"Yankees of the Orient": Yamato and Japanese immigration to America

The social, economic, and political changes created by the Meiji Restoration triggered Japanese emigration. Economically distressed farmers, planning on staying in America a short time, accounted for most of the Japanese on the Pacific Coast. Most history of Japanese immigration to America focuses on the Pacific states and their anti-Japanese stance. Florida's Japanese colony, Yamato, however, presents a different perspective of the Japanese immigrant experience in two ways. Instead of farmers, Yamato's first settlers included college-educated, ex-samurai men who came to America with every intention of staying. These men shared a common vision based on the unique Christian education that they had received at Kyoto's Doshisha College. At odds with the political conservatism Japan adopted in the mid-1890s, these young men hoped to build new lives in America. Secondly, in the beginning, Florida, a newly developing state, warmly welcomed and supported the establishment of Japanese colonies in the state.