This is a portrait of Fuji Kishi.


 She was born in 1877 and moved to Texas in 1908 with her husband, Kichimatsu Kishi. They bought a 3,500-acre rice farm in Terry, Texas, located between Beaumont and Orange. Their work on the farm helped change agriculture in the southern United States. It was common to see people of different backgrounds—Cajun, Mexican, African American—working together on the farm. Later, oil was found on their land. Both Fuji and Kichimatsu lived into the 1950s.


During World War II, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kichimatsu was detained by the government and held for two months at Camp Kenedy near San Antonio. However, with the help of influential businessmen in Orange, like the Stark and Sims families, he was released and returned to his community.

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