Did it take courage to do what Bob Fletcher did?
Fletcher was a California resident who died this June at the age of 101. The New York Times reports how he helped Japanese neighbors after the U.S. began interning Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast, a shameful policy adopted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. (Some Germans and Italians were also interned during World War Two, but not on the same scale.)
In 1942, Al Tsukamoto asked Fletcher to run the grape farms of two family friends during their internment, in exchange for the profits. He agreed to manage those farms and Tsukamoto’s as well, working the total 90 acres for three years. He kept only half the profits.
“He saved us,” says Doris Taketa, who was 12 when Fletcher agreed to take care of her family’s farm.
Many other interned Japanese Americans lost their property.
Some Florin, California residents were upset with Fletcher for helping the Japanese. Even before the war, they had resented Japanese success.
In 2010, Fletcher recalled that he “did know a few [of my Japanese neighbors] pretty well and never did agree with the evacuation. They were the same as anybody else. It was obvious they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor.”
Fletcher downplayed his virtue in saving the livelihoods of his Japanese neighbors despite the hostility of other neighbors. “I don’t know about courage. It took a devil of a lot of work.”
Yes, he worked the farms, kept paying the taxes, and made money, too. I call that the happiest of possible outcomes: doing well by doing good; saving his neighbors at a profit.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.