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Title: Koda Family Papers
Dates: 1930-1970
Collection Number: D-474
Creator/Collector:
Koda Family.
Extent: 5 linear feet
Repository:
UC Davis. Special Collections
Davis, California 95616-5292
Abstract: Family photograph albums, 16 millimeter films, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and notebooks.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission
to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to
include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
Koda Family Papers. UC Davis. Special Collections
Biography/Administrative History
The Koda Family is an important Japanese and Japanese-American family that owned and operated Koda Farms. The business helped
to pioneer growing techniques in the rice industry including sowing seed with airplanes. Keisaburo Koda was the founder of
the present day Koda Farms. He was born in 1882 in Ogawa, Japan. Due to his success he was widely known amongst Japanese Americans
as the "rice king." During World War II the family was placed in Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas and at the end of the
war transferred to the Granada Relocation Center in Colorado. This was even though the U.S. government ordered that the business
be kept running to produce food and fiber. The company was managed by strangers, until the family was released and able to
come back to claim their business. Keisaburo's sons, Edward and William "Bill," took over building the business in the post
war years, becoming the first commercial growers of sweet rice marketing Sho-Chiku-Bai Sweet Rice and Mochiko Blue Star Brand
Sweet Rice Flour. They also developed a unique variety of rice called Kokuho Rose. In 1977 Bill Koda sold his share of the
business to his brother Edward and was no longer involved in the Koda Family Farm. Today Koda Farm is operated by Edward Koda's
direct descendants. The Koda Family Papers are the papers of Bill Koda and his wife, Jean (Morimoto) Koda.
Scope and Content of Collection
Family photograph albums, 16 millimeter films, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and notebooks.
Japanese Americans -- California.
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
Agriculture.
Rice farming.
Koda Family -- Archives.