Former camp 3 prisoner turns 100

Ed Nagata, Poston  305-13-H

 Ed and his work mule 1945

Edward H. Nagata was the eldest of 10 children and grew up near Dinuba, California. He graduated Dinuba High School in 1934. He won 2nd-place and received a Silver Medal at a Tulare County long jump track meet. He was a pitcher for organized baseball with other young Japanese American nisei in the Central Valley. 
   Nagata purchased a 40-acre farm in Kingsburg and, in 1941, he married Miss Lily Abe. He raised and harvested watermelons, Thompson raisin grapes, plums, nectarines and peaches.

     World War II interrupted his farming life in Kingsburg. In August 1942, he was forced to leave behind his farm and unharvested crops. They were put on a train with armed guards to Parker, Arizona. He and his wife were incarcerated at the Poston, Arizona concentration camp 3. In early spring 1943, he and his pregnant wife were released to travel to Idaho, where he worked at a livestock slaughter house. His eldest son, Ron, was born there. Later, they moved to eastern Oregon to raise onions, potatoes, sugar beets and cabbage. After the war ended, he and his family returned to his Kingsburg farm.

Ed harvesting plums. Summer 1945

 
     For the next 60 years, Nagata harvested his vineyards and orchards as his major source of income. For a few years, Nagata ventured into raising cantaloupes and cotton. His agribusiness extended to mechanical picking of cotton fields within the Kings River Community and expanded to 60 acres, as the Nagata Ranch of grapes and fruit trees.

 Mr. & Mrs. Ed Nagata and son, Ron, back home in Kingsburg. 1945

Pictured are his wife's parents, Mr. & Mrs. K. Abe and their son, Franklin.