Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/865/

Generational Change (Spanish)

(Spanish) Perhaps the Issei and the Nikkei have done [so] much in order that we may have the opportunity right now to progress. Things that I hear from my mom, [and things] that I heard from my grandmother sometime ago, was the fact that they suffered a lot during the war. They suffered much repression [back] then, and therefore the Japanese part [of their existence] left; it left [them due to] the [reality] of overcoming adversity, of moving forward and, at the end, they smoothed the road for us so that we could begin to think of other things: to think of culture, in artistic development, in professional development, [much of which] perhaps many of our parents or grandparents were unable to do but they worried about us being able to do such things. Therefore, perhaps it is not a generational gap, perhaps it is the flow of events that life has simply made for us [in more simple fashion] and that it is our responsibility to ensure that everything that they [our parents and grandparents] experienced in its moment is not lost, not erased from [our] memory, and that everything that our Japanese-rooted culture has provided, we are entrusted to transmit and move it forward.


culture Hawaii Japanese Americans Nikkei United States

Date: September 14, 2007

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Harumi Nako

Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)

Interviewee Bio

Akira Watanabe Osada was born on October 6, 1974, in Lima, Peru. His grandparents are Japanese immigrants who came to Peru from Fukushima Ken. An engineer, Akira is also director of the Peru branch of the Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko Group. Founded in 1999, the branch grew out of the festivities commemorating Japanese immigration to Peru. Akira promotes the Okinawa eisa dance throughout the country. As a member of this group, Akira has performed quite often in Peru, which the most important of these performances have been the centennial celebrations marking Japanese immigration to Peru (1999), and the Centenary of Okinawense Immigration to Peru (2006). (September 14, 2007)

Iino,Masako

Learning from Nikkei (Japanese)

Tsuda College President, researcher of Nikkei history

Kodani,Mas

The performing arts not for Nisei

Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.

Hirabayashi,PJ

Feeling empowered by taiko

Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko

Glaser,Byron

Supporting art because it's essential

Illustrator and designer

Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

Her father as a typical Issei

(b. 1934) Writer

Hirabayashi,Roy

Celebrating traditional Japanese New Years with family

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

Kogiso,Mónica

Nikkei means fusion (Spanish)

(b. 1969) Former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino.

Kogiso,Mónica

Nihongo gakko - Preserving Japanese culture (Spanish)

(b. 1969) Former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino.

Kogiso,Mónica

Easier to be a foreigner in Japan (Spanish)

(b. 1969) Former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino.

Sogi,Francis Y.

Defining the term Nikkei

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

Oda,Margaret

Growing up with Japanese language and values

(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i

Hirose,Roberto

From the "middle" Nikkei (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman

Hirose,Roberto

The various realities of Nikkei in Latin America (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman

Hirose,Roberto

The political effects on Nikkei during the war (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman

Hirose,Roberto

To be more Japanese than you really are (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman