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Yamato Colony
was a farming community in South Florida founded by Japanese immigrant
Jo Sakai in 1905. Yamato was the ancient name for Japan. At the time,
Japanese immigrants were primarily farmers pushed out of their home
country
by industrialization and a lack of land. Most settled on the west coast
of the United States, but a few ventured east. The community, in the
Boca
Raton area, grew pineapples and winter vegetables.
In the early
1900s, there was growing apprehension in the U.S. towards immigration,
including immigration from Japan. While the settlers’ children were
United States citizens, Sakai and his fellow immigrants could not
become naturalized
citizens until the 1950s. By the Second World War, few of the Japanese
settlers remained. In 1942, not long after the Pearl Harbor attack
when
anti-Japanese sentiments were at a peak, the Federal government confiscated
their land –over 6,000 acres - to create an Army Air Corp training
base, ending the Yamato colony.
Situated
on the site today is Boca Raton’s airport and Florida Atlantic University.
A former Yamato Colony settler, George Morikami, farmed in Delray Beach
until the 1970s. He eventually donated his land, which is today preserved
as the Morikami
Museum and Gardens.
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