Ahhhh, this is a nice relaxing place to spend the day …

In 1904, a Japanese citizen named Jo Sakai graduated from New York University, having studied agriculture. Upon returning to Japan, he began preaching his newly-learned farming techniques, recruited a group of 20 or so Japanese farmers, and moved with them to Florida, where the Henry Flagler railroad company helped them obtain some land in present-day Boca Raton and form a town which they named Yamato. They made their living by farming pineapples.

Sadly, the venture was not very successful, and never grew beyond 30-35 people. During the 1920s land boom in Florida (brought about largely because of Flagler’s railroads), most of the inhabitants of “Yamato” sold their land and left.

When the US entered World War II in 1941, racism against people of Japanese descent was rampant. The US Army confiscated much of the remaining farmers’ land to build a military training base, and by the end of the war only three Japanese-American families still lived in Boca Raton. One of them was George Morikami. After the war, Morikami purchased some of the remaining Yamato land. He lived there, in a trailer, until the 1960s when, as an old man, he tried to donate his land to create a public park. It wasn’t until 1973 that Palm Beach County finally accepted his gift. It became the Morikami Park in 1977.

Today, the park contains a museum which features Japanese art and culture (alas, the museum is currently undergoing renovations and is temporarily closed), and a surrounding botanical garden that is organized into several periods representing the history of Japan.

So join me for a nice relaxing walk around the gardens.

Namu Amida Butsu. 🙂