第二次世界大戦前，ワシントン州における集約的農業の発展は，日本人移民の手によるところが大きかった．日米開戦により日本人農業は崩壊し，戦後再開されるのであるが，本稿は戦前に日本人移民農業の中心地であったシアトル市とタコマ市近傍における集約的農業の展開過程と，戦後日系人により再開された家族農業の特色を，タコマ近郊を事例に考察するものである．1890年代に入植した日本人移民はアメリカ市民権が得られず，土地の取得もできず，アメリカ人農場の農業労働者となるか，あるいは白人が所有する原野の開発を条件に借地小作農民となっていった．その後1921年の外国人土地法制定後，二世子女の名義で土地を取得し自営農民となっていった．シアトル・タコマの都市的発展が日本人農業に対する市場を提供し，野菜や花きの供給者としての地位を確立することになった．さらに輸送園芸農業をも発展させ，これらの蔬菜園芸農業は1930年代に最盛期を迎えたが，1941年の日米開戦と日本人・日系人の強制隔離によって壊滅した．戦後になって日本人・日系人は農業を再開したが，一・二世の高齢化，シアトル市・タコマ市近郊地域の都市化などによって制約され，タコマ市周辺のファイフ市・オーティング村などで野菜作を中心とする都市近郊農業に活路を求めた．その結果1980年代になると，共同出資による出荷組合の設立もあって，レタス，リーフレタスの多期作，多毛作に特化した農業を展開した．

Before World War II, Japanese immigrants played a major role in the development of intensive farming in the state of Washington, but the outbreak of war between Japan and the United States caused Japanese and Japanese Americans to be forcibly relocated to internment camps, resulted in to Japanese agriculture collapsion. After the War, the Japanese and Japanese Americans resumed their farming activities, but they were unable to recover to that pre-war levels. This paper examines the features of the development processes for intensive farming by Japanese immigrants in the main areas around Seattle and Tacoma where such activities were made before the war and where Japanese Americans' family farms resumed in the post-war period. In the 1890s, Japanese immigrants who settled in the lowlands of the Puget Sound Region did not own American citizenship and were unable to purchase land, so they were hired as farm laborers by American farmers. At the same time, Japanese worked as peasant farmers at leased land, on the condition of developing fields for white farm owners. After the enactment of the Alien Land Law in 1921, they purchased land in the name of Nisei and became self-employed farmers. The urban development of Seattle and Tacoma offered markets for Japanese farmers, where they established positions as suppliers of vegetables and flowers until the outbreak of war between Japan and the United States. Until 1920 Japanese farming activities in the Puget Sound lowlands consisted of suburban agriculture: intensive vegetable cultivation in the vicinity of Seattle and Tacoma; strawberry growing on the islands in the Puget Sound while vegetable cultivation could observe flatlands around the White River and the Puyallup River, which stretch from Seattle to Tacoma, to supply markets in the American East and Midwest. In those lowlands the activities also included dairy farming. From 1920 onward, truck farms were established in the farmland watersheds of the White River and Puyallup River which shipped lettuce, cabbage, and peas to markets in the East and Midwest, such as New York and Chicago. They were shipped to the markets by using refrigerated wagons. Japanese agriculture in the Puget Sound lowlands reached its golden age in the 1930s. However, the outbreak of war between Japan and the United States in 1941 forced Japanese and Japanese-Americans to relocate the Minedoka internment camp that lead to destruction of the vegetable horticultural industry which was developed by the Japanese. After the war, Japanese and Japanese Americans resumed farming, but factors such as the aging of the Japanese and further urban development of the outskirts of Seattle and Tacoma meant that farming was done under restrictive conditions. Suburban agriculture, vegetable growing, resumed in the city of Fife and the Orting village near Tacoma by 1946 Year. In the late 1980s, in Pierce County, Japanese-American and Italian-American farmers co-invested to establish a shipping cooperative and developed specialized farms focusing on the production of lettuce, leaf lettuce. These are the characteristics of Japanese and Japanese-American Agriculture in the Puget Sound Region, Washington State.

会長講演