Hidemitsu Miyamura
@hmiyaBorn on January 1, 1944 in Paraguay Paulista as the eldest son of Miyamura Tokimitsu and Toshiko. He studied Japanese in his childhood in Apucarana, North Paraná. In 1967, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Paraná. In 1968, he joined NEC Brazil, and retired in 2001. That same year, he became independent and developed a new recycling industry. He and his wife, Alice Kayoko, have one son (Douglas Hidehiro) and one daughter (Erika Hiromi). In 2005, he published a collection of essays titled "An Encounter That Was So Far Away," which he submitted to the São Paulo Newspaper and other publications. His hobby is reading historical books.
(Updated January 2013)
Stories from This Author
father-in-law
Dec. 2, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
Drug addict: Medical advances make me weep for old age My wife has passed away and I know the cold of the winter wind This haiku was written by my father-in-law, Masaharu Uemura, in the solitude of his later years. For many years, he composed waka poems as a hobby, and submitted them to the poetry and yanagi columns of the San Paulo and Nikkei newspapers. Every time I read them, I was struck by how they seemed to capture …
wedding
Oct. 29, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
The other day, I was invited to the wedding of my friend's eldest son. The reception was held at a Catholic church and had a magnificent, pleasant atmosphere. I met this friend through work, and we still work together today. In fact, this friend and my family have a long history. In the diary left behind by my father, Tokimitsu Miyamura (who passed away in 1995), there are many accounts of how he was looked after by his grandfather, Grandpa …
Kimchi, turnip and garlic
Oct. 14, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
I had some business to take care of in Recife in the northeast, so I booked a flight. Before returning to Sao Paulo, I decided to stop by Brasilia. I have an old acquaintance there, so I decided to bring him something unusual as a souvenir from Sao Paulo. When that friend was in Sao Paulo, we often went to a golf driving range run by a Japanese person, and I remembered that we used to sweat while drinking beer …
Bath and miso soup
Sept. 9, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
When I was a child, white people often called me " Ei! Japones ." When I was called this, I somehow felt like I was being looked down upon and treated differently by white people. In fact, this term was often used to derogate against Japanese people. This may have been due to the everyday habits of Japanese people, such as the collectivism among them, which white society could not understand, or the accent of Portuguese pronunciation. Also, most Japanese …
Memorial service and grave visit
Aug. 7, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
In most Japanese families in Brazil, when a family member dies, the funeral is held according to the religion that their ancestors have believed in for generations. In the case of Buddhists, it is common to hold memorial services on the seventh day, 49th day, 1st anniversary, 3rd anniversary, 7th anniversary, and 13th anniversary of the death. It is often confusing if you do not check the temple carefully depending on the sect, such as Nishi Honganji, Higashi Honganji, Jodo …
Old Film (2) The Dourados Colony
June 5, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
In addition to the scenes I mentioned last time , this old film contains footage that is deeply connected to my family. It is about the Dourados colony project, to which my father devoted his life. I cannot help but feel a strange fate in having this old footage in my possession even now.My parents' family moved to Apucarana, Paraná, in 1945. My father worked as a dental technician and as a temporary dentist around farmland. After the war, he …
Old Film (1) Historical Political Transitions
May 7, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
By chance, an old film from 61 years ago came into my hands. It was delivered to me a few years after my father passed away by a friend to whom I had entrusted some antiques before he passed away. I was astonished by the unexpected footage. It was documentary footage of the colony development project that my father, who had quit his job as a dental technician and moved to Paraná, planned with the state government in 1948. As …
My Father's Diary (2) Memories of the Yokoyama Family
April 9, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
My father, who passed away at the age of 81, came to Brazil alone as an immigrant at the age of 19 on the Arizona Maru, which departed from Kobe Port in February 1933. While leafing through my father's old diary, my eye fell on a page titled "Memories from the Ship" dated November 23, 1940. This diary entry was therefore written seven years after my father arrived in Brazil. The following is an excerpt from the diary.One day, the …
My Father's Diary (1) At that time, I...
March 28, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
At that time, my father was working as a dental technician in Santos. He was 28 years old and single. Later, he opened a dental practice under the name of a white dentist, though not officially. His old diary contains stories of his hardships and failures at the time, the people who helped him, his fun single life in Santos, and his fun at glamorous casinos. Six months before the war, my father met Toshiko, who would later become my …
Seeds
Feb. 25, 2013 • Hidemitsu Miyamura
When I first tried pizza, I wondered if something this delicious existed in the world. I had no access to pizza in the area where I lived in North Paraná. When I first came to São Paulo as a 7-year-old country boy, my parents' long-time friend, "Otane-san," said, "Pizza is probably rare," and ordered it for me. Otane had been running the "Toyo Hotel" on Tabatinguera Street in Sao Paulo since the 1920s. Her last name was "Iwao" until she …
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