Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1056/

Ambassador of Good Will (Spanish)

(Spanish) Well, I thought it was a title… I thought the Ambassador of Good Will was something like the title of Miss something, right? Like Miss Hawaiian Tropic, Miss some thing frivolous, but no. I discovered that this category is given by the United Nations. For example, the singer Diego Torres is the Ambassador of Good Will of the United Nations. I think Shirley Temple is also an Ambassador of Good Will, and that the trendy singer Gianmarco is too. I haven’t studied it well but it seems to me the emissaries are in charge of taking the good will from a community or, in charge of taking the best expressions to a group. However, to me, ambassador of good will means to be an ambassador of the Okinawan nation in Peru. I am an ambassador of the Okinawan nation in Peru. That is it. And I have been it all my life. I have also had problems with authoritative figures of the Japanese community because there are suspicions of me, of me being a separatist, being… separatist, no? Unfortunately they think this because there still exists a monolithic mentality and they don’t understand diversity. What makes us stronger is the diversity, not the accomplice silence where things are not said, nor the false unity to belittle ourselves, or lean before a decree. No. I believe in the diversity. I like to be Nikkei. I like to be in the Japanese-Peruvian community, however with my differences.


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)

Kawakami,Barbara

Okinawan discrimination

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

Shibayama,Art

Activities growing up in Peru

(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.

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Family's deportation from Peru to U.S. after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

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Denied redress as a Japanese Peruvian

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Japanese vs. Peruvian identity (Spanish)

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Peru Shimpo for the Nikkei community (Spanish)

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Escaping to a small village in the mountains during the World War II (Spanish)

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Post-war experiences in Lima (Spanish)

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We go to America (Spanish)

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Memories of my infancy: Japanese 1, Japanese 2… (Spanish)

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Mistreating the Japanese community (Spanish)

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Prejudice in Japanese school (Spanish)

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Hiding out to avoid the concentration camps (Spanish)

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Help from fellow Japanese (Spanish)

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Education Japanese style (Spanish)

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