Some 1,300 Japanese citizens left for "a promised land" in the Caribbean almost 50 years ago, encouraged by a government-sponsored emigration program.
In the Dominican Republic, which the government called a "Caribbean Paradise," each family was supposed to receive fertile farmland. What they actually got was parched earth.
"On the way to our settlements near the border with the Republic of Haiti, we were surprised to see cactuses," said Toru Takegama from Kagoshima Prefecture, who went there in 1956 at age 18 with his family.