Interviews

1. How Yoshitaro Amano got to South America (Japanese)

2. Yoshitaro Amano continues his efforts in business in order to pursue his studies (Japanese)

3. On returning to post-war Peru (Japanese)

4. Returning to Japan on a prisoner-of-war exchange boat (Japanese)

5. Yoshitaro Amano chose the Chancay culture (Japanese)

6. The find of the century: Chicras (Japanese)

7. A strong Japanese identity (Japanese)

8. The Nikkei community that didn't support Former President Fujimori's election (Japanese)

9. The differences in attitude of pre-war and post war in terms of the President Fujimori presidency (Japanese)

10. President Fujimori as elected by Peru's general public (Japanese)

11. The Nikkei community's view toward Former President Fujimori (Japanese)

12. On being thought of as a Japanese person (Japanese)

13. Disseminating the excellence of Japan to the world through the Amano Museum (Japanese)

(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum

Yoshitaro Amano continues his efforts in business in order to pursue his studies (Japanese)

(Japanese) In Costa Rica, Amano was in the fishing business with a ship built in Yaizu (Japan), the Amano-Maru. In Ecuador, he was operating a quinine factory. In Peru, at the time, he was involved in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, so he was in finance. In Bolivia, he had a tree planting business. In Chile, he was managing a farm. Oh, he even managed to invest in Manchuria. Well, Amano always set short, mid and long term goals throughout his life. Even though he went through all kinds of different things, he tried to make profits considering both short term and mid-term. Well, in tree planting or farming, for example, he had the long term point of view and tried to invest accordingly. No matter where you end up, if you diversify your investments throughout the world, you will be okay. That’s why he even invested in Manchuria. Once he made enough money to live on for the rest of his life, no matter what happened to him, he moved forward with his original life goal, which was to spend his time studying. You know, Amano originally wanted to be a scholar of some sort. He used to say that he wanted to be a dialectologist. In short, he was interested in research. Mainly, he wasn’t really a businessman type.

Bolivia business Costa Rica economics Ecuador management prewar World War II Yoshitaro Amano

Date: May 7, 2007

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Born in 1948, originally from Tokyo. Graduated from Waseda University’s Department of Education. Years later, he moved to Lima, Peru. While learning Spanish, he helped the work of his grandfather, Yoshitaro Amano, who founded and operated Amano Museum. He later married a Nikkei Peruvian Nisei. Currently, as a Peruvian cultural researcher, pottery/textile collection expert, and executive director of the Amano Museum, he conducts excavation work and is responsible for the management of the museum. As a Peruvian citizen diplomat, he attends government officials, businessmen, handles media coverage and programming for television. He visits Japan several times a year, makes speeches and leads panel discussions throughout Japan, and remains active in various fields. (May 2007)