Nikkei Farmer on the Nebraska Plains : A Memoir

Peering from under his work hat into the dawn mist, the young man watched the light emerge. He walked slowly and quietly through the cornfield and felt his shoulders brush the young sturdy stalks of corn. Moisture hung in the air. In it he could smell the aromas of farm life. The corn smelled sweet and fresh. The pungency of manure rose from everywhere it had been spread to refresh the soil. As he walked, a seemingly endless Nebraska plain unfolded before him, reminding him of the limitless opportunity of his adopted country, and how the hand of God had blessed this land. The young man had come to America from Japan to study agriculture and become a farmer...He was also on another mission-a quest to live among his "countrymen"-and help them to become accepted in America.

Japanese-born Hisanori Kano came to the United States in 1916 with the blessings of his influential family, the sponsorship of William Jennings Bryan, and a fervent commitment to master and apply the best of American agricultural practices on the Nebraska Plains. Forgoing an assured career in politics, the military, or business in his homeland, Kano entered the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and worked his way through as a farm laborer. Along with his dedication to farming, he brought a strong Christian faith that would lead to his ordination as an Episcopal minister and sustain him and his family through his internment during World War II.

Begun in 1967, after a half a century in his adoptive land, Father Kano's memoir reveals how he adapted to an ever-changing American culture and landscape. According himself only modest standing among the Issei-other first-generation Japanese immigrants he was honored to call his countrymen-Father Kano elucidates in a voice as eloquent as it is polite a sorely underrepresented aspect of diversity and rural life on the North American Plains.

Tai Kreidler, archivist for Texas Tech University's Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, descends from a Kagoshima family.

"The memoir of Japanese-born Hisanori Kano, who immigrated to the United States in 1916 to learn and apply American agricultural practices on the Nebraska Plains. Ordained as an Episcopal minister and interned during WWII, Kano's memoir reveals how he adapted to a changing American culture and landscape"--Provided by publisher.