The Brief

Strawberry fields used to be a common sight in Southern California, growing among the region’s suburban sprawl with splashes of greenery and fragrant smells.

In fact, nearly all strawberries sold in the U.S. today trace their roots back to California — and one particular group of immigrants.

Here's what we know about the intersection between Japanese American history and those delicious red berries.

How Japanese immigrants took to strawberries

At the turn of the 20th century, a large group of Japanese immigrants arrived in the U.S., many with farming experience.

“The vast majority of Japanese people were raised on small-scale farms,” said Emily Anderson, a project curator at the Japanese American National Museum. “So working in agriculture was the perfect fit for them.”

By 1924 the Immigration Act, sometimes called the Japanese Exclusion Act, limited immigration, completely excluded immigrants from Asia during a time of anti-Asian sentiments. State laws also prevented Japanese immigrants already here from owning land and barred them from becoming naturalized citizens.

Some Japan immigrants turned to work as tenant farmers on small patches of land and found strawberries to be a high-yield crop. Japanese immigrant farmers quickly became the backbone of the berry business.

“Prior to World War II [Japanese immigrants] were growing about 90% of strawberries in the state," Glenn Tanaka, whose family owns and operates Tanaka Farms in Irvine, said.

Farmers incarcerated

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into World War II in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which forcibly removed and incarcerated people of Japanese descent.

More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained in incarceration camps. The order devastated many businesses, including farmers.

“Most of them had to walk away from fields that were just about ready to harvest,” said Anderson.

During the war, California’s strawberry crop dwindled to about a quarter of what it had been. Tanaka said his grandfather and father were able flee and avoid incarceration but had to leave their family farm.

After the war, they began growing strawberries again.

Many other Japanese farmers did the same after the war. By 1950, California harvested over 81 million pounds of strawberries or four times the prewar high, according to the L.A. Times.

The agrotourism shift

The Tanakas turned from selling wholesale tomatoes and strawberries to providing agritourism services. Instead of selling their produce to companies, Tanaka Farms allows visitors to come and pick their own strawberries and pumpkins while also offering different activities.

“We invited some schools out to come pick strawberries, and it was just a really, really big hit,” Tanaka said. “Having the public come out and pick the strawberries saves us a lot in labor and enabled us to survive and still be farming.”

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027. 

At a community meeting Thursday night at MacArthur Park Elementary School, officials said fence installation is now expected to continue through fall 2027, overshooting the previously announced spring 2027 completion date.

Thursday’s meeting highlighted the divide over the city’s plan to fence off MacArthur Park, with tensions rising during public comment. The Los Angeles Police Department says the fence will make drug enforcement easier, while some in the community who volunteer around the park questioned whether it will improve safety enough to justify the cost.

The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.

Installation of the green metal fence around the park’s perimeter is expected to begin in November and take about a year. A second phase, adding decorative elements to the fence, is planned for fall and winter 2027. Officials said the schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

The park is expected to remain open during construction.

Capt. Ben Fernandes with the LAPD’s Rampart Division said the fence would create a barrier along Alvarado Street and other areas where officers have seen people using narcotics. That would allow police to focus more of their enforcement efforts inside the park, he said.

“So if people are going deeper into the park to use, that’ll make it easier for us to go in and do enforcement on them and arrest them for that use,” Fernandes said. 

MacArthur Park will close every night once an 8-foot-tall fence goes up around the green space, with Los Angeles police officers sweeping the park for encampments and people sleeping there before the gates shut. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved the plan Thursday.

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LA Recreation and Parks

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“I’ve been an officer for 29 years, and I’ve always known I can go buy drugs there, and I did as a narcotics officer. So what I’m saying is, we are trying to make it not convenient,” he added. 

Fernandes also said the city plans to enhance the park’s existing camera network. LAPD officers and Los Angeles Park Rangers will be able to monitor the cameras from their respective stations, he said. City officials are still evaluating whether additional cameras will be needed to address blind spots in the park after construction is complete.

Ariana Walker, who visits MacArthur Park every Saturday with a group of friends who pool their own resources to distribute food and hygiene kits, questioned whether the city had shown that the fence would improve safety and how much it would cost to maintain.

“The fence is a $2.3 million fence at the base level,” she said. “And they haven’t given us any indication of how much more it’s going to cost for upkeep, to keep anybody safe. There’s no conclusive evidence that a fence is going to stop crime the way that they’re suggesting.”

The meeting grew tense when John Alle, a local property owner whose family owns the building that houses Langer’s Delicatessen across the street from the park, objected to having his comments read from a written comment card rather than speaking directly to officials. Alle has been a vocal critic of the city’s response to drug activity and public safety concerns around MacArthur Park.

He was allowed to comment during the meeting and said the city needs to take a tougher approach to drug use and sales around the park. 

“We see knife attacks at all hours of the day. It’s out of control. And it’s not gotten any better,” he said. “We want to bring it back to where it was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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Alle pointed to public events at the park, including an upcoming Día de los Muertos celebration and a Labor Day weekend picnic hosted by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman as positive developments for the space. But he added those events do not reflect conditions throughout the park.

Officials also outlined other planned improvements, including restoring access through the tunnels connecting the park’s north and south sides, making accessibility upgrades and providing free Wi-Fi for parkgoers. 

Residents who want to provide input on the fence’s decorative elements can email admin@themorcosgroup.com or call 310-479-4727 for more information.

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