By MARY UYEMATSU KAO

Saturday, Dec. 9, was the opening reception for a new exhibit in the Boddy House library at Descanso Gardens. It is part of a larger exhibit on its gardens.  

Emi Yoshimura, former director of education at Descanso, invited the participation of Mary Ishihara Swanton of San Gabriel Nursery and myself, granddaughter of Star Nurseries’ F.M. Uyematsu, to contribute stories of our grandfathers’ nursery businesses and their sale of camellias to E. Manchester Boddy. 

Boddy was quick to scoop up Uyematsu and Yoshimura camellias just days after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, mandating the removal of all Japanese from the West Coast. 

One of the opening panels for the exhibit reads:

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At Descanso Gardens the history of how E. Manchester Boddy acquired the garden’s famed camellia collections was told something like this: Boddy acquired the plants from local Japanese growers before the families were sent to incarceration camps during World War II.  He paid ‘a fair price’ for their collections.  

Research, documents, and interviews have found that the Uyematsu and Yoshimura families were forced to sell their plants at a fraction of their value due to their imminent incarceration. Boddy also acquired numerous rare and unique camellia cultivars whose development should have been credited to F.M. Uyematsu but were not.

Descanso Gardens is seeking to better reflect the complexity of the origins of its camellia collection, and to acknowledge the contributions of Japanese-American flower growers F.M. Uyematsu of Star Nurseries and Fred and Mitoko Yoshimura of Mission Nursery.

Some stories of these two families are found in this exhibit. In addition, the Descanso horticulture team has started marking various camellias developed by F.M. Uyematsu with red plant labels so the presence of his plants in the landscape is more visible. This is all part of Descanso’s ongoing exploration into the history of the camellia forest.

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This huge step forward in correcting the historical record can be credited to Professor Wendy Cheng, chair of the American Studies Department at Scripps College. Cheng researched and published her article “Landscapes of Beauty and Plunder: Japanese American Flower Growers and an Elite Public Garden in Los Angeles” in Society and Space,March 2020.

Presenting her findings to the Descanso Board of Directors, Professor Cheng planted the seeds for this exhibit as her article seriously challenges the “fair price” narrative. For AAPI History Month in 2021, Bob DeCastro of Fox News interviewed Professor Cheng at Descanso Gardens, along with Mary Swanton, Mia Suh (great-granddaughter of F.M.) and myself. (www.foxla.com/news/descanso-gardens-honors-japanese-americans-during-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-heritage-month)

Part of the Uyematsu exhibit is a five-minute version of the documentary “Grandpa Cherry Blossom” by Maddox Chen.  Maddox was inspired by the “Camellia King” monument just outside his classroom at Mira Costa High School (MCHS). Former MCHS teacher and alum Chuck Currier created a local movement to get this monument dedicated in 2021 because the last piece of Uyematsu’s Manhattan Beach estate is where MCHS now sits.

Maddox’s film was entered in many film festivals around the country at the behest of his summer school USC film instructor. Two special screenings were held in the Manhattan Beach area this year to sold-out audiences. Chen was runner-up for best student documentary short at the March on Washington Film Festival, and “Grandpa Cherry Blossom” was featured with the “best films of the festival” at the All-American High School Film Festival in New York City. 

Maddox emailed the news, saying, “It was a great opportunity to show the film to New Yorkers in the Times Square AMC[!]” It is now available for viewing on YouTube:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK7jnNZbT3I

One more news item posthumously recognizes the Camellia King’s impact on Manhattan Beach, home of his 120-acre estate where he was growing camellias and cherry trees. The MB Newscarried a story on Oct. 4, 2023 announcing Manhattan Beach now has two official flowers:

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. . .  [T]he camellia had actually been the official flower of Manhattan Beach from 1959 until 2011. But in 2011, at the urging of the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden, the city changed its official flower to the beach primrose because it is a native flower known for its drought tolerance and uniqueness to the beach.

Councilmember Amy Howorth, who introduced the resolution, said that the motion would be a way to recognize the importance of the camellia to the history of Manhattan Beach and Uyematsu’s contributions to the field of horticulture. 

“I think that the importance of this is maybe not what happened to the Uyematsu family [in World War II], but the fact that Mr. Uyematsu was a pioneer, an innovator, and a successful horticulturist who we should be proud of,” said Howorth. Having two official city flowers, she said, would be a way for the city to say “We honor the past and look forward to the future.”

Mayor Richard Montgomery abstained from voting on the resolution out of frustration that there were more comments and discussion on this than the city budget. Despite some opposing views, the final vote was 4-0-1 in favor to: “keep the beach primrose as the ‘official native wildflower,’ while the camellia would be designated the ‘official historic flower and shrub’ of Manhattan Beach.” (www.thembnews.com/2023/10/04/467985/manhattan-beach-now-has-two-official-flowers)

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F.M. Uyematsu — aka Camellia King aka Grandpa Cherry Blossom — passed 45 years ago. With the work of Professor Wendy Cheng and Chuck Currier, his story continues to serve as a reminder of how war impacts the humanitarian rights of the innocents. As Article 9 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” (www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights)

Wishing you all a safe and heartwarming New Year of the Wood Dragon in 2024! 

Peace on Earth, Good Will to ALL!

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Mary Uyematsu Kao is the author/photographer of “Rockin’ the Boat: Flashbacks of the 1970s Asian Movement” and former publications coordinator for the UCLA Asian American Studies Press. She can be reached for comments and feedback at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.

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