On a more serious note[1], really interesting connection between Japan and the establishment of the rice industry in Texas. We know many of the people or descendants mentioned in this article . They put up with a lot of bad stuff in the 1900’s but aren’t bitter, made a good life for themselves and fight for racial/social justice through JACL.
[1] We were discussing the specific nutritional properties: rice .v. potatoes.
Elder G’s second cousin, Google AI, gave us this overview:
Texas is a major rice-producing state in the United States, ranking fifth nationally. Rice production in Texas supports the economy, provides jobs, and helps feed the world.
Production statistics
In 2023, Texas produced nearly 8,500 pounds of rice per acre
In 2022, Texas produced 1.45 billion pounds of rice
Rice production contributes more than $200 million to the Texas economy
History of rice production
Rice cultivation in Texas was low in the 1800s, but increased significantly in the 1900s
Japanese immigrants played a key role in this increase
Rice production in Texas has been impacted by high input costs, such as fertilizer and diesel
Rice farming in Texas
Rice farming in Texas is important for the environment and wildlife habitat
Texas law gives preference to certain water uses when granting water rights
Rice farmers were strong supporters of building the Highland Lakes and dams in the 1930s
Rice production in Texas began in 1853 in southeast Texas. By 1903, the acres of cultivated rice in Texas was second only to Louisiana and together accounted for 99 percent of rice production in United States. While other states have surpassed Texas in rice production, it remains a significant Texas crop into the foreseeable future.
[…] By the 1880s, commercial rice production spread from southwest Louisiana and into southeast Texas. Transportation infrastructure fostered the growth of modern commercial rice production in Texas, primarily due to the full operation of the southern transcontinental railroad and its acquisition two years later by the Southern Pacific Railroad.
1910“A Japanese rice farm near Houston, Texas” Feb. 14th, 1910Wikipedia
Rice production is the fourth largest among cereals in the United States, after corn, wheat, and sorghum. Of the country’s row crop farms, rice farms are the most capital-intensive and have the highest national land rental rate average.
Rice production was not merely unhealthy but lethal.[…]
[ed. note: it is important to keep alive the tragic reality of slavery in America. It’s history is being censored by malignant forces.]
Inadequate food, housing, and clothing, malaria, yellow fever, venomous snakes, alligators, hard labour, and brutal treatment killed up to a third of Low Country slaves within a year. Not one child in ten lived to age sixteen. However, in the 1770s, a slave could produce rice worth more than six times his or her own market value in a year, so this high death rate was not uneconomical for their owners. Enslavers often stayed away from rice plantations during the summer, so slaves had more autonomy during these months. Rice plantations could produce profits of up to 26 percent per year.
[…] Most plantations were run on the task system, where a slave was given one or more tasks, estimated at ten hours’ hard work, each day. After they had finished the tasks to the overseer’s satisfaction, they could spend the remainder of the day as they chose, often on growing their food, spinning, sewing their clothes, or building their houses (slaves were typically supplied with nails and five yards of cloth per year). The task system, and the unwillingness of free people to live in rice-growing areas, may have led to the greater survival of African culture among the Gullah[2].
[…] Rice cultivation in California in particular started during the California Gold Rush. It was introduced primarily for the consumption of about 40,000 Chinese laborers who were brought as immigrants to the state; only a small area was under rice cultivation to meet this requirement.
However, commercial production began only in 1912 in the town of Richvale in Butte County. Since then, California has cultivated rice in a big way, and as of 2006, its production of rice was the second largest in the United States.
Dating back to the 1800s, rice cultivation was quite low until it witnessed a remarkable surge in the 1900s. What led to this change? The answer lies in the invaluable contributions of Japanese immigrants who greatly influenced Texas rice production.
In the early 1900s, a Tokyo lawyer named Seito Saibara made a significant impact on rice production in Texas. As the youngest and only Christian member of the Japanese parliament, Saibara was invited by the Japanese consul on behalf of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Pacific Railroad to teach rice production techniques to local farmers in Texas. Heeding the call, Saibara arrived in Texas in 1903, determined to make a difference.
Their first crop, harvested in 1904, was grown from seed imported as a gift from the Emperor of Japan. This successful venture allowed Saibara to distribute the high-quality seed to farmers in Texas and Louisiana, fostering the growth of the rice industry in the region
Elder G does a great job of putting this into perspective….
Here’s the heart of the story:
In 1902, at the request of the Methodist Church in the U.S. (and with encouragement from American agricultural officials), Seito Saibara came to Webster, Texas, near Houston, with the goal of improving rice cultivation in the Gulf Coast region. Texas farmers were struggling with the crop, and there was hope that Japanese expertise could improve the yields.
But the story takes a beautiful international turn…
Seeds from the Emperor:
When Saibara made the journey, he brought with him a gift from Emperor Meiji of Japan: a special variety of Japanese rice seeds, selected for their quality and suitability to the Texas climate. It was seen not just as an agricultural exchange, but a gesture of goodwill between Japan and the United States—an early 20th-century bit of soft diplomacy, wrapped in rice grains.
These seeds turned out to be a game-changer. The Japanese variety thrived in the Gulf Coast’s warm, wet environment. Within just a few years, Saibara’s rice yields were far greater than what local farmers had been able to achieve with traditional strains—reportedly over two times more per acre.
The legacy:
Saibara’s success attracted other Japanese families and farmers, creating a small but important Japanese immigrant community in southeast Texas.
His farm helped spark the rise of a rice industry that still exists today in Texas and Louisiana.
His son, Kiyoaki Saibara, continued the work and also became a prominent figure in agriculture and civic life.
There are memorials and historical markers near Houston honoring the Saibara family’s contributions.
Seito Saibara
Seito Saibara (西原 清東, October 11, 1861 – April 11, 1939) was a Japanese parliament member, politician, administrator, colonist, and farmer.
Apart from his missionary activities, he is credited with having first established the rice industry on the Gulf Coast of the United States.
[…] Saibara left Texas with his wife and spent fifteen years in South America, where he established colonies along the Amazon River, before returning to Japan. Ill health caused him to return to Texas in 1937. He died, still a Japanese citizen, in Webster on April 11, 1939, and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery. The rice farm was carried out by Kiyoaki and his sons Robert, Warren, Harvey and Eddie Saibara. Seito Saibara would later be declared one of the 100 Tallest Texans by the Houston Chronicle newspaper.
