The '''Yamato Colony''' was an attempt to create a community of Japanese farmers in South Florida early in the 20th Century. With encouragement from Florida authorities, people from Miyazu, Japan, mostly young men, were recruited to settle in what is now Boca_Raton,_Florida. The colony never grew very large, and many of the settlers returned to Japan or moved elsewhere in the United States. The remnants of the colony were dispossessed after the entry of the United States into World_War_II, when their land was taken to create an Army_Air_Corps training base (now the site of Florida_Atlantic_University and the Boca_Raton_Airport). The only member of the Yamato Colony to stay in the area was George Morikami, who continued to farm in Delray_Beach,_Florida until the 1970s, when he donated his farmland to Palm_Beach_County to preserve it as a park, and to honor the memory of the Yamato Colony. The Yamato Colony is remembered today in Yamato Road, a major street in Boca Raton, and in Morikami_Park and the Morikami_Museum_and_Japanese_Gardens. Delray Beach is a Sister_City with Miyazu, in honor of George Morikami and the Yamato Colony. == References == *History of Yamato Colony on the Morikami Museum web site URL retrieved April_5 2006 ==External links== *Photo exhibit of the Yamato Colony, presented by the State Archives of Florida Category:Ghost_towns_in_Florida Category:History_of_Florida Category:Japanese_diaspora