Enrique Higa Sakuda
@kikerenzoEnrique Higa is a Peruvian Sansei (third generation, or grandchild of Japanese immigrants), journalist and Lima-based correspondent for the International Press, a Spanish-language weekly published in Japan.
Updated August 2009
Stories from This Author
“Things should not be the same as before the pandemic because it would mean that I have not learned anything”
Dec. 22, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
We are already going through the two years of the pandemic and those first weeks of confinement, when people applauded the health workers from their homes for their extraordinary work and naively said that from this disastrous experience we would emerge better people, more united and supportive, They seem like times from a previous life. Today, with rich countries hoarding vaccines while a new variant emerges in Africa, millions of people dead and crowds rejecting masks or getting vaccinated even …
Live learning
Nov. 10, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
He was just a child, but he remembers it as if he were a witness again. From a window on the second floor of his house in Lima, Víctor Makino watched criminals break into businesses and homes of Japanese families to steal their belongings. It was in May 1940, more than 80 years ago, but he still preserves precise memories, such as the surnames of some victims, his neighbors: the Onagas, owners of a bazaar, and the Tsuboyamas, owners of …
Nikkei memories
Oct. 5, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Sueko Noda, a 93-year-old Nisei, remembers that during the looting of Japanese homes and businesses in May 1940, her family was saved from the hordes instigated by the anti-Japanese sentiment of the time thanks to some Peruvian neighbors “such good people who defended us.” ”. Carlos Saito, 80, relates that his father, an Issei who arrived in Peru on the last ship that docked on Peruvian coasts transporting immigrants under contract in 1923, had a watch shop for which he …
Bicentennial of Peru, 122 years of Nikkei presence
Aug. 2, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
On July 28, 2021, Peru celebrated 200 years of existence as an independent country. In 1976, the United States celebrated its bicentennial with festivities enhanced by the visit of Queen Elizabeth II, with fireworks and parades. The commemoration in Peru, with around 200 thousand people dead from Covid-19 and a society divided by the recent presidential elections, was very different. The country was not for parties. However, life goes on. Broadening the perspective to go beyond the gloomy situation and …
Onigiri: from manga and anime to the history of Japanese immigration
July 2, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
The word onigiri , even to those familiar with Japanese food, is catchy. It has magnet, hook. It was the name that the communicator Gerardo Higa Arakaki chose to baptize an online university venture that spread manga and anime in Peru in the 2000s. That playful bet of youth, Onigiri TV, was transformed over the years into a company, Onigiri Producciones, directed by Gerardo and his school friend, Gustavo Barreda Fudimoto, which makes documentaries on the history of Japanese immigration …
Pandemic times: teleworking and digital code
June 18, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
In addition to the pain of losing a loved one, there is also confusion if the death was unexpected and you are not prepared to deal with the situation. What procedures must be followed, who to notify first? The disorientation is accentuated in this situation marked by the coronavirus, plagued by restrictions, new protocols and comings and goings of the authorities, who first establish that the cremation of bodies is mandatory and then go back, or who prohibit wakes, authorize …
Doris Moromisato and her pandemic year: an intense present
April 26, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
The coronavirus pandemic is a watershed in the history of humanity. When we get older, hopefully, we will remember 2020-21 as the years when our lives changed forever. Although we are not yet free from the pandemic and, therefore, we lack the perspective to fully measure the impact of the virus, it is possible to make assessments or judgments about what has been experienced (and suffered). The renowned Nikkei writer Doris Moromisato shares her experience during this anomalous year: “Like …
“We should not be left with this feeling of horror because Peru is a great country”
March 19, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
A year ago, one of the most rigorous quarantines in the world was imposed in Peru to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. It has been a painful and terrible year for a country decimated by the pandemic and morally devastated by a scandal that involved a former president and two former ministers who abused their positions of power to get vaccinated clandestinely while thousands of people died. Throughout the year, one of the specialists most consulted by the …
Ikeda, the good family
Feb. 11, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Approximately 1,800 Japanese immigrants and their Peruvian descendants were deported from Peru to the United States during World War II. Among them were issei Julio Soichi Ikeda, his wife Rosa Matsukawa and their two children, Julio and Máximo. Ikeda had arrived in Peru in the 1920s from Okayama Prefecture at just 15 years of age. Like all immigrants, he worked hard and thanks to his efforts and entrepreneurial spirit, he was able to start a company that produced soy sauce. …
2020: trust and mutual aid against coronavirus
Dec. 28, 2020 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
In December, after almost nine months, I met up with several friends on two occasions, both in open spaces, outdoors (one of them in a park). It was strange, especially because of the greetings, without hugs as is customary with dear and old friends, replaced by a shy pat on the shoulders, a fist bump or what is usual now, a slight tilt of the head from a distance, Japanese style. . At the La Unión Stadium Association, the sports …
