The Japanese
in the Monterey Bay Region
A Brief History

By Sandy Lydon


The first-ever regional treatment of the Japanese immigrants in the Monterey Bay Region. The book begins with the earliest Japanese immigration into the region in the 1880s, and continues through the 1980s. The book has a unique chapter comparing the immigrant experience of the Japanese and their predecessors in the region, the Chinese. The book also has an extensive appendix that outlines the federal immigration laws affecting not only the Japanese, but all immigrants to the United States.

"A saga of struggle, ingenuity, and survival that reverberates throughout the history of the American West."

James D. Houston and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.
authors of
Farewell to Manzanar

The book also includes several little-known stories, including the December 20, 1941 attach by Japanese submarine I-23 on the oil tanker Agiworld in Monterey Bay. Also, for the first time, the book outlines the bitter racism that greeted the Japanese and Japanese-Americans as they began to return to their homes at the end of World War II. The story of the new Japanese immigrants from Kagoshima who came into the region in the 1950s and developed the cut-flower industry is also illuminated.

The Author

Sandy Lydon is Historian Emeritus at Cabrillo College, Aptos, where he has taught since 1968. The recipient of numerous awards for his teaching, in August 2001 he was awarded the Floyd Younger Award for Teaching Excellence, an honor awarded by the faculty, staff and students of the college. He also received the 2001 Best College Teacher in Santa Cruz County Award, an honor given him in a county-wide ballot by the readers of the Good Times weekly newspaper. Lydon has written extensively on the Japanese in the region, including writing the JACL chapter histories for both the San Benito County Japanese American Citizen's League, and the Watsonville chapter. He is a member of the Watsonville JACL and the recipient of the JACL Creed Award for his work on redress. For more information, visit: SandyLydon.com

Book Title: The Japanese in the Monterey Bay Region: A Brief History
Publication Date: 1997
Length: 164 pages
Illustrated with maps and extensive appendices

Soft Cover
ISBN – 10: 0-932319-05-X
ISBn – 13: 978-0-932319-05-0

List Price: $19.95

Special website price - $15.00 with free shipping