By his side stood a wisp of a girl. straightbacked and vibrant. Her eyes eagerly followed his outstretched arm and she heard him say. with hope in his voice and a dream in his eyes. "This will be our home." It was the summer of 1912 in the State of Utah. This young couple belonged to the latest group of Immigrants to come to America from faroff Japan. He was one of several thousand immigrants from Japan who did not settle in the fertile. productive valleys on the west coast but sought the challenges of the more vigorous climate of the Rocky Mountains. Many of his associates went off to work in the coal mines of Price and Helper. while others sought employment in the copper mines in Bingham Canyon. Some of his friends became railroad men maintaining the vast network of Union Pacific tracks that the Chinese and Irish immigrants had built in the previous century. Some of the more enterprising immigrants became small shopkeepers. rooming house operators. and diverse small businessmen in Salt Lake City and Ogden. A goodly number of the Japanese settlers turned to the land and wrested a meager living by growing crops on the reluctant alkaline soil of Utah and in the process they were instrumental in making the desert bloom. They all came with high hopes of attaining success in a new land.
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immigrants Immigrants