Yamato Colony
Yamato Colony
The Pioneers Who Brought Japan to Florida
Florida Historical Society Harry T. And Harriette V. Moore Award
Opening a window onto the little-known Japanese-American heritage of Florida, Yamato Colony is the true tale of a daring immigrant venture that left behind an important legacy. Ryusuke Kawai tells how a Japanese farming settlement came to be in south Florida, far from other Japanese communities in the United States.
Kawai’s captivating story takes readers back to the early twentieth century, a time when Japanese citizens were beginning to look to possibilities for individual wealth and success overseas. Poor, unlucky in love, and dreaming of returning rich to marry his sweetheart, a young man named Sukeji Morikami boarded a passenger steamer at the port of Yokohama and set off to make his fortune.
Morikami was drawn by promises from his compatriot Jo Sakai, founder of an agricultural community called Yamato between Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida. Sakai extolled the prospects of raising pineapples and other crops amid the state’s economic boom and exciting developments like Flagler’s East Coast Railway. This book follows the experiences of Morikami and his fellow Yamato settlers through World War II, when the struggling colony closed for good. Morikami held on to his hopes for Yamato until the end, when at last, the lone survivor, he donated the land that would become the widely visited Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.
Celebrating the lives of ordinary men and women who left their homes and traveled an enormous distance to settle and raise their families in Florida, this book brings to light a unique moment in the state’s history that few people know about today.
Provide[s] a new narrative of the Japanese immigrant, one that has not been told before this. . . . Much to be admired.’—Shukan New York Seikatsu‘A rare find, this book delivers what it promises as nonfiction that explains the history of Japanese emigration to America and other countries in a manner that is easily understood.’—Discover Nikkei
‘Yamato Colony is the unique, compassionate story of the quixotic attempt to plant a Japanese farming community in the wilds of early-twentieth-century Florida. The story is often overlooked while assessing the broad cultural mix involved in the development of Southeast Florida in that era. This work will help eliminate that gap.’—Paul S. George, author of Along the Miami River
Ryusuke Kawai is a journalist based in Japan. He is the author of several books and translator of a Japanese-language edition of John Okada’s No-No Boy. John Gregersen is former senior curator and cultural director at the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida. Reiko Nishioka is former director of education at the Morikami Museum.
CONTENTS Prologue: Yamato Road ix 1. Going to America with a Broken Heart 1 2. Plans for Japanese Immigration and the Development of Florida 19 3. The Founding of Florida’s Yamato Colony 41 4. The Japanese of Florida 73 5. A Fresh Start 91 6. The Florida Real Estate Boom and Its Collapse 98 7. The Demise of the Colony 113 8. Homesick 122 9. A Desire to Leave His Name on the Land 131 10. Planting Trees at the Age of Eighty 148 Epilogue: Ukyō Ward, Kyōto 169 Postscript 173 Bibliography 183 Index 187
