Most Japanese immigrants to the United States settled on the West Coast and worked in agriculture. They excelled in the cultivation of marginal lands and became successful farmers, fruit growers, fishermen, and small businessmen. The Japanese community's ability to overcome great hardships and succeed made them targets of envy and prejudice by many white Americans. Anti-Japanese sentiment grew throughout communities in the West, particularly in California.

In rural areas as in the cities, Issei and Nisei farmers tended to concentrate in ethnic communities. Florin, near Sacramento, was a farm community with many Japanese Americans. Most residents of the area were small truck farmers who grew fruits and vegetables.

Mary Tsukamoto: Nisei in Florin (oral history transcript)

Although Japanese Americans controlled less than 4 percent of the total farmland in California before 1940, they produced 10 percent of the total value of the state's farm crops as early as 1920.