History of the Jews in Japan the end of Japan's "closed-door" foreign policy, Jewish families again began to settle in Japan. The first recorded Jewish settlers arrived at Yokohama in 1861. By 1895, this community, which by then consisted of about 50 families, established the first synagogue in Meiji Japan. Part of this community would later move to Kobe after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. Another early Jewish settlement was established in the 1880s in Nagasaki, a large Japanese port city opened to foreign trade by the Portuguese. This community was larger than the one in Yokohama, consisting of more than 100 families. It was
Canadian Academy purchased land on Nagamine Heights, the Duke of Gloucester dedicated a boy's dormitory, Gloucester House, named in his honor in May 1929. The Latin Motto of "Scientia Clavis Successus," knowledge is the key to success, was chosen in 1921 as was the school song. The school housed refugees from the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. CA remained at the Aotani-cho campus until it closed due to World War Two. The last formal graduation ceremony took place in 1942. The Japanese government seized the school to serve as internment camps for enemy aliens. Only Gloucester House and the principal's house survived