1869: The First Samurai Settlers Arrive in California

[RJBowman]

I just found out that this existed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakamatsu_Tea_and_Silk_Farm_Colony

A small colony in California, founded by political exile samurai at the time that the Shogunate was losing power.

[E.J.MonCrieff]

They may have been the first, but they were the first of many.

There's an excellent book of photographs taken in an internment camp in California during the second world war

MANZANAR by John ARMOR & Peter WRIGHT (photographs by Ansel ADAMS)