Sergio Hernández Galindo
@sergiohernandezSergio Hernández Galindo is a graduate of Colegio de México, where he majored in Japanese studies. He has published numerous articles and books about Japanese emigration to Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.
His most recent book, Los que vinieron de Nagano. Una migración japonesa a México (Those who came from Nagano: A Japanese migration to Mexico, 2015) tells the stories of emigrants from that prefecture before and after the war. In his well-known book, La guerra contra los japoneses en México. Kiso Tsuru y Masao Imuro, migrantes vigilados (The war against Japanese people in Mexico: Kiso Tsuro and Masao Imuro, migrants under surveillance), he explained the consequences of conflict between the United States and Japan for the Japanese community decades before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
He has taught classes and led conferences on this topic at universities in Italy, Chile, Peru, and Argentina as well as Japan, where he was part of the group of foreign specialists in the Kanagawa Prefecture and a fellow of the Japan Foundation, affiliated with Yokohama National University. He is currently a professor and researcher with the Historical Studies Unit of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Updated April 2016
Stories from This Author
Concepción Hiramuro and Francisco Akachi: Two lives of children of immigrants that converge
Feb. 21, 2018 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
Concepción Michie Hiramuro and Francisco Yoshitaka Akachi married in the city of Guadalajara in 1963. Their lives were not only intertwined by the fact that they formed a family; Their lives took parallel paths when they were born in Mexico as children of Japanese immigrants and because their childhood was spent in Japan during the difficult years of the war and the no less terrible ones that followed after Japan's defeat in the year of 1945. Michie witnessed the dropping …
Policies against the Japanese-American Dreamers in World War II: An inhuman racism that still persists
Nov. 8, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
The series of anti-immigration measures being instituted by President Donald Trump, including the proposed elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, is a stark reminder of how Japanese-Americans were persecuted after the Pacific War broke out in December 1941. Enacted by President Obama in June 2012, DACA has enabled 800,000 young people to study and work in the United States without the threat of deportation. These same young people were brought to the United States as children, …
Carlos Kasuga Osaka: A Story of Shared Struggle and Work
Oct. 26, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
In October 2017, leading Mexican businessman Carlos Kasuga Osaka celebrated his 80th birthday. Carlos is known to many as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yakult, a Japanese company. He has also become very famous as a public speaker, with thousands of followers on social media. Behind the success of Carlos Kasuga is a story of hard work and dedication, both personal and by the Japanese community. However, this story is not so well known. The son of Japanese immigrants …
José Taro Zorrilla Takeda: A Nikkei Architect on a Quest to Build Social Landscapes
Oct. 16, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
José Taro Zorrilla Takeda is a young Japanese-Mexican artist and architect who was educated at prestigious universities in Japan and Mexico. Through his profession and social activism, he has succeeded in combining the training both countries provided to develop his career and dedicate himself to addressing the problems facing both countries. Taro’s mother, Kazuko Takeda, arrived in Mexico in 1974 as a young woman. She had attended Sophie University (Jōchi Daigaku), where she majored in Spanish. Kazuko was part of …
Shozo Ogino: the chronicler of the 500 years of contacts between Mexico and Japan
Aug. 2, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
The book Umi wo koete gohyakunen (500 years across the sea) written by Shozo Ogino is one of the most fascinating accounts of the relations between Mexico and Japan. Although the 440-page volume begins with the description of the first contacts between New Spain and Japan in the 16th century, the series of stories that give substance to the book address the life, anecdotes and events of the Japanese emigrants who came to Mexico after the year 1897. It was …
Isamu Carlos Shibayama and the Persecution of Japanese Latin Americans: A Pending Case
May 1, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
Isamu Carlos Shubayama, the son of Japanese immigrants, was born in Peru in 1931. When he was still a boy, his parents, siblings and grandparents were arrested in Lima in response to a request from the U.S. government in 1944. The Shibayamas were taken to the United States, where they were held in detention for two years at a concentration camp in Crystal City, Texas. During the war, the young boy's grandparents were exchanged for citizens of the Allied countries, …
The Mexican Piñatas and Blankets Sent to Japan in Support of the Victims of the Great Earthquake of 2011
March 10, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
It was early in the morning of March 11, 2011, and Midori Suzuki was having trouble sleeping. That same day, the Japanese Mexican Association was to inaugurate an art exhibit called Flor de Maguey that she had organized with some of her fellow painters. After Midori was finally able to fall asleep, a friend called to tell her there had been a massive earthquake in Japan. Still not totally awake, she answered quickly: “Don’t worry! It’s probably just one of …
Celebration and Resistance Among Japanese Immigrants in Mexico: The Festival of Shōgatsu
Jan. 1, 2017 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
The hundreds of thousands of Japanese immigrants who came to the Americas brought only the bare necessities: some clothing, perhaps a few photographs to remind them of home. But they also came with many traditions and customs passed down through their families in their home villages. Despite being separated from their birthplace by thousands of miles, the colors, flavors, and fragrance of food and celebrations on special occasions were unforgettable memories, etched in their minds. The New Year celebration, shōgatsu, …
The war of hate and persecution against Japanese emigrants in America. NEVER FORGET
Dec. 7, 2016 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
For the millions of Mexicans and resident muslims in United States On the afternoon of December 7, 1941, the news of the attack by the Japanese navy on the North American naval base at Pearl Harbor had already spread like wildfire throughout the American continent. In the United States, Mexico and other countries where a large number of Japanese emigrants and their families resided, a period of great uncertainty, fear and anguish began to be experienced. -“What will become of …
Japanese Immigrants Who Joined the Mexican Revolution
Nov. 7, 2016 • Sergio Hernández Galindo
For Mexico, late 1910 was a time of great contrasts. On the one hand, the celebration of its first centenary in September of that year appeared to show a united and modern country, full of joy and patriotism. This was the image that President Porfirio Díaz, who had governed the country with a firm hand for more than 30 years, wanted the world to see. The “cry of independence,” the grandiose parade, huge monuments such as the Hemicycle dedicated to …
