I have known the Japanese and worked among them for many years and have the greatest respect and admiration for them as individuals and as a nationality group. And I am proud to have been able to cooperate with the JACL ever since I came to Congress in 1945 in securing legislation which would. in a small way. make up for the many discriminations and prejudices which they suffered over the years. As the gentleman from Hawaii has stated. the first immigrants from Japan were to Hawaii. Thereafter. they moved eastward through the Golden Gate and on to the continental mainland of the United States. This afternoon. my remarks will have to do with the early history of the Japanese in northern California. since this is the area in which they first settled in any numbers. In the first year of the Meiji Restoration. 1868. 153 Japanese arrived in Hawaii as laborers. the first group to emigrate out of Japan after 300 years of the nations selfimposed isolation. Then for 17 more years. there were no further immigrants from Japan. In 1869. John Henry Schnell brought some 20 Japanese political refugees from Aizu Wakamatsu to El Dorado County. In Gold Hill. Schnell purchased 600 acres to farm mulberry bushes for silk worms. bamboo shoots for food and craft. tea. grapes and other plants from Japan.
Keywords matched
emigrate immigrants refugees