Roberto Oshiro Teruya
@robertoRoberto Oshiro Teruya is a 53-year-old Peruvian of the third generation (Sansei); his parents, Seijo Oshiro and Shizue Teruya, both came from Okinawa (Tomigusuku and Yonabaru, respectively). He lives in Lima, the capital of Peru, where he works in the retail clothing business in the city's downtown. He is married to Jenny Nakasone and they have two children Mayumi (23) and Akio (14). He has a deep interest in continuing to preserve the customs inculcated by his grandparents, including cuisine and the butsudan, and hopes his children will do the same.
Updated June 2017
Stories from This Author
Jinsei no aki (Autumn of Life)
Aug. 9, 2023 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
It’s the Year of the Rabbit and in October I will be 60 years old. My Okinawan grandparents would say I’m going to celebreate my tushibi1, it’s my year and it should be done according to our customs. It’s a different kind of year. Lately I read that from 60 years old and on, you should be grateful to be alive. If in previous years you were careful, now you have to pay attention to any bad thing that could …
Julieta Fonte Iha, a Cuban Nikkei
July 4, 2022 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
Modernity shortens distances, information is just a click away, we can strengthen bonds of friendship with people from anywhere in the world through virtual means. A few years ago I received a friend request on Facebook from a certain Julio Iha, I was surprised to see that he was Cuban, ignorance makes me think that there were no Nikkeis in Cuba. The truth was that I was very wrong, immigration began in 1898, arriving from different parts of Japan. As …
Nantu, the Mochi of Uchina
June 8, 2022 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
As Nikkei, we have inherited a culture that our ancestors brought from Japan. My grandparents, who emigrated from Okinawa, have seen some of their customs adapted to our country. Meanwhile, other customs have been preserved to the letter, even when they’ve been forgotten in their place of origin as if they’d been frozen in time. Sometimes I feel like we have grown up loving the idealized place that they have maintained in their minds. In Peru, we have a small …
Sata Andagi
Nov. 19, 2021 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
I don't know when you came into my life, I just know that now you are part of it, of my culture, of my roots, of my memories, of being Nikkei, of something very important: “being Uchinanchu 1 ”. When I see you, sometimes you are a flower, other times a woman who smiles at me, who makes me fall in love, or perhaps a pregnant mother who carries a treasure in her womb. They say that before you were …
Isabel Kamiya, the first technician in electronics, radio and television
Aug. 28, 2020 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
When I started this chat interview with Isabel Kamiya, she told me the story of her family. I collected all the data, which was too much, so I decided to make a separate article about it. Everything revolved around her family and in the end I would do one about her, I thought it would be very easy. What I found was that if the family story was interesting, hers was also interesting and with many surprises, but very complicated, …
We inherit moral values, even properties, but also diseases, we are so sweet
July 28, 2020 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
I start this publication with what Isabel Kamiya told me, who wanted it for the title, but I had to cut it: “we inherit dignity, decency, honor, even property, but also illnesses from our parents. “We are very sweet brothers.” This article has everything to prevent it from being read: common and simple people, strangers, the title is too long, as is the article (they say they should be short, concise, so that people do not abandon reading, especially an …
Ronald Arteta Miyashiro — Latin Generation
June 11, 2020 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
In this quarantine, inactivity makes us seek to see other things that can distract us, to get away from all this news that saturates us and depresses us. Although it is true that it is very important to be informed, the only thing that excess information does is create more stress in us, we must keep in mind that we know what to do, the measures to avoid getting infected, not going out. We cannot change the rest, it is …
Sashimi or ceviche
Feb. 17, 2020 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
We are Nikkei, our roots come from a distant place in the east, which is Okinawa in Japan, from there our grandparents came, in search of a better future for their family, to this beautiful country that became our homeland, our Peru . Like all immigrants, it is most likely that they did it with the purpose of staying for a while, collecting okane (money) and returning, as they said; This was postponed, until they stayed completely, so that it …
Some circumstances of being Nikkei in Peru
Sept. 23, 2019 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
The emigrant of Japanese origin and his descendants are called “nikkeis”. In my case, my ojí (grandfather) and obá (grandmother) on my mom and dad's side came from Japan, their children (my parents), their grandchildren (us) and the other descendants are Nikkeis. The story is common to all of us, our grandparents came to Peru looking for a better future, like every immigrant. They had a hard life, with a lot of work, being discriminated against, abused, robbed, for being …
A short history of Japanese immigration
Aug. 7, 2019 • Roberto Oshiro Teruya
April 3, 2019 is a very important date for us, we celebrate 120 years of Japanese Immigration to Peru, during this time immigrants crossed the Pacific who made a common history of these two nations. There are many important stories that represent it, they are well known to everyone, but there are others that were part of it almost anonymously, people who fought, worked and suffered until finally being part of this great country that welcomed them and all their …
