Koda Family Papers
Collection Number: D-474
Family photograph albums, 16 mm films, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and notebooks The Koda Family is an important Japanese and Japanese-American familythat owned and operated Koda Farms. The business helped to pioneer growing techniques in the rice industry including sowing seed with airplanes. Keisaburo Koda was the founder of the present day Koda Farms. He was born in 1882 in Ogawa, Japan. Due to his success he was widely known amongst Japanese Americans as the "rice king." During World War II the family was placed in Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas and at the end of the war transferred to the Granada Relocation Center in Colorado. This was even though the U.S. government ordered that the business be kept running to produce food and fiber. The company was managed by strangers, until the family was released and able to come back to claim their business. Keisaburo's sons, Edward and William "Bill," took over building the business in the post war years, becoming the first commercial growers of sweet rice marketing Sho-Chiku-Bai Sweet Rice andMochiko Blue Star Brand Sweet Rice Flour. They also developed a unique variety of rice called Kokuho Rose. In 1977 Bill Koda sold his share of the business to his brother Edward and was no longer involved in the Koda Family Farm. Today Koda Farm is operated by Edward Koda's direct descendants. The Koda Family Papers are the papers of Bill Koda and his wife, Jean (Morimoto) Koda.
Finding Aid
Finding Aid on the Online Archive of CaliforniaInclusive Dates
1930-1970.
Extent
5 linear feet