His first student was his mother, an Okinawan immigrant. When she was a high school student, Juana Miyashiro discovered that her mother could not read Latin characters and became her literacy teacher. It was the 1950s, embers of the war still lingered and the Peruvian government vetoed the entry of …
2024 will be a big year for the Nikkei community in Peru because it celebrates the 125th anniversary of Japanese immigration to the country. But before getting there, it is worth stopping for a while in 2023 whose echoes can still be heard, a special year for the governing institution …
Medical technologist Pedro Ruiz's relationship with the Nikkei community began in 1980, when he was eleven years old and his father enrolled him in La Unión school. The seed, however, was planted several decades ago, when his father was studying at Guadalupe School and made Nisei friends. Later, during his …
Jorge Vargas Tsuruda's first experience in Japan was amazing. He was a teenager (still in school) and had traveled to the country with his sister, also a schoolgirl, to visit their parents, both dekasegi. He thought it would be a vacation, but it was two months of work. They didn't …
For Peruvians over 45 years of age, 1989 was probably one of the worst years in the history of their country, devastated by stratospheric inflation that skyrocketed the prices of things every day and terrorism that turned the streets into mined territory. 1989 was also a turning point in the …
The first thing that surprises you about Shigueko Unten is that she doesn't look anywhere near her 93 years old, almost 94. One would easily put her in her mid-70s. Furthermore, she walks upright and radiates liveliness. “They have made me sing a lot,” he says. He has just returned …
Augusto Ikemiyashiro does not seem like a man of this era. Their vocation for service and their strong group spirit are dissenting in these utilitarian and individualistic times. Don Augusto has been president of some of the most important institutions of the Nikkei community in Peru: Peruvian Japanese Association (APJ), …
Ginyu Igei arrived in Peru with the halo of sensei. A teacher in his native Okinawa, the 26-year-old was assigned to the Japanese school in Chancay (a district located north of the city of Lima), where he would be deputy director. It was 1934 and the oldest of six brothers …
The case of graphic designer Masaki Gaja is unusual. He has lived the experience of Japan in two stages: the first, as a child and son of a dekasegi, and the second, as a young dekasegi. It has been, in total, nine years in Japan. The first time, at six …
In Alexandra Shimabukuro's life, since she was little, dekasegi has been family, livelihood and stories. Now it is also a matter of research. The Sociology student at the Catholic University of Peru is preparing a thesis on the Nikkei women who migrated to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s. “It …
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