Gold Hill's Wakamatsu Colony subject of New Book

Truex's book, "Strong as Silk," was published this month, telling the Wakamatsu story in an unusual combination of fiction and haiku.

The first Japanese settlement in North America was started on Gold Hill near Placerville in the late 1860s. A group of samurai-class men and women – losers in a Japanese civil war – established the colony in rural El Dorado County and tried to produce silk and tea. Whether through bad planning, bad weather or sabotage, the colony had failed after a few years and its inhabitants scattered with hardly a trace.

The site was recently purchased by the American River Conservancy, which plans to establish a historic park there.

Japanese and Japanese Americans still make special trips to Gold Hill outside Placerville and venerate the grave of the one colonist who died and was buried there.

The site was recently purchased by the American River Conservancy, which plans to establish a historic park there.

The colonists left no published writings or diaries.

Based on a few historical clippings and artifacts, Truex worked to imagine how their life had been – coming to a strange place, the enthusiasm for the work, the failure of the project.

The book expresses this in poetry and fictional journal entries by the colonists.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/25/4289656/el-dorados-wakamatsu-colony-sub...