FIELDS OF NIGHTMARES

As a third-generation Japanese American, I find it hard to believe that the Ukegawas could be so insensitive to the plight of their workers (“The Last Days of Rancho de los Diablos,” by Elston Carr, Nov. 27). Didn’t they learn anything from having been incarcerated during World War II?

I also find it odd that Jimmy Ukegawa says workers are being overpaid when they are getting $4.25 an hour. No wonder the Mexicans call them “ los diablos .”

Meg Shimatsu

Los Angeles

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Carr’s article offers a classic demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man, even countryman to countryman, where money is involved. It also shows why the agriculture business, along with the garment industry, employs illegal immigrants. They work harder, for less, and keep quiet.

I wonder, however, why those workers keep doing what they do if they barely break even and cannot send money home. How do their wives and children survive? If they had been unemployed or underemployed in their homelands, at least they would be with their wives and children.

Sol H. Marshall

Van Nuys