The Upper Fraser Valley was the heart of the berry industry in which the Japanese grew a range of crops and raised poultry. Strawberries became the domain of the Japanese. The shorter, more agile Japanese accustomed to stoop labouring in rice paddies, weeded, hoed and picked the fruit with relative ease.

The Japanese farmers' cooperative or the NOKAI was established for cost saving economies, in the joint renting of equipment, purchasing and marketing. The NOKAI was also a benevolent society catering to the members' needs, their social lives, their children's Japanese education and lending comfort and aid in times of crisis or tragedy.

Credit: Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Archives