Nikkeijin – The Japanese Peruvians
Philanthropist, volunteer worker and resident of Peru, Scott Jeppesen of the charitable organisation Sonrisas en Peru, explores the fascinating history of Japanese immigration to Peru and the strong influence that Japanese culture has played on various aspects of Peruvian society.
I currently reside in Lima, the capital of Peru. Every day I am faced with some characteristic of Peruvian culture that has been derived from Japanese origins. Urged by curiosity I soon discovered the intriguing story of the Japanese Peruvians, a large ethnic immigrant group in Peru.
The Japanese Peruvians
The Japanese Peruvians are Peruvian citizens of Japanese ethnic origin. They constitute around 0.3% of Peru’s population (estimated at nearly 90,000 in 2008) which is the second largest population of people with Japanese ancestry in Latin America after Brazil.
Peru was the first Latin American country to accept Japanese immigration. Back in 1899 the first wave of 790 Japanese immigrants arrived at the Peruvian seaport Callao aboard the “Sakura Maru” from the Japanese port of Yokohama and thus spawned the Nikkei ethnicity in Latin America.
The Sakura Maru
Most notably, Japanese Peruvians were brought to the world’s attention in 1990 by the election of Alberto Fujimori, son of Japanese immigrants and the 90th president of Peru. Fujimori was the first person of Asian descent to become president of a Western country.
Alberto Ken'ya Fujimori
Immigration To Peru
Peru and Japan have held close ties for well over a century. They established diplomatic relations in 1883 making Peru the first country in Latin American, and tenth country in the world, to establish this kind of formal link with Japan.
But what prompted the Japanese to migrate to Peru?
In the later half of the 19th century the Meiji Restoration brought an end to feudalism in Japan generating great poverty in its rural population and causing a surplus of skilled farmers. Seeking relief from the increasing unrest of the agrarian class, the Japanese government saw emigration as a tool to relieve some of the suffering caused by the nation’s rapid modernization during the Meiji era.
Japanese Peruvian farmer Carlos Chiyoteru Hiraoka and his wife Rosa Torres
The first Japanese settlers to arrive in Peru were primarily Japanese farmers escaping impoverished conditions in Japan’s rural areas. Most left Japan to work as contract laborers on Peru’s coastal sugar and cotton plantations who were suffering a labor shortage at the time. The Japanese arrived with a sojourner mentality or temporary intentions, that is, the dream of finding wealth in a faraway land and a view to eventually return home with their hard earned savings.
Based on statistics from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 33,070 Japanese had emigrated to Peru by 1941
Settlement In Peru
When the Japanese immigrants arrived on the Peruvian farms and plantations, life was not as expected. They were subjected to hours of exhaustive work and often suffered physical violence. As a result, many Japanese immigrants abandoned their jobs or fled. Those Japanese who fulfilled their contracts remained free and went to the cities where they started small businesses that required little capital, such as stores, hairdresser shops, small coffee shops, or restaurants. Others opted to work as gardeners or household servants for wealthy families.
"Bodega Naka" - Japanese Peruvian store in Lima
Over time the Japanese Peruvians evolved into a dominating part of the Peruvian economy, but their growing success led to other problems.
Insularity And Racialisation
Rather than assimilating into Peruvian society the Japanese isolated themselves, lived in separate communities and generally only associated with other Japanese. They sent their children to Japanese-language schools and continued many practices typical of Japanese culture.
As the Japanese in Peru became economically successful, the Peruvians saw the Japanese as a threat that ultimately festered into a racist attitude towards the Japanese which led to discrimination not only at a social level, but eventually at a political level.
Japanese Peruvians
In 1940 riots broke out in Lima and Callao instigated by anti Japanese Peruvian sentiment that left 10 Japanese Peruvians dead, hundreds injured and numerous Japanese Peruvian businesses and homes destroyed. The Peruvian government reacted to the riots by suspending future immigration rights to the Japanese and by taking away the citizenship of native-born Japanese Peruvians.
The WWII Internment
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States reached an agreement with the government of Peru and 1,771 Japanese Peruvians were deported from Peru to the United States and were interned for the duration of the war in American internment camps. At the conclusion of the war, the Peruvian government refused to allow the detainees to return.
Most detainees, fearing never being able to return to Peru accepted transportation back to Japan. The rest stayed in the US where they eventually obtained US citizenship.
Japanese Peruvians in the Panama Canal en route to U.S. Internment Camps in 1942.
Japanese Peruvians in the internment camp in Texas
The Japanese In Peru Today
The Japanese Peruvians have made a substantial impact on the economic and cultural diversity of Peru. Today, they are basically a closed society with a tremendous pride in preserving traditional values and Japanese culture and heritage. They have managed to maintain a strong attachment to Peru but without abandoning their Japanese roots.
The embedded video below shows a slideshow of an amazing collection of historical images of the Japanese Peruvian people.
Sources:
Please take the opportunity to visit my website Sonrisas en Peru, meaning “smiles in Peru” in Spanish. It is an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of under-privileged children in rural Peru.
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- The Japanese Peruvians | Sonrisas en Peru
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Very moving!!!
What an insightful story! I had no idea that there was a major population of people with Japanese ethnic origin in Latin America.
Fascinating. Ten Japanese killed and the Govt takes away the survivors’ citizenship. Not much of a surprise they are a closed society today. What is a surprise though, is the son of Japanese immigrants becoming President. What an accomplishment!
Need a link for “the Meiji Restoration”.
Nice work Scott!
Wow. Great read! I’m not surprised by the Pervian government’s reaction after the riots.
What did surprise me is that the American government wanted to round up Japanese in Peru and put them in American internment camps. What sense does that make and why would Peru agree to that? If a war broke out today with China, would we try to convince every country in the world to let us transport their Chinese populations in American internment camps? What did the Japanese in Peru really have to do with the war, and what effect could they have had on the war from Peru?
Yes definately strange. It had nothing to do with a fear of the Japanese here. It was solely to appease public pressure. I, too, am suprised the Americans went to all the effort including the enormous costs involved in moving the Peruvian-Japanese to Texas, not to mention that it mustn’t have been too popular for the American public. I would think it was to keep the Peruvian government on-side…maybe for economic reasons.
Not sure of the validity of this but I read that the United States used or intended to use them in hostage exchanges with Japan.
What the article doesnt say about Fujimori
In December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure, and was sentenced to six years in prison.
On April 7, 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government’s battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. T
On July 20, 2009, a Peruvian court sentenced Alberto Fujimori to an additional 7+1⁄2 years in prison for embezzlement after the former president admitted paying his spy chief US$15 million in state funds. He later pled guilty to bribery.
@James Off-topic and provocative. It is not an article about an individual person, but about an amazing group of people. Not sure why you think the article needed to mention this. You do know that the article is not about Fujimori, right?
A good post. Some Japanese were forced to leave for Brazil or Peru. The government feared there might be a revolution so forced many left wing and communists to emigrate. Here in Kobe City there is a building which housed people while waiting for a ship. I had an art studio in the building for 4 years until last year when it was reformed and turned into a museum. During that time I met many Japanese who had come to live here from Brazil or Peru. They shared their stories with me.
thanks for the contribution scott. i learned about a fascinating piece of history that i never knew.
Cool post! Very interesting.
I am not surprised the Japanese isolated themselves from rest of society. For some reason the Japanese culture has a habit of doing this.
I remember in college we had a population of Japanese students. They all would kind of cut themselves off from everyone else. They had their own little world. It took us a while to get them to open up and engage with the other students.
Well the Peruvians are a little strange compared to Australia so i could understand as well! They do alot of things very differently here compared to Australia, U.S. and Canada where i’ve lived at different times
Scott
I can understand why an Australian see the Peruvians as little strange compared to the Australians, Canadians and Americans… to comprehend this we have to see it through a historical prism.
A thing that Peru has in common with those three countries is that is part of the phenomena called European expansionism… and like those countries the creoles (sons of the Europeans born in the Americas) are the ones that got their independence… and not the natives or aborigines…
Now… here is the difference
In the case of Canada, Australia, U.S. and New Zealand the racial component was European… they had policies that excluded the natives or aborigines and a big European immigration policy therefore creating European nations outside Europe. Something that did not happened in other British Colonies like India or Nigeria… too many natives.
In the case of most of Latin America the colonials mixed with the natives creating “mestizo” nations being the mestizos second class citizens… many of this countries were and are very wealthy… but they were run by European minorities… the first time I went to the U.S. I told them that it was the same as Peru… the only difference was that the “Indian reservations” in Peru were a thousand times bigger than the ones in Oklahoma and Arizona…. some people do not understand that Mexico and Peru were to Spain what India was to Great Britain… and the closest thing to the Spanish colonies like Peru or Mexico in the the British colonial experience is South Africa… with a European racist minority running it.
Thank God this is changing fast in Latin America, Peru(Fujimori, Toledo) and the U.S. (Obama) but I am afraid that racism could be replace by class-ism… not solving the rich and poor disparities…. lets wait, pray and see….
Interesting insights Marco especially about European colonial power. Personally I would say that “strangeness” is in the eye of the beholder so I am not sure of the legitimacy of Scott’s comment if he is generalising that “Peruvians are a little strange”.
Good point Reesan…I have been accused by several nationalities of being strange!
Scott
As a Peruvian all I can say to you is thank you from the bottom of my heart, we are so lucky to have people like you coming here to do so much good in such an unselfish way. We are blessed to have you and I consider you more Peruvian than many that have been born here.
Thanks Marco! I love Peru and the people!
Yes, you’re right. This guy is not just stupid but completely disrespectful. He is in a FOREIGN country, yet he expects people to act according to HIS country’s standards? Is he kidding!! But then, WE are “strange people” because we act differently than those in anglo-based countries. That’s something I completely dislike…anglos’ lack of common sense when it comes to compare different cultures. Something in their brains don’t let them understand that their culture is by NO means universal nor the standard culture everyone has to emulate. WTF!!
Boni, the guy is doing volunteer work in Peru to help impoverished, under-privileged Peruvian kids and you call him stupid because he makes a comparative statement based upon his own personal experiences. Seems a bit harsh.
Ok, you’re right. I didn’t have a good day when I wrote that. I think I was a bit too harsh. Sorry.
Interesting post! Good to see other lesser known parts of Japanese history being explored. Plugs all those little gaps in my knowledge
Nicely written piece, I knew little of this population other than that they existed.
What a hard lot these people faced. Unwanted at home, then abused in their new country, only to face reprisal when they eventually got on their feet. I wish it were a unique series of events, but I applaud them for staying and thriving: 90,000 remaining after all they went through!
Scott, do you know if the fate of the Japanese population that emigrated to Brazil was much the same?
You need to make a Correction.
You are right that Peru is has the second largest Japanese populiation after Brazil in Latin America (Actually Brazils is the largest in the world outside Japan. But The Japanese are not the largest ethnic immigrant group in Peru.
There is much more Chinese in Peru, some say that up to 15% percent of Peruvians have Chinese DNA. Also there is more Italians and other ethnic Peruvians than Japanese Peruvians.
Hi Marco,
Yes i double checked that and you’re absolutely right. Maybe I should have said that ‘Asian Peruvians’ make up the largest ethnic population in Peru rather than Japanese Peruvians. According to Wikipedia Chinese Peruvians make up 2-3% of the population at around 1.3 million people. The Japanese in Peru are 0.3% at 90,000.
Sorry about the error!
I don’t think that the Asians are the biggest ethnic group or minority in Peru, the biggest ethnic group in Peru are probably the mestizos which is mixture of native Peruvian and European blood (like Humala the new president).
I would say that Asian DNA is third after Native-American and European, that is if there is less Afro-peruvians than Asian-peruvians.
Maybe you meant minority… since for example the biggest ethnic group in the U.S., Canada and Australia is European… many people do not know that from those Europeans (in the U.S) German is the biggest ethnic group and not English do to the waves of immigration… like the Spanish now at one point Americans where scared that too many people were speaking German…. during WWII half of the Americans fighting the nazis had German blood… Mestizo is the stereotype that Americans have of the concept of “Hispanic” since the mayority of hispanics in the U.S. are from Mexican origin and like many peruvian are mestizos… there is no “hispanic” race since it is a real melting pot of races… and if you want to talk about the “Spaniards” the melting pot starts there… if you are from Galicia (Celtic) you may be cousins of the Irish, Scots,Welsh and the people of Brittany France… if you are from Asturias and descend from the Goths then you are a cousin the Germans, Anglos, Dutch etc… if you are Castillian or Catalunyan you may be cousin of the Italians and southern French… if you are from the south you may have Jewish, Arab and Gypsy blood… … and … here is the funny one… if you are Basque… you may be cousins with the martians…. the Basques (two thirds in Spain, one third in France) do not share the same DNA with the rest of Europe, their blood type is different and their language has no Indo-European roots.. they think they are the oldest Europeans and that maybe they were the ones who built Stonehenge in England….. they are the only ones in Europe that maybe can claim to some sort of purity….
Well that depends…you are classing mestizos as a special ethnic group here in Peru which seems to imply that the original indigenous groups (Queshua, Aymara, etc. that make up 45% of the current Peru population) are the only true Peruvians whereas I think most people would class Peruvians AS those mestizos as well as the indigenous peoples (who have lived together since ‘Peru’ was created after the Spanish came). It’s like saying the United States is really only native Indians and caucasians are the largest ethnic group (as they settled the country from England, Ireland and other parts of Europe).
So if we’re talking about post-conquest Peru (when the Spanish, mestizos and indigenous peoples started this country) then Asian Peruvians would make up the largest ethnic group in Peru.
Scott… after the Independence of Peru in 1821 the country still have a big influx of immigrants probably the biggest group coming from China and Italy…. and then in smaller groups from Japan, England, Germany, Croatia, France, Portugal, Middle East, etc… To give you an example (since you are Australian and I assume lover of surfing) Sofia Mulanovic the Peruvian girl that was the surfing world champion is descendant of Croatian immigrants to Peru… many of my high school friends in Lima are sons of immigrants who came after WWII and the Spanish Civil war.. from Spain, Italy, Germany, Monte Negro, etc… my Godfather is a son of a Swiss immigrant to Peru… Giuseppe Garibaldi hero of the unification of Italy lived and worked in Peru for a few years.. and Paul Gauguin the famous French impressionist (who was part Peruvian) lived in Lima for 4 years as a child, It was in Lima that Gauguin encountered his first art. He moved to France at age 7 were he learned French for the first time… though his first and preferred language remained Peruvian Spanish (source Wiki)
Here is some cool immigrants to Peru trivia for you:
Domingo Ghirardelli: From the famous Ghirardelli chocolates in the U.S.A
immigrated from Italy to Lima in 1838 and had a chocolateria, he changes his name from Domenico to the Spanish version of Domingo he meets an American who owns a store next to him in Lima (James Lick) that convinces him to go with him to San Francisco and the rest is history.
William Russell Grace
Immigrated from Ireland to Peru in 1854 escaping the famine… In Peru he founded the business that would become W. R. Grace and Company, later he moved the company to New York… he became the first Catholic mayor of New York… and the one who received the Statue of Liberty from the French..
Henry Meiggs (great grandfather of a Peruvian friend of mine)
American businessman.. he built what was called then in San Francisco the Meiggs Wharf… now know as the famous “Fisherman’s Wharf”… He also founded in California the town of Meiggsville later renamed Mendocino….then he emigrated to Chile where he built their first railroad.. then to Peru where he built various railroads… he was buried at Presbítero Maestro cemetery in Lima
Nobu Matsuhisa, co-owner with Robert de Niro of the famous NOBU Japanese resturants (L.A. New York, Miami, Milan, London, Greece, Dallas, Tokyo, Honolulu, Moscow, Dubai and Budapest.
In 1973 at age 24, he moved to Peru (Lima) and opened a restaurant, he developed his unique style of cuisine that incorporated Southern American ingredients into Japanese dishes. Then he moved to Argentina, Alaska and Los Angeles where he became famous… if you go to one of his restaurants you will see some Peruvian dishes on his menu.
You know your stuff Marco!
I was in Peru 2 years ago, and I saw this old Japanese couple speaking to each other in Spanish. Struck me as rather odd at that time….
yes the first time i saw 2 Chines people talking in Spanish and it seemed very strange for me too. Obviously in Australia you only see them speaking Chinese or sometimes English
Yes, that’s because anglo-based white countries are founded on racism and segregation of people based on their races.
…or maybe it’s just because i’ve always seen Chinese Australians speaking Chinese or English…
;o)
Good post. However what I find interesting is that there is actually a link between the Peruvian Incas and the Japanese. Therefore I guess you can say Peruvians had Japanese in their culture long before the arrival of the Japanese in the 1800s.
Not really. In fact, not at all. There were no Japanese that long ago. That makes as much sense as saying the Japanese had African in their culture because all modern humans descend from a common African population. All humans are related so I see no reason to isolate two populations. Besides, Quechuan and other Indians are nowhere near like the Japanese.
Actually there is no close cultural link between the Japanese and the native Quechuas or Aymaras but there is a link when it comes to DNA… the Native Americans are descendants from Asians that cross the Bering Straight… there were two waves… in the second wave came the Eskimos or Inuits… look at an Eskimo… he looks more Asian than native American…
There are the three great races in the world… Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid… and the Native Americans are Mongoloid… if you are in Peru right now, get close to a real Peruvian native and you will notice the membrane on their eyes one of the distinct features shared with his Japanese cousins…
Sorry, but I disagree with there being three “great” races. That’s an old European concept that totally disregards that not all people fit in their stupid categories.
Boni you’re getting confused. He isn’t saying that those are the ‘best 3′ races on Earth. He is saying that all people basically identify with one of these groups. You’re misunderstanding what he meant by “great races”.
Ok, it’s you who is confused here. I never said he said three were “the perfect races.” I said, and I repeat that the concept of there being just three races and that all the ethnicities out there derive from them is out-of-date and inaccurate.
If not, what about the Australian aborigines, dravindians and the semites?? The latter are clearly different than whites. Or what about the Khoisan, or the Ethiopians (who were there way before Caucasians if someone wants to say they originate from them)??
There are more than three races in the world, and that concept is simply too simplistic and outdated. PERIOD.
Boni… according to that theory the Australian aborigines would be mongoloid and the semities caucasoid… but that was not my point…lets for forget about it and lets say there is only one race… the human race… ok?… the point I was trying to make was that the Native Americans are descendants of people that crossed the straight of Bering, therefore they are closer cousins to the Asians than the Europeans in the tree of our big human family.
Just wondering how the government feels about Japanese immigrants today.
My husband is Japanese, and we are considering places to retire in South America.
Peru is quite multicultural so you won´t have any problems here. There is a large Chinese culture here (´chifas´ are very popular here. It´s the name given to `Chinese` restaurants but the food is a destinctive mix of traditional Chinese food combined with Peruvian dishes) as well as a Japanese culture. The only form of racism i have experienced is toward the ethnic indians here and that is quite rare.
Joellen
I agree with Scott. Actually I think many of us Peruvians look up to the Japanese we associate them with honesty, smarts, and hard work. Our sad reality, and is shameful, is that we still have some racism toward the natives, thank God this is in decline compare to when I was a kid. What scares me and not only in Peru is that in many parts of the world will see some decline on racism but a surge on Classism between the rich and poor. But going back to the theme of immigrating to Latin America probably Peru is one of the best places if you are from Asian ancestry… a Chinese American friend who came to Lima once told me that it was the first place in Latin America where he did not feel foreing… now… what I recommend to you is to check all countries at the moment you decide to retire specially the cost of living and security… a few years ago Argentina was a great place to be (if you are an American) due to the exchange rate between the Dollar and the peso… many Americans now immigrate or retire to Costa Rica, Panama (check out Boquete) and there is even a big American Colony in Guadalajara, Mexico with about ten to fifteen thousand Americans. Guadalajara is considered to have the second best climate in the world (after Nairobi), low property taxes & high return on invested capital.
Correction, I found in this website that the Guadalajara area is home to 50,000 North American expatriates… go to:
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0405/retirement_in_mexico.shtml
My family was part of the group that was moved from Peru into internment camps (they owned “Bodega Naka” in the article. They stayed in the US after the war, for a few years more than US Japanese interned. I have never seen many of the pictures you have posted, and it gives us a great insight into their lives. Thank you!
Hi Joann,
Wow, it`s nice to hear from someone who has a personal relationship with the story! I`m glad you enjoyed it!
Scott
Hi there! I was so excited to read your article. I am very curious to know about the little Naka store, I am thinking this is my great grandma’s store in Miraflores, but I am not sure as we actually don’t have any pictures of that time. Would you write me in private and share with me how did you get that picture or who does the store actually belong to, etc… My family and I are very excited and intrigued at the same time.
It’s so touching to see the boy and the three girls in front of the car, I suspect it’s my Uncle, my grandma and my 2 aunts, but not sure… please help! ^.^
Arigatou!
Hi Mia,
I searched around for half an hour but didn`t come across the photo. Your best bet is just to try and internet search of Japanese migration and Peru and similar wording. You could also try various museums. I did find this link which shows some photos and they have hundreds more.
http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/1786603/
Good luck!
The photo shows four little girls and one little boy. The family has a similar photo from another angle. You must be from a different family.
Here is an cool anecdote I would like to share with you guys…
One of my dad’s best friends was Dr. Rivera who spoke fluent Japanese.
This was because as a child he was raised in Japan were his father was the Peruvian ambassador…
here is the cool part…
His father Ambassador Ricardo Rivera Schreiber told the American ambassador Joseph Grew that there was a plan for an attack on Pearl Harbor…. I guess the Americans did not take him seriously.
After Peru had declared the war to Japan the Peruvian and Japanese Ambassadors and their families where exchanged in the neutral island of Madagascar in Africa.
I have a good memory of Dr. Rivera who saved my life as a kid when I was bitten by a wasp and had a allergic reaction loosing my breathing… my mom could not reach my dad who was in the middle of an operation (He was a Dr. also) and Dr. Rivera came to my rescue.
Here is a few links for the history lovers if you want to read about it:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/071203pearlharboravoided.html
http://www.richardsorge.com/appendices/schuleraffidavit/elcomercio/riverastatedep.html
http://www.richardsorge.com/appendices/rivera/transcript.htm
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
To be able to perceive well and judge new countries and cultures we must have a good historical, geographical and political education otherwise we are looking at them through a myopic prism full of stereotypes and misconceptions.
When I went to the U.S. (which I have driven coast to coast) I found out that the average American with a high-school diploma (and some with a College one) had a very low level of knowledge and interest of History and Geography… (I knew more American history that many of them)…. they hate communism (which I do to) but if you asked them if they have read Marx they have no Idea what it is… at first it did not bother me since they are good people and very civilized… but later when I thought this citizens of probably the greatest country on Earth have the privilege and blessing to vote and decide who is going to be the most powerful man on the Planet I got disturbed… no wonder they elected Bush… and almost put someone like Sara Palin as their vice president… scary… many did not know even where Peru is located.
Don’t take me wrong… I love the U.S. and what they have done good for the world… and I am the number one admirer of their founding fathers, some of the greatest men in human history… they gave the world the Renaissance of politics and government which did not happen in Florence… but seems that some Americans think that their founding fathers where the Pilgrims of the Mayflower or some of those puritans that were burning witches in Salem… and not the Intellectuals like Jefferson, Adams, Franklin etc. who by the way where Deists and not religious fanatics and that is why they made sure of the separation of church and state… unlike what some of their mid-west religious lunatics want…
With respect to the Asians I do not blame them for their distrust of us “Westerners” all we have to do is look at history… lets take as an example the Chinese, they had a navy that could have conquered the world before even Columbus set foot in America but there was no Chinese expansionism but European one… I think that Blaise Pascal got it right when he wrote:
“The trouble with western man is, he does not know how to be content in a empty room.”
Here is a quote of a Chinese when the Europeans arrived in China:
“These barbarians have a grim look – untidy hair – and unpleasant smell about them. They have no rituals worthy of the name. They are liars and rather arrogant. They conquer countries by fraud and then by force. They ingratiate themselves in a friendly way before they conquer the natives. At the heart of their conduct is violence.”
Lets not forget the Opium war between the Brits and the Chinese… In the 19th century Opium was the biggest single trade anywhere. An infernal triangle the Brits created between India, China and Britain ( it parallels the other infernal triangle In the 18th century of Slavery between Britain, the Americas and Africa)…. Is as if today the Colombian barons posses such a powerful fit that they will be able to sail into San Francisco and compel a large portion of the population of the United States to become addicted to heroin and cocaine and to wipe out the U.S. fleet if it intervene.
In what the British prime minister William Gladstone said it was the most disreputable war ever fought by the British… the Chinese were smashed to pieces… defeated by the very technology that they had invented… and to watch how the western “barbarians” took over their land… Chinese people where treated like animals in their own land… time for revolution arrived after years of famine civil war and foreign rule… it came in the form of communism… which is now transforming… and perhaps they in route to become the next world power with some Confucianism in business that is apply in Japan and South Korea… I hope and pray that they do not become imperialists like us westerners and keep their Confucian traditions which were more humane than ours….
Please excuse my English since is not my native language.
I love this website. Not only do I het a laugh from many of the articles posted, but every now and again I get an education on matters away from the focus of mainstream media. I have come to realise just how shallow I am, because if it wasn’t for posts on Japanese used-panty vending machines, I would not have subscribed and thus missed posts such as this gem and the contributions which followed.
Thanks LLP.
Regards,
Shallow Hal
Lima is a good example in going back in looking to a place with historical eyes.
Until the 40s and 50s Lima was a great city, it was called the garden city with lots of parks, no shanty towns… but Peru was kind of a country of two countries, Lima and some major cities with mostly non native Peruvians including the European and Asian Peruvians and the rest of the Country with a majority of natives.
The many years of neglect toward the natives created a big immigration of this Peruvians into the Capital seeking a better life and jobs thus creating the new Lima with its Shanty towns and chaotic traffic less water, etc. A good example of bad planning and bad distribution of wealth in a country. This also may explain the unjust discrimination toward the indigenous people. Here is a film of Lima from 1937… this is the Lima that the Japanese Peruvians left when they were betrayed by the Peruvian government and given to the Americans to be sent to concentration camps in the U.S:
Polynesians had South American roots:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8582150/Kon-Tiki-explorer-was-partly-right-Polynesians-had-South-American-roots.html
Hey there,
Any idea where I could get the passenger list for the “Sakura Maru” that arrived to Callao in 1899? My great-grandfather was on the ship as an immigrant to Peru. He went to the rubber plantations, but escaped to Bolivia after fleeing slave-like conditions. It would be cool to find the Kanji for his name. I’m Hispanic but still carry a Japanese surname.
Cheers,
Rudy
This is a great post. Thank you and Google for chance to read it.