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Yamato Colony

Yamato Colony - Japanese Heritage

"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" (Florida Memory).


*Japanese colony - Yamato, Florida.*	*Jo and Sada Sakai of Yamato.*	*Railway depot of the Florida East Coast Railway - Yamato, Florida.*
*1912 (circa)*	*1910 (circa)*	*1909 (circa)*
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*Tamotsu (Tom) Kobayashi in army uniform - Yamato, Florida.*	*Last home of H.T. Kamiya - Yamato, Florida.*	*Kobayashi family portrait.*
*1950 (circa)*	*1939*	*1926 (circa)*
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*Last class at Yamato schoolhouse.*	*Marjorie Smith and Masa Kamiya - Yamato, Florida.*	*Kobayashi family having Sunday dinner - Yamato, Florida.*
*1921 (circa)*	*1921 (circa)*	*1920 (circa)*
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*Rokuo Kamiya holding a box camera- Yamato, Florida.*	*Four boys from Yamato, Florida.*	*Kazuo and Masuko Kamiya as children - Yamato, Florida.*
*1920 (circa)*	*1920 (circa)*	*1920 (circa)*
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*Kobayashi farm buildings - Yamato, Florida.*	*Three boys from Yamato, Florida.*	*Sakai children from Yamato, Florida.*
*1920*	*1920 (circa)*	*1918 (circa)*
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*Crated tomatoes and a banana wind break at the Kobayashi farm in Yamato.*	*Four children from Yamato, Florida.*	*George Morikami's mule - Yamato, Florida.*
*1917*	*1917 (circa)*	*1915*
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*View of Amanohashidate (Bridge of Heaven) - Miyazu, Japan - Home of J. Sakai, G. Morikami, and many other Yamato colonists.*	*Henry Tamemasu Kamiya.*	*Masabei Morikami - Yamato, Florida.*
*1915 (circa)*	*1915 (circa)*	*1915 (circa)*
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*Hideo Kobayashi posing in chair - Yamato, Florida.*	*Three Japanese American men posing for a picture – Yamato, FL.*	*Japanese men in horse drawn cart - Yamato, Florida.*
*1914*	*1913*	*1912 (circa)*
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*Yamato farmers at railroad siding - Yamato, Florida.*	*N. Narita in Japanese school uniform - Tokyo, Japan. Thought to have been an early colonist at Yamato.*	*Home of H.T. Kamiya - Yamato, Florida.*
*1911*	*1910*	*1900 (circa)*
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*Japanese American farmer - Yamato, Florida.*	*Edward Minoru Ohi home - Yamato, Florida.*	*Japanese American men sitting by a home - Yamato, Florida.*
*1930 (circa)*	*1910 (circa)*	*1900 (circa)*
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Featured Bio:

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George Morikami

b. 11/04/1886 (Kyoto, Japan) – 2/29/1976 (Delray Beach, FL) (Japanese Heritage)

"In the early 20th century, the Japanese village of Yamato Colony appeared in southern Florida. Morikami Sukeji (George Morikami), who immigrated from Miyazu, Kyoto City as a farmer and pioneer, is the man who laid the foundation for the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, which is now located in Florida. He stayed on after the colony was dissolved and disappeared before the war, and continued farming alone through the war" (Ryusuke Kawai).

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