Chrysanthemums and Salt (film)

Documentary film by Dianne Fukami on the Japanese American community in San Mateo, California, from its late 1800s origins to the outbreak of World War II. As hinted at by the film's title, Chrysanthemums and Salt largely focuses on two of the major industries that employed Japanese Americans before the war, growing and marketing chrysanthemums and salt companies that took advantage of the region's natural suitability for salt evaporation ponds. The film also covers Japanese American community life, the role of the churches and the outbreak of World War II and the reaction to the subsequent forced removal. Chrysanthemums and Salt is notable for including interviews with several Issei , conducted in Japanese with translated voiceovers. "Host" Jane Yanehiro narrates the film and also appears on camera.

Chrysanthemums and Salt was produced by KCSM-TV and the San Mateo Community College District in cooperation with the San Mateo JACL History Project with funding from Chevron, the Ray and Peggy Daba Fund and the Bay Meadows Foundation.

Might also like Blossoms and Thorns: A Community Uprooted (2012); Crossroads: Boyle Heights (2002); We Came to Grow: Japanese Americans in the Central Valley 1869-1941 (1999)