FLC El Dorado County Nisei Veterans Scholarship

"Qualifying Major(s): Any Current enrollment status: Full time (12 or more units). If a student is enrolled in DSPS , students qualifies as full time between 6-9 units. Incoming/Transferring/ Continuing: Any Units completed: 0.00 (open to first-time college students) GPA Requirement: 2.00 El Dorado County Nisei World War II Veterans’ Memorial History of Nikkei in El Dorado County El Dorado County has had a long and peculiar history with regards to the Nikkei, Japanese-Americans. Only until recently has El Dorado County begun to embrace its significance in Nikkei history. Historically known for being the birthplace of the California Gold Rush, and thus California as a state, El Dorado County also bears the distinction of being the genesis of Chinese immigration, a result of the Gold Rush, but also of Japanese immigration on the mainland with its acknowledgement of The Wakamatsu Tea Colony of Gold Hill. Mainland Japanese-American history began on May 20, 1869 with the arrival of PMSS China from Yokohama to San Francisco. On board was a contingent of Japanese led by Herr John Henry Schnell set on establishing a colony to grow tea, silk and other Japanese agricultural pursuits. Schnell would purchase a vineyard property belonging to Charles Graner in Gold Hill located in El Dorado County, not far from Coloma where gold was first discovered in California. While the colony only survived a mere 18 months, its place in American history was established by a young Japanese girl named Okei, who died and was buried on the property in 1871. She is considered the first documented Japanese female to be buried on Continental US soil. Wakamatsu colony would also have further the significance as the first Japanese settlement on the Continental US as well as the very first Nisei to be born in its ranks. In May of 1969, on the centennial of the colonists’ arrival, then Governor of California Ronald Reagan designated it as a California Registered Historical Landmark #815. It later wo"