The Nikkei phenomenon as a differential being
The writer and researcher Emi Kamatsu develops a philosophical and anthropological analysis of Nikkei being, thinking and acting. It begins with an understanding of the concept of the “Melting Pot” to outline the historical background, reciprocal influences, advantages and disadvantages in that cultural integration of the immigrant and his descendants.
Stories from this series
Managing the cultural hybridization of the Nikkei
Sept. 1, 2009 • Emi Kasamatsu
To be Nikkei in America is to carry two cultures under your belt, on the one hand being Japanese that is received through education and the discipline instilled by Japanese parents from the child's first breath of life. His first steps in life are in the Japanese way, where he lays the foundations that will last through time. Hence the way of thinking and acting, the somewhat differentiated attitude of the Nikkei. According to Chie Nakane, there is a homogeneous …
The discreet character of the Japanese and Nikkei
May 5, 2009 • Emi Kasamatsu
The ancestral culture impregnated in the soul of the Japanese people has formed a distinctive ethos , in which virtues and defects have been carefully separated by categories perhaps difficult to understand in the Western world. This can be observed, for example, in the tea ceremony or chanoyu , created in the 16th century by the monk Sen no Rikyu of the Zen Buddhism sect. He gave form and philosophical meaning to the act of drinking tea as a ritual …
The melting pot of the race, what is it for the Nikkei?
March 3, 2009 • Emi Kasamatsu
Etymologically, crucible means that, from creation or birth, it must be propped up towards excellence or given a sense of purity to the essence. The “Melting Pot” comes from there; that is, trying to maintain the purity of a race including culture and civilization. That word was used a lot in the 18th and 19th centuries during the conquests and subsequent population movements, especially from Europe to the new American continent, and it was about protecting and consolidating the white …
The Japanese cultural influence of the 19th and 20th centuries on Nikkei society
Feb. 3, 2009 • Emi Kasamatsu
In the last decade of the 19th century, the emigration of Japanese people abroad began, after due authorization from the Japanese Empire that allowed the departure of its subjects to other countries. It is officially known that the first emigrations were to Hawaii in 1869 and in Latin America to Mexico in 1897, to other countries such as Paraguay it only occurred in 1936. The characteristics of these immigrants differ according to the time they left Japan and their circumstances, …
The situational advantage and disadvantage of the Japanese and Nikkeie in Paraguay
Jan. 6, 2009 • Emi Kasamatsu
There is a common thread between the Japanese and their descendants through the word SEI , such as issei, nisei, sansei, yonsei, gosei , when blood and generational ties clearly mark that distinction. In this way they say: I am Nisei, I am Sansei and proud to be descendants of the Japanese, especially in the Americas. There is an indissoluble bond of consanguinity and a bond that ancestors have transmitted as a cultural heritage – especially customs and their language …
Historical background of the disadvantaged situation of the Orientals and the Japanese in Latin America and Paraguay
March 11, 2008 • Emi Kasamatsu
At the beginning of the 19th century, on the eve of the abolition of slavery for blacks brought from Africa to plant sugar cane in the Caribbean, the owners of these cane fields began to look for cheap, efficient and at the same time docile labor in management and control and were sought among Asians. In the 1930s, when slavery was completely abolished, according to Evelyn Hu-de Hat, in the European colonies of Dutch, British and French Guiana, about 500,000 …
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