Interviews

1. The Nikkei Integration into society (Spanish)

2. Is non-integration due to the distrust because of what happened in the Second World War? (Spanish)

3. Looking Inside (Spanish)

4. I’m a Japanese, Peruvian… who am I? (Spanish)

5. Being a Nikkei today (Spanish)

6. Nikkei identity (Spanish)

7. Does a Nikkei culture exist? (Spanish)

8. Necessary apologies (Spanish)

9. Japanese immigration with an Okinawan face (Spanish)

10. The Okinawan idiosyncrasies (Spanish)

11. Ambassador of Good Will (Spanish)

12. Ambassador’s job (Spanish)

13. Histories of immigrants (Spanish)

14. The myth of the sacrifice of immigrants (Spanish)

15. Paisaje terrestre [Terrestrial landscape] (Spanish)

16. Feminist, ecologist, Buddhist… activist (Spanish)

17. The poet is going to hibernate (Spanish)

Moromisato,Doris

(b. 1962) Peruvian Poet, Okinawan descendant

I’m a Japanese, Peruvian… who am I? (Spanish)

(Spanish) Happily, the new generations don’t ask any anymore. With a healthy envy, I see the young Nikkei, I take off my hat, and I am very happy they are like this, that they have less problems, and that the theme of identity is less problematic. Why? Because the idea of only one identity doesn’t prevail anymore, it doesn’t give them problems. And then, in relation to their body, they can show it: they’re postmodern people that have included the values of the citizens, of democracy, civil rights, sexual rights, and reproduction rights. They’re healthier people. And look how interesting, that in the light of freedom, they choose to stay in the Nikkei community. It’s truth that there are many marriages out of this Nikkei community. Not all are endogamous marriages--there are exogamous marriages--but most of them are endogenous and they stay, At least the marriage index between Nikkei in Peru is the majority, and in relation to young people. I’m talking about people less than 30 years of age.

families Hawaii identity Japanese Americans Nikkei Peru United States

Date: February 26, 2008

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Harumi Nako

Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)

Interviewee Bio

Doris Moromisato Miasato (1962) was born in Chambala, an agricultural zone of Lima, Peru. She graduated with a degree in Law and Political Science at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

She has published the collection of poems Morada donde la luna perdió su palidez [Home were the moon lost its paleness] (1988), Chambala era un camino [Chambala was the path] (1999), Diario de la mujer es ponja [Diary of a Jap woman] (2004), Paisaje Terrestre [Terrestrial Path] (2007), as well as the story book Okinawa, un siglo en el Perú [Okinawa. A century in Peru] (2006). Her poems, stories, essays, and features have also been included in several anthologies and have been translated into several languages.

She is an ecologist, feminist and Buddhist. In 2006, the Okinawa Municipality nominated her as an Ambassador of Good Will. Nowadays, she is columnist for the Discover Nikkei Website, and since 2005 she has managed the organization of book fairs as Cultural Director of Cámara Peruana del Libro. (February 26, 2008)