touring car. I also didn’t know that he leased 65 acres to grow strawberries from the Hellman family. This was the start of the crop that we would be known for into the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, in my lifetime on Munemitsu Farms.
What surprised me the most about this article was not the content, but that it was run at all! Twenty four years into Grandpa Seima’s American life, he was interviewed by a newspaper for his work as a farmer. Most notably, he was known as “well thought of” and generous with his crops, giving families’ tomatoes for nothing and letting the community glean off the remaining harvest before it was disked under for the next crop to be planted.
The giving away of vegetables doesn’t surprise me at all. We also did that when I was growing up. At the end of tomato or strawberry season, when it wasn’t profitable to pick the remaining crop, the neighborhood was invited to glean the remaining crop as it was more than enough for a few meals, but it just wasn’t enough for truckloads to go to the produce market in L.A. It’s just what our Japanese American community of farmers did back then, but in this article it made my grandpa unique.
I think mostly what strikes me about this article is that it was printed just 2 years and a month before May 1942 when Grandpa Seima was arrested by the FBI, accused of being a spy for Japan, disloyal to America. Obviously, the FBI didn’t read the article or talk to the neighbors about the farmer who plowed his field with a gray “dobbin” horse or gave away vegetables to families in need. They would have found out that Grandpa didn’t have much time for spy activity against America, he focussed on farming 7 days a week, year after year. And certainly, he wasn’t someone suspicious or against this country. He was “well thought of here.”
“Kindness is…collaboration and building trusted friendships.” (pg. 63) To me, this article speaks mostly about collaboration, building friendships among a community of people you trust. I know his neighbors remembered Grandpa’s generosity in the midst of a war. Grandpa Seima carried out his generosity despite being arrested and held in a P.O.W. camp for two and a half years. After WWII, in the same community that he was taken from, he returned and generously offered Japanese American families without a place to go, to start over at our Westminster farm. I have no doubt that the neighbors were invited back to glean after future harvests of vegetables and strawberries.
Grandpa Seima, you are my inspiration to be generous and kind. And as you humbly said, “Ah, it is nodding (nothing).”
Many thanks to Nick Popadiuk, Historian extraordinaire, for finding this treasured article! It was great visiting you at the Westminster Museum!
In the Press
Follow us on Facebook & Instagram as we cultivate kindness together
