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The Life of Japanese Americans at Seabrook Farms during the Second World War
On January 30th, Fred Korematsu Day, the Inclusiveness and Diversity Committee of Penn's Village and the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia (JASGP) are co-hosting a lecture and discussion by Masaru Edmund Nakasegawa, Alfred Hirotoshi Nishikawa and Rob Buscher on the history of Seabrook Farms and Japanese Americans during and after the Second World War.
“The Life of Japanese Americans at Seabrook Farms during the Second World War” focuses on the history of Japanese American families who were relocated from the American concentration camp and employed at Seabrook Farms in 1944, which is in Southern New Jersey about an hour drive from Central Philadelphia. The Seabrook Farms, now called Seabrook Brothers and Sons, established by Charles F. Seabrook in 1913, is a company famous for vegetable frozen foods.
After the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese Empire, Japanese Americans were forcibly evicted from their West Coast homes and businesses under the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were impacted by EO 9066 were then mass incarcerated in American concentration camps located in the interior of the country. The 5070 Parkside Ave, Suite 1404, Philadelphia, PA 19131 | japanphilly.org Supreme Court ruling in 1944 paved the way for camps to close, many incarcerees remained in camp until the end of 1945. Tule Lake camp was the last to close, which did not happen until March 1946. In 1944, Mr. Seabrook worked with the War Relocation Authority to employ over 2,500 Japanese Americans to work at his company. They were paid for the labor work and offered welfare accommodations such as housing, medical treatment, education, etc.
Even today, their descendants live in Seabrook and its neighboring area.
Profiles of the speaker, moderator, and the panelists:
Masaru Edmund Nakawatase (Keynote speaker) was born in Poston, Arizona one of the 10 major
Internment Camps and grew up in Seabrook, New Jersey, the son of plant workers at Seabrook Farms, and currently a Trustee of Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center. He currently serves on the board of Asian Americans United (AAU) in Philadelphia. He retired from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) after 31 years as the organization's National Representative for Native American Affairs.
Alfred Hirotoshi Nishikawa a (Panelist) is a native of San Francisco. During WWII as a four-year old, he and his family were sent to Poston, AZ concentration camp and incarcerated for the duration of the war. Hiro became involved with the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in 1997 and has served as chapter president and district governor. More recently he has been involved in comprehensive immigration reform with PICC and UUPLAN (Unitarian Universalist Pennsylvania Legislative Action Network.) He is active on the boards of the Philadelphia JACL, and the Japanese Association of Greater Philadelphia.
Rob Buscher (Moderator) is the Philadelphia Chapter President of civil rights group Japanese
American Citizens League and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Asian American Studies
Program. He is a contributing writer at Pacific Citizen and Gidra.