Searching for Home Abroad : Japanese Brazilians and Transnationalism

During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. In more recent decades that flow has been reversed: more than 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, the essays in rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. The contributors―who represent a number of nationalities and disciplines themselves―analyze how the original Japanese immigrants, their descendants in Brazil, and the Japanese-Brazilians in Japan sought to fit into the culture of each country while confronting both prejudice and discrimination.__Contributors.__ Shuhei Hosokawa, Angelo Ishi, Jeffrey Lesser, Daniel T. Linger, Koichi Mori, Joshua Hotaka Roth, Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda, Keiko Yamanaka, Karen Tei Yamashita During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. In more recent decades that flow has been reversed: more than 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, the essays in Searching for Home Abroad rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. The contributors—who represent a number of nationalities and disciplines themselves—analyze how the original Japanese immigrants, their descendants in Brazil, and the Japanese-Brazilians in Japan sought to fit into the culture of each country while confronting both prejudice and discrimination. The concepts of home and diaspora are engaged and debated throughout the volume. Drawing on numerous sources—oral histories, interviews, private papers, films, myths, and music—the contributors highlight the role ethnic minorities have played in constructing Brazilian and Japanese national identities. The essayists consider the economic and emotional motivations for migration as well as a range of fascinating cultural outgrowths such as Japanese secret societies in Brazil. They explore intriguing paradoxes, including the feeling among many Japanese-Brazilians who have migrated to Japan that they are more "Brazilian" there than they were in Brazil. Searching for Home Abroad will be of great interest to scholars of immigration and ethnicity in the Americas and Asia. Contributors. Shuhei Hosokawa, Angelo Ishi, Jeffrey Lesser, Daniel T. Linger, Koichi Mori, Joshua Hotaka Roth, Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda, Keiko Yamanaka, Karen Tei Yamashita Looking For Home In All The Wrong Places / Jeffrey Lesser -- Japanese, Brazilians, Nikkei: A Short History Of Identity Building And Homemaking / Jeffrey Lesser -- Speaking In The Tongue Of Antipode: Japanese Brazilian Fantasy On The Origin Of Language / Shuhei Hosokawa -- Identity Transformations Among Okinawans And Their Descendants In Brazil / Koichi Mori -- Circle K Rules / Karen Tei Yamashita -- Searching For Home, Wealth, Pride, And Class: Japanese Brazilians In The Land Of Yen / Angelo Ishi -- Urashima Taro's Ambiguating Practices: The Significance Of Overseas Voting Rights For Elderly Japanese Migrants To Brazil / Joshua Hotaka Roth -- Homeland-less Abroad: Transnational Liminality, Social Alienation, And Personal Malaise / Takeyuki (gaku) Tsuda -- Feminization Of Japanese-brazilian Labor Migration To Japan / Keiko Yamanaka -- Do Japanese-brazilians Exist? / Daniel T. Linger. Edited By Jeffrey Lesser. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, this book includes essays that rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. During the first half of the 20th century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands; in more recent decades, over 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. The essays in this collection rethink complex related issues of ethnicity and national identity Japanese diplomat Sho Nemoto arrived in Brazil in September 1894, just as Brazil's planters were becoming disillusioned with European laborers who seemed more interested in protesting against labor and social conditions than in working as replacements for slaves (Holloway 1980, 36, 48). A multidisciplinary study of the transnational cultural identity of Brazilian nationals of Japanese descent and their more recent attempts to re-settle in Japan.