How to Be Remembered

Bob Fletcher, age 101, passed away a few days ago.    This is why Bob Fletcher is important;  this is why Bob Fletcher is remembered.

In 1942, when Japanese internment camps became a reality, a Mr. Tsukamoto approached Mr. Fletcher with a proposal.    Would he be willing to  manage the farms of two family friends of Mr. Tsukamato  and pay the taxes and mortgage while they were interned?   In turn, Mr. Fletcher was promised the profits from the farms.

Mr. Fletcher's agreement to work multiple farms, enabling Japanese families to keep their land, was not well received in his hometown of  Florin, California.   Residents resented the Japanese immigrants for their success;  moreover, Japanese children were required to attend segregated schools.    Mr. Fletcher, according to the New York Times, was unruffled.  He felt the Japanese farmers were being mistreated.

So Mr. Fletcher worked 18 hours a day, saving three farms for families who decades earlier were immigrants and in the current day were mistrusted and segregated.     He paid the taxes and mortgages, and instead of taking all of the profits as was offered, he only took half.

Why?   "I did know a few of them (Japanese families) 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."

Upon their return. Mr. Fletcher's new wife cleaned the Tsukamoto's house; and when merchants were unwilling to sell supplies to the Tsukamotos. . .Mr. Fletcher purchased the supplies for them.

Did he believe in community?    Is Mr. Fletcher a hero?  Yes and yes.   Decades later, upon his death, he is remembered for this.   Did he do it because that's how he wanted to be remembered?

He did it because it was the right thing to do.

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This information from this article was referenced from the New York Times and the Sacramento Bee.

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