Nobu and Masako Matsumoto came to the U.S. in February, 1922. He was 18 years old and she was 17; both from Tottori, Japan. They were farmers in Fountain Valley and Garden Grove, California. During WWII, the Matsumoto family was incarcerated in the Santa Anita Assembly Center and the Poston Camp in Arizona. From 1922 to 1932 they had five sons; Key, Tak, Terry, Hiroshi, and Fred or “Freddy;” during the Korean War he served in the U.S. Army, 3rd Infantry Division, from 1952-54; he became squad leader of a mortar platoon and returned as a decorated sergeant.
Soon after, brothers Fred, Terry and Hiroshi began farming in Niland, California, near the Salton Sea. In 1959 they built a packing facility, North Shore Produce, Inc., with specialized equipment for handling cherry tomatoes. Fred, a talented inventor, developed and improved machinery to chill, wash, color-sort, dry, wax, and convey the fruit in baskets. A grower’s son who worked with the brothers recalled one of Fred’s inventions: “a planter with seed hoppers capable of planting four rows of tomato seeds from the back of a tractor plow attachment! ….Another ingenious idea was to use airplane propellers to blow away the frosty winter morning temperatures in the desert, thus helping the tomato plants survive the frigid cold.” The three brothers helped popularize the cherry tomato through growing and shipping their “Mr. Tomato” brand, until bad weather and a voracious pest ended their operations in 1965.
Fred returned to work with his parents and brothers Key and Hiroshi, running the Exotica plant nursery in Fountain Valley. Fred continued to create and refine machinery and devise equipment to remove large trees from the ground for transplanting. He became adept at the trimming technique need for cultivating black pines and Hollywood junipers, trees for which he was best known. He helped specialize in niwaki (garden trees). After his parents passed, the nursery became Fred’s. The family continued to gather there and enjoy his delicious persimmons, avocados, and sweet grapefruit. The nursery ran from the mid-60s until recently.
Condensed from Rafu Shimpo Newspaper and Eileen Aiko Matsumoto
1920s Nobu and Masako Matsumoto
1930s Fred, Hiroshi, Terry, Tak and Key
1953 Masako and Nobu in Fountain Valley
1987 Matsumoto family
2000 Thanksgiving get-together
Brothers produced and shipped Mr. Tomato
Fountain Valley home with black pines
Hiroshi and Fred with machine he developed