Interviews

1. Defining "Nikkei" through lineage and community involvement (Spanish)

2. The term Nikkei reflects ties to Japan (Spanish)

3. Japanese language education for Paraguayan Nisei (Spanish)

4. Treatment of Japanese Paraguayans during World War II (Spanish)

5. Inclusiveness of the first Japanese colony in Paraguay (Spanish)

6. Nikkei contributions to Paraguayan agriculture (Spanish)

7. Paraguayan with a Japanese face (Spanish)

Kasamatsu,Emi

Nisei Paraguayan, Researcher

Japanese language education for Paraguayan Nisei (Spanish)

(Spanish) So with us, the Paraguayan Nisei, most of us speak Japanese. Maybe because we were new here or because our parents brought us up that way, and there was probably a big drive among Issei to instill Japanese education in the settlements and in Asuncion. So to a certain extent we receive a Japanese education, even if it’s just at the elementary level. Now more recently it goes through high school, and then there are also, for example, big conferences with lectures in Japanese, the famous Benron Taikai as they’re called, where they have excellent Japanese lecturers, but not so many in Spanish, and that’s the unusual part. So a lot of people say that the Paraguayan Nisei are a lot like the Japanese, even though it’s not that way in other countries. They are much more integrated into the general or local population. Nevertheless, Sansei are already quite different, as well as the Yonsei, who are still children. I think that’s the main characteristic of the Japanese, of the Nisei in Paraguay.

Asuncion Benron Taikai (event) Hawaii identity Japanese Americans Japanese language languages Nikkei Paraguay United States

Date: October 7, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Emilia Yumi Kasamatsu (also known as “Emi”) was born and raised in La Colmena, Paraguay. La Colmena was the first Japanese colony in Paraguay. Her father was a prominent figure in the colony as an organizer and administrator. Emi has fond memories of a strict education that was a mix of Japanese and Paraguayan ideals. Her education provided an understanding of future aspirations and projections of her adult life in the capital of Paraguay. Kasamatsu graduated from the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras with a Bachelor in Literature, and received her postgraduate degree in Gender and Development at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (UNA). She has published a variety of books on the topic of Japanese immigration into Paraguay and the Americas, which are written in the Spanish language and translated into Japanese and English: La presencia japonesa en el Paraguay (1987), La historia de la Asociación Panamericana Nikkei presencia e inmigración japonesas en las Americas (2005) (bilingual editions: Spanish and English); Edited by Akemi Kikumura: New World, New Lives (2002) and Encyclopedia of Japanese Descendants in the Americas (2002) in English and Japanese. Emi Kasamatsu is President of the Centro Social de Beneficencia Japonesa in Paraguay (2006-2008) and the first Vice President of the Asociación Paraguayo Japonesa (2005-2008). She was President of Centro Nikkei Paraguayo (an association of the Nisei in Paraguay) and the 6th Convención Panamericana Nikkei. Kasamatsu was delegate of Paraguay between 1987-2007. She is Vice Director of the Paraguayan Japanese Center for the Development of Human Resources, and is involved with the Academic and Cultural Coordination. (May 23, 2007)