Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1059/

The myth of the sacrifice of immigrants (Spanish)

(Spanish) We’re a group that still believes we are immigrants. That is why we don’t get together, why we don’t give ourselves to the native land. And part of this immigrant’s logic is to inherit this entire mystic notion, this example. The blood is not the only thing you inherit; you inherit the example, the gesture. And yes, I continue to observe in the third, fourth generations of sansei people that yes… but well, for the good, they very smartly put it where they want to. They sometimes stray but they get back to the same place. They go out but return to the correct path, the kami. In my case, or in the case of the Nisei, it’s terrible. We took and sometimes I feel that I take… ahh, what you refer to as sacrifice, to duty, of example… hangs over my shoulders. It is now like an obstacle, the fear that it will defeat me. Look, think. There was a moment in my life that I thought ‘I can’t even kill myself; I can’t auto eliminate nor commit suicide, even if I wanted to because it is bad example’. I still continue to think like this because it would be a bad example for my nephews, relatives, bad example for living a courageous life, dedicated to literature, and cultural promotion. And in the end I auto eliminate myself. What’s the phrase? ”See, you shouldn’t be like this because you’ll end like this”. I can’t even do that. Life belongs to us until a certain point, and then it doesn’t. That is the detail of being a Nikkei. Life belongs to us until certain point because we’re very moral. We’re moral. Every immigrant people are messianic. They feel they have a mission, the mission of giving a good example: the mission to inhabit the earth: the mission to take the good word, good attitudes, something positive… a lot of energy to the rest, especially to the family, to your closest circle. So, yes, it is not a legend, it’s a fact. We live with that, and that is another way of being a Nikkei too. It’s not bad, but yes it’s exhausting.


generations Hawaii identity immigrants immigration Japanese Americans migration Nikkei Nisei 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)

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