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DESERT HARVEST by Vanya Oakes

DESERT HARVEST

By

Pub Date: May 11th, 1953
Publisher: Winston

The lives of Japanese immigrants in a new country- farmers in California in the last century- characterized with sympathy and perception. Taro, a boy from Hiroshima, joins his uncle Kato who is still a laborer near Fresno but on the point of buying his own farm in the dry area near Livingston. The problems of Kato, Taro and their community are complex. Taro wants to learn English, but conventional Kato who has seen a lot of American rudeness and hostility, forbids it in favor of the old customs. In a drought, irrigation projects are thwarted by a couple of jealous white troublemakers. Fortunately Taro makes friends with Americans who understand his life, open ways to increased tolerance and through farming aids, help native Japanese ability find expression.