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The Japanese Garden in SF s Golden Gate Park is one of many in Calif. with a tragic history
Alex Schechter
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Woman in kimono and storks in front of tea house in Japanese Tea Garden with Drum Bridge (Called Sori Hashi in 1894) and lantern. Midwinter Fair.OpenSFHistory
In 1894, 25 cents gained you entry to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. A lot has changed since then, but the novelty of these serene, pine-and-rock-filled oases hasn’t worn off.
California’s trove of Japanese gardens is not unique; more than 250 of them are spread over North America. But our connection to the people who built and cared for them is. During World War II, when people of Japanese, Italian and German descent were considered a threat to national security, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The order created concentration camps that turned the lives of 112,000 Japanese Americans, mostly American citizens,