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
Roots: Shared Stories of Mexican Nikkei
Nov. 3, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
“It is never too late to investigate the roots. Not to live from the longing for the past, but to understand how that past speaks to us about our present,” says Mexican anthropologist Dahil Melgar. It is never too late, even if 100 years have passed. Dahil demonstrates this in the documentary Raíces , which contains testimonies from Mexican Nikkei about their family history and what it means for them to be descendants of Japanese. They are stories that could …
Yokichi Nouchi: The Japanese Immigrant Who Made History at Machu Picchu
Aug. 30, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Everyone knows about Machu Picchu. But what few people know, even in Peru’s Nikkei community, is that the Inca citadel and Japanese immigration to Peru are connected by one person. His name: Yokichi Nouchi. Born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1895, Nouchi was one of 18,727 Japanese who arrived in Peru between 1899 and 1923 as contract migrants. This year marks 100 years since Yokichi came to Peru to work at San Nicolás plantation, north of Lima. How did he get …
Discovering the Shimabukuro
Aug. 7, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
In 1956, at the age of 56, Seitoku Shimabukuro, overwhelmed by debt, decided to migrate to the Peruvian Amazon to save himself from shipwreck. The once successful businessman, owner of a school, one of the most influential people in the Japanese colony in Callao (Lima), goes into the jungle for five years. Alone, far from his wife and six children, he leads a life rich in adventures that is captured in the book Memories of the Amazon. Its author is …
Gus Hokama: carnations to excite
July 19, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
—“Grandpa”, why is our face different from that of other Argentines? —Gus, we are Japanese... —Are we Japanese despite living in Argentina? -Yes of course. When I was 17 years old we took a boat with my grandmother and for three months we sailed until we reached Argentina. The boy Gus discovers that his grandparents migrated from Okinawa in search of a better life in South America, that they dedicated themselves to growing flowers and that thanks to their efforts …
Jorge Yamashiro and the double anniversary of the Nikkei in Peru
June 5, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
In May, the Peruvian Japanese Cultural Center (CCPJ) celebrated its 50th anniversary. In a few months, the Peruvian Japanese Association (APJ) will commemorate 100 years of existence. A singular coincidence that makes 2017 a significant year for the Nikkei community in Peru. While the APJ is the governing institution of the community, the CCPJ is the physical space in which it develops its cultural and institutional activities. Since its foundation, it has been the main disseminator of Japanese culture in …
Beto Shiroma, lifelong musician. More than 25 years dribbling
May 10, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Beto Shiroma shakes his hand tightly. He seems to be full of energy, as if the day had just begun, although night has almost fallen when the interview takes place and he has easily had a hectic day, like every time he arrives in Peru. It's paradoxical: he has a busy schedule in Peru, he goes from here to there, they call him from everywhere, so in theory he should be tired; However, it is as if the hustle injects …
Haroldo Higa, the artist who looked into his heart
May 3, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
2017 is a very special year for the plastic artist Haroldo Higa. With almost 25 years of career, in July, in the city of Arequipa, an exhibition with a selection of his works opens, while in November an exhibition in Lima will exhibit his new works. Furthermore, in May, the First Nikkei Young Art Salon is held at the Peruvian Japanese Cultural Center, an initiative that he has promoted as a cultural manager, a new field in which he is …
Don't make the same mistake, be curious and ask
April 5, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
We are three or four Nikkei in the class. The history teacher asks us if we have any relatives who were deported to the United States during World War II. In another room, a boy of Japanese origin had told of his grandfather's escape through the roof of his house to avoid being captured and expelled to the United States. The story has fascinated her and she wants to know if we have a similar one to share with him. …
The artist of the walls
March 27, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Graffiti is his habitat. Your place in the world. The space where you unleash your creativity, share and deepen friendships. Gianmarco Higuchi discovered his calling at an early age. He listened to rap, drew and was attracted to colors, but he was missing the final link, the decisive step: painting in the street. He had no one to go out with and transfer his art to the walls, until he became friends with a graffiti artist who pronounced three magic …
Live to enjoy
March 8, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Often, talking to older people about their lives involves going into the past, taking refuge in a space that seems to be their habitat. As if everything worth biographing, all the exciting things, had happened in his childhood and youth (and perhaps in middle age), the present is minimized in his stories. As if they had already lived everything they had to live and old age only consisted of existing. You talk to them about how Messi is reinventing himself, …
