This family created an apple ‘paradise’ in the shadow of Mount Hood

This story was produced in partnership by OPB’s “Oregon Experience” and “Superabundant” series.

If you ask Randy Kiyokawa what it takes to grow the perfect apple, he’ll tell you the three ingredients. “You have to have the right soil, the right weather and a lot of luck.”

Kiyokawa should know. His orchard in Parkdale, just south of Hood River, Oregon was once named “best apple orchard in America” by USA Today.

Each fall, visitors flock to the large fruit stand and u-pick area at Kiyokawa Family Orchards for its 125 varieties of apples—plus a cornucopia of pears, cherries, peaches, plums, pluots (a plum-apricot hybrid), pluerries (plum-cherry hybrid) and grapes.

But it’s the apples that are Kiyokawas' signature fruit. “Everything the taste buds can go and imagine,” Kiyokawa says.

The youngest of five kids, Randy manages the orchard while sisters Connie, Nancy, Margie and Becky travel back to Parkdale to help during the busy fall harvest season.

Family matriarch Michiko, or “Mich” as she prefers, turned 101 in 2024 and still lives on the family property. She walks two miles every day while listening to Elvis songs and can’t get enough chocolate. “I am stubborn,” she joked with daughter Connie. “That’s what everyone tells me.”

That stubbornness might in fact be the Kiyokawas’ fourth success ingredient.

Theirs is one of the few remaining Japanese American-owned orchards in the Hood River Valley — a rare multigenerational enterprise that survived the forced relocation of Japanese communities into concentration camps during World War Two; and persisted in returning to work the land.

“After the war, less than 40% of Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) and Nisei (second generation) returned to Hood River,” said Linda Tamura, who has written two books about the Hood River Valley’s Japanese Americans and is herself a third generation Sansei with family ties to the valley.

“Hood River apples have really symbolized the highs and the lows of my hometown.”

Japanese immigration to the Hood River Valley

The Kiyokawa family has been farming the area since 1911. Back then, Randy’s grandfather Riichi followed a wave of immigration from Japan to the Hood River Valley — first landing in Hawaii, then California and making his way up the West Coast working on railroad lines.

Eventually, his work brought him to the upper Hood River Valley, where he was able to acquire a 5-acre plot of land and begin planting fruit trees.

“Hood River had a reputation for the quality of its apples from the late 1890s and early 1900s,” said Tamura. “Actually, during 1890 and 1905, Hood River won international recognition for the quality of its apples at world events.”

By 1910, the Hood River Valley had Oregon’s largest population of Japanese Americans outside of Portland and, by 1940, were also producing 25% of Hood River’s fruit.

‘They would need to leave their homes’

But everything changed on December 7, 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066.

“That maintained that Issei, and it later turned out Nisei citizens as well would be removed from their homes and sent to concentration camps on American soil,” Tamura said.

The shockwave soon reached the Hood River Valley. “Eventually, they understood that they would need to leave their homes.”

Many Japanese Hood River farming families scrambled to make agreements with neighbors, friends and whoever they could to care for their land.

Some, like Randy Kiyokawa’s grandparents, turned to other property owners. “My grandfather was fortunate enough to lease his land to the Stadelman family,” who owned tracts of land and fruit businesses in the area.

“Eventually, Japanese citizens were actually offering their property for sale because they didn’t believe they’d be able to come back,” Tamura said. “There was just so much fear.”

Found love during incarceration

Michiko Kiyokawa, née Jinguji, was a teenager living in Tacoma, Washington at the start of the war. She and her family were eventually sent to the notorious Tule Lake concentration camp in Northern California.

“Tule Lake was a dry lake bed and it was unconscionably hot (and) dry,” said Linda Tamura. “They just weren’t prepared. Each room had a stove, army cots with thin mattresses, a single light bulb and the family lived there together. Life was just hard.”

But when reflecting on her memories from Tule Lake, one in particular stands out for Mich Kiyokawa. “That’s where I met my future husband,” she said.

“He was a ‘G-man’—garbage man. They would drive around and we had Hood River people on our block, and that’s how I met him.”

Mamoru “Mam” Kiyokawa had grown up on his family’s orchard in Dee, just north of Parkdale. Mich and Mam married in 1945 while Mam was serving with the U.S. Military Intelligence Service, and eventually returned to the Hood River Valley.

“His family had an orchard and he bought a place in Parkdale,” Mich remembers. “Because I’m from Tacoma, I think the first thing I realized was, that’s the first time I was smelling dirt.”

Randy Kiyokawa also remembers that his grandparents, and many others who had lived through World War Two incarceration, didn’t speak openly about their experience even to family members. “When my grandfather came back, there was nothing written, nothing too much said. But they came back, continued farming.”

“That was part of the gaman, I think,” said author Linda Tamura. “The perseverance that Issei learned to demonstrate.”

Mich and Mam raised five children and worked the land at the base of Mount Hood until 1987. When Mam’s health took a downward turn, Randy returned to take over the operation of the orchard.

“Even going through high school and even college, I, in the back of my mind, knew that I’d be coming back to the farm,” he said.

‘It’s paradise’

Randy’s sister, Connie Kiriu, admires Randy’s leadership of the family business. “My dad was a traditional orchardist and you can count how many apple and pear varieties they had on one or two hands,” Kiriu said. “Randy had taken over the farm and has just pushed the envelope on all kinds of things.”

One of Randy Kiyokawa’s ideas was selling all of his apples direct-to-consumer. Each fall, visitors travel in droves to the large farm stand and u-pick area not just to fill up fruit boxes but also to enjoy a lineup of events like the Honeycrisp Harvest Festival and apple tasting.

Additionally, Kiyokawa fruit can be found at many of the Portland Metro area’s farmers markets.

“We get to have direct contact with people,” Randy Kiyokawa said. “It’s fun to hear people say, ‘Oh, this apple is so good, you got to try this.’”

For Japanese Americans with memories of connection to the land, the feelings associated with harvest time transcend any single season. Author Linda Tamura, whose family was also rooted in the Hood River Valley, equates the fall apple bounty with the joy of cultural continuity.

“When I go into Kiyokawa Orchards and see the fruit and the busy people, there’s some pride that I have in recognizing what they’ve done,” said Tamura.

“To bring back memories of my grandparents and my parents, my sisters and my cousins, all working together on the farm. There’s a real joy and power in knowing that this is continuing.”

For Connie Kiriu, her feelings can be described simply as gratitude for generations past.

“I’m grateful to my parents and my grandparents on both sides for having the courage of crossing the ocean and setting up a place that we can live,” said Kiriu. “It’s such a beautiful place. My mom says it’s paradise, and it is.”

Visiting Kiyokawa Family Orchards

5625 Hutson Rd. Parkdale, OR 97041

2025 Farm Stand & U-Pick Dates

• July 5-Aug. 17: Weekends only 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Aug. 22-Nov. 2: Weekdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m., weekends 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Nov. 3-Nov. 23: Open daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Closed Nov. 24-early July

2025 Fall Festival Calendar

• Sept. 20 & 21: Honeycrisp Harvest Festival
• Oct. 4 & 5: Fiesta Days Celebration
• Oct. 18 & 19: Apple Tasting Event

Seasonal Fruit Availability (varies each year, depending on weather conditions. Check the Kiyokawa website and social media for updated dates)

• Cherries: Starting in early July
• Peaches: Starting in early August
• Pluerries & Pluots: Mid-August
• Apples & Pears: First varieties available in August, with other varieties becoming available through October. Prime time is late September-early October.

Illustration by Sharon Albor / image source: the Kiyokawa family

Learn more about the Japanese American experience in Oregon:

• Oregon’s Japanese Americans: Beyond the Wire full-length documentary film
• Meet Daiichi “Charles” Takeoka: From migrant laborer to civil rights advocate