Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1058/

Histories of immigrants (Spanish)

(Spanish) Look, up to now, I have made two books on the Japanese immigration and on the natives of Okinawa. One was with the book my sonjin, Okinawa Shi, in the year… of the centennial of the Japanese immigration to Peru, 1999. Before finishing that book, I had already interviewed several ojiichan, obaachan, but more obaachan. To this date, I have interviewed more than 300 ojiichan and obaachan, many of who have already passed away. But around 1998, ‘99, I became so depressed listening to their stories because they were very old people and they talked as if they were saying goodbye to life, with ease, relaxed. So they trusted in telling things that I was not supposed to know. Their sons, daughters were sitting by their sides with threatening eyes. They told me not to write about this, they told me no. I’m not going to tell you because they were stories of abortions, infidelity, beatings, and joyous stories. These were stories that were meant to say goodbye to life without their mouths shut. So, since I have been well raised, I couldn’t count on re-telling that. At a testimony level you can’t tell because you would have to put a name and surname. Without it, it doesn’t have truth to it. So, the only thing I had left, because I didn’t want to loose it, because I want people to see we’re a human group just like the rest… we’re not an example of a Japanese group that works, suffer and that they’re great. No. We’re a human group that has aborted, that has been internally beaten, that have been through problems, and have exceeded them, etc. I want them to see Nikkei people as human beings, but that I can only put it in fiction. And that was the reason I went to the jungle and started my novel. However, I had to stop at page 105 and I still haven’t been able to continue. This happened more than 10 years ago, but I’m going to finish it. I have a lot of faith to this novel. It is going to be excellent because I don’t want it to be an ordinary novel, not lineal. It’s a very literary novel, very human.


fiction identity interviews novels Peru

Date: February 26, 2008

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Harumi Nako

Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)

Interviewee Bio

Doris Moromisato Miasato (1962) was born in Chambala, an agricultural zone of Lima, Peru. She graduated with a degree in Law and Political Science at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

She has published the collection of poems Morada donde la luna perdió su palidez [Home were the moon lost its paleness] (1988), Chambala era un camino [Chambala was the path] (1999), Diario de la mujer es ponja [Diary of a Jap woman] (2004), Paisaje Terrestre [Terrestrial Path] (2007), as well as the story book Okinawa, un siglo en el Perú [Okinawa. A century in Peru] (2006). Her poems, stories, essays, and features have also been included in several anthologies and have been translated into several languages.

She is an ecologist, feminist and Buddhist. In 2006, the Okinawa Municipality nominated her as an Ambassador of Good Will. Nowadays, she is columnist for the Discover Nikkei Website, and since 2005 she has managed the organization of book fairs as Cultural Director of Cámara Peruana del Libro. (February 26, 2008)

Nakamura,Ann K.

Image of Americans

Sansei from Hawaii living in Japan. Teacher and businesswoman.

Okasaki,Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi

Japanese influence growing up

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

Hirabayashi,PJ

Diverse membership in San Jose Taiko

Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko

Okasaki,Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi

Looking at your country from the outside

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

Okasaki,Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi

Wife's family in Japan

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

Takeshita,Yukio

Lack of notion of citizenship in Japan

(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.

Yamano,Jane Aiko

Lack of language skills

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Yamano,Jane Aiko

Preserving traditional Japanese culture

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Yamano,Jane Aiko

Having patience in Japan, being both

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Glaser,Byron

Supporting art because it's essential

Illustrator and designer

Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Being on the outside

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

Yonamine,Wally Kaname

His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

Yonamine,Wally Kaname

Working in cane fields as teenager, and how it helped in his athletic training (Japanese)

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

Matsumoto,Roy H.

Nickname

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

Matsumoto,Roy H.

Mixed emotions after declaration of war on Japan

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.