Hatano Farms – The Flower of the Peninsula
Doug Hatano recalls growing flowers with his father, James, who leased land on the Peninsula after spending three years at the WWII Poston Relocation Center in Arizona by Elka Worner As Doug Hatano walks the weed-covered fields that were once his father’s farm, he thinks of the rich legacy left by his father, and generations of other Japanese American farmers, whose fields of vegetables and flowers once graced the Peninsula. His family’s five acres were the last of a once-thriving Japanese American agricultural community, which has all but disappeared. In the 1940s about 200 Japanese American families tended some 2,000 acres on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. “Our neighbors grew barley, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, but we grew flowers: chrysanthemums, baby’s breath, delphinium,” 67-year-old Doug Hatano said. “We grew a lot of the flowers for the Rose Parade.” Hatano Farm was one of the last continuously operating farms in the region, dating back to the 1950s when Doug’s father, James Hatano, planted the first seeds on a slope overlooking the Pacific Ocean. James turned coastal land into fertile fields that provided a living for his family and an economic boost for the region. To honor…
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