The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm and the Creation of Japanese America By Daniel A. M’traux (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & LIttlefield, 2019, 158 pp., $85, hardcover) There are books that I feel all members of the Japanese American community should have in their personal library: Michi Nishiura Weglyn’s “Years of Infamy: The Untold Story […]
Pilgrimage remembers 150 years after Wakamatsu Colony established
October 10, 2019 by Leave a Comment
PLACERVILLE, Calif. — Along a curved dirt path, sat a historical white farmhouse site surrounded by patches of green grass. The site was the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony farmhouse. Inside, the historic site contained photos and informational graphics about the first Japanese colony in the United States that were on view for the […]
150 years later, Wakamatsu colony comes back to life
July 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment
PLACERVILLE, Calif. — The sun-burnt foothills of Gold Hill outside Placerville came alive June 8 with silk spinners, tea makers, flute players, priests and even a prince from Aizu Wakamatsu. They joined hundreds of history buffs from Japan, California and beyond to celebrate the 150th anniversary of America’s first Japanese outpost, the short-lived but much-revered […]
Japanese Americans throughout Northern California rediscover their roots
October 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment
On Oct. 7, some 160 people throughout Northern California boarded buses from San Francisco, Emeryville, San Jose and Sacramento to make a trek to the site of the former Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, the first sizable settlement of Japanese in America, located in Placerville, Calif. The pilgrimage, led by the Nichi Bei Foundation, […]
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