Japanese Immigrants in South America J.T. 9th grade, Tamagawa Gakuen junior high school division

I would like to introduce Japanese immigrants in the South America. The South America has more than 1.4 million Japanese immigrants. And there are 7700 Japanese immigrants live in Paraguay where I have lived before. Japanese immigrants are called "Nikkei" as Japanese who had immigrated abroad. Some kept Japanese nationality, some became Brazilian or Peruvian by naturalization.

The immigration to South America had started since early twentieth century under the governmental policy and a lot of Japanese had immigrated every year. But their life there was very hard, and most of them despaired of their future at the beginning of their immigration. Some immigrants cut down forest and cultivated the land as farmers. Others went to a big town and started business. Now they own big farms and companies. Furthermore, one of Nikkei became the president of Peru. A lot of Japanese immigrants succeeded and contributed to the South American economical development.

Most Japanese immigrants in Paraguay came after the World War II. Some of them are engaged in farming and their main crop is soybean. Others manage agencies of Japanese company. In addition, there are many Japanese doctors and engineers. Furthermore, I would like to emphasize that those Japanese taught modern farming technology to Paraguayan. Japanese farmers have an average of 300 hectares land. Some of them own and manage 1700 hectares. Most of the Japanese farmers grow soybeans and 40% of exported products are soybeans in Paraguay. Now Paraguay gained the fifth place out in exporting countries in the world. And Japanese are respected and appreciated with this work by many Paraguayan.

One of the miserable incidents for Japanese farmers was the disaster of grasshopper. The clouds of grasshoppers spread 4 kilometers wide and 35 kilometers long and ate all farm products in a few minutes and left the devastated lands. After that, a treaty among Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina was concluded to exterminate grasshoppers. Japanese immigrants have been toiled for a long time because of such disaster.

However, such effort and contribution of Japanese are known little in Japan. In fact, Japanese immigrants are one of the most reliable people in the South America. Their social status is much higher than what Japanese in Japan think. In these days, the economy of South America has become worse, and number of Japanese immigrants has come to Japan to work called "Dekasegi". I was very sorry to hear that some Japanese call them "Gaijin" (Foreigner) and discriminate them. What a shame!

What is nationality?

Why do Japanese immigrants have to have Japanese nationality?

It is said Japan is one of the most strict country to restrict entry into Japan. In addition, Japan is an isolated island country. So Japan may not have exposure among different cultures. Some Japanese imagine unsophisticated countries when they hear a word "South America". Many Japanese respect Japanese American who speaks English. But I think Japanese look down Japanese immigrants who speak Spanish and Portuguese in South America. I think such attitude comes from an extreme inferiority feeling toward American and a superior feeling toward developing countries. Ignoring their respect and contribution in the South American countries shows the indifference and poor imagination towards other people in foreign country.

People who come from a different culture may have an idea that Japanese will never think of. If there is an another culture next to you, compare and contrast it with yours. An excellent idea comes through such process and the relationships between different cultures improve the idea. In order to generate an excellent idea, it is important to accept other people in different cultures than to copy other cultures. In such point, the network made by Japanese immigrants all over the world is a great property for Japan to communicate with other cultures.

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