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While I cannot, and would not even try to, compete with this site's Mr. Science, or any of the professional, professorial historians here, I think I can chip-in some useful, if eclectic, information here and there.
This diary is actually a teaser of sorts. It's an abbreviated version of two (2) rather involved my-blog entries posted back several months ago. The topic: Satsuma in America, especially in Alabama (but they're all over the Gulf Coast). Alabama is home to one of several Gulf Coast towns named for an ancient Japanese Province. How weird is that?
The full tale involves a Civil War Union General, the opening of Japan to international commerce in the second half of the 19th Century and a love of citrus that spans hemispheres.