Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

CAPRON, HORACE • 61
verse population and economy. Many people soon realized that California’s
land, particularly the Central Valley, is superb for many kinds
of agriculture. Beginning in the 1920s, the motion picture industry in
Hollywood and Southern California added another dimension to the
state’s diversity, as did the shipbuilding and military bases that
sprang into existence during World War II. High-tech and computerrelated
industries inland from the Bay Area (“Silicon Valley”) have
attracted people and capital since the 1950s. California is the most
populous of the 50 states, and is the third largest in area (Alaska and
Texas are larger).
Yet, California has also been a center of racial controversy and
source of discriminatory, race-based laws, such as the Chinese Exclusion
Act of 1882, segregation of Asian schoolchildren in San
Francisco in 1906, Alien Land Laws of the 1910s, the Oriental Exclusion
Act of 1924, and the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II. The largest of the internment camps (formally
known as War Relocation Camps) was located at Manzanar,
California.
Despite the discrimination faced by Japanese from the 19th century
to the end of World War II, more Japanese and Japanese Americans
live in California than any other state, and more Japanese students
attend colleges in California than any other state as well. In
addition to Japanese American businesses and farms throughout the
state, Japanese-owned corporations are a significant portion of California’s
economy.
CAPRON, HORACE (1804–1885). Horace Capron led a cavalry unit
during the American Civil War, and later served as a special representative
of the president for Indian Affairs. A specialist in cotton
mills and agricultural technology, Capron became commissioner of
agriculture of the United States in 1867. He resigned this cabinetlevel
position in 1871 to lead a team of Americans and Japanese employed
by the Japanese government to work with the Hokkaido Colonization
Bureau (Kaitakushi) to improve the agricultural and
economic development of Japan’s large northern island. Capron was
one of the highest-profile “foreign experts” ( yatoi) in Japan during
the early Meiji Era. He returned to Washington, D.C., in 1875, where
he continued to advocate Japan’s interests until his death in 1885.