Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1552/

Not too concerned about learning Japanese when he was growing up in Brazil (Portuguese)

(Portuguese) 

My name is Antonio Shinkiti Shikota. I was born in Campinas [in the state of São Paulo], on September 12, 1962. My parents are Japanese. They are ... My father is from Sendai and my mother from Miyagi-ken. My parents spoke Japanese at home. But I wasn’t really into it, ya know, even though they said I’d have to learn Japanese ... I wasn’t too concerned with learning Japanese. I’d say, “C’mon, I'm in Brazil, ya know, so ... I care about speaking Portuguese, get it?” [laughs]

 


Brazil languages

Date: October 19, 2016

Location: Gunma, Japan

Interviewer: Shigeru Kojima

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

Interviewee Bio

Antonio Shinkiti Shikota was born on September 12, 1962, in the city of Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil. His parents were born in Japan. Wanting to start his own business, he followed a friend’s advice and went to Japan. Initially, he worked as a factory worker and ended up liking it so he stayed in the country. Today, he lives in the city of Oizumi and he is the owner of an itinerant Brazilian products store in Japan. The itinerant store is a truck that offers a variety of Brazilian products directed mainly at the Nikkei public. Antonio is very fond of living in Japan and the city of Oizumi. (February 2018) 

Francis Y. Sogi
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Sogi,Francis Y.

Feeling closer to Japan as a Japanese American

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

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Paula Hoyos Hattori
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Hattori,Paula Hoyos

To think in one language and live in another (Spanish)

Sansei Argentinean

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Ryoko Hokama
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Hokama,Ryoko

Initial struggles with the language barrier (Japanese)

(b. 1917) Okinawan, Issei Argentinean

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Kazuomi Takagi
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Takagi,Kazuomi

Learning Spanish (Spanish)

(1925-2014) La Plata Hochi, Journalist

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Celia Oi
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Oi,Celia

Japan's impact on the image of Nikkei in Brazil (Portuguese)

Former Director, Museu Histórico da Imigração Japonesa no Brasil

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Celia Oi
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Oi,Celia

Change in sense of Nikkei Brazilian identity over time (Portuguese)

Former Director, Museu Histórico da Imigração Japonesa no Brasil

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Clifford Uyeda
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Uyeda,Clifford

Japanese Language School

(1917 - 2004) Political activist

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Henry Suto
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Suto,Henry

Working tirelessly after the war (Japanese)

(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.

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Miyoko Amano
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Amano,Miyoko

A Lifestyle Using Both Japanese and Spanish (Japanese)

(b. 1929) President of Amano Museum

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Teaching English in Japan

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Paulo Issamu Hirano
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Hirano,Paulo Issamu

The difference between Nikkei community in Oizumi and Brazil (Japanese)

(b. 1979) Sansei Nikkei Brazilian who lives in Oizumi-machi in Gunma prefecture. He runs his own design studio.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Working together in Okinawa using three languages

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Fumiko Hachiya Wasserman
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Wasserman,Fumiko Hachiya

Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard

Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Holly J. Fujie
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Fujie,Holly J.

Her grandfather was pressured to teach Japanese

Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Masato Ninomiya
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Ninomiya,Masato

Foreign language education was severely restricted during the war

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

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