The Japanese in Latin America (Asian American Experience) - Softcover

Masterson, Daniel M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252071441 ISBN 13: 9780252071447

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2003

Synopsis

Japanese migration to Latin America began in the late nineteenth century, and today the continent is home to 1.5 million persons of Japanese descent. Combining detailed scholarship with rich personal histories, The Japanese in Latin America is the first comprehensive study of the patterns of Japanese migration on the continent as a whole.
 
When the United States and Canada tightened their immigration restrictions in 1907, Japanese contract laborers began to arrive in mines and plantations in Latin America. Daniel M. Masterson, with the assistance of Sayaka Funada-Classen, examines Japanese agricultural colonies in Latin America, as well as the subsequent cultural networks that sprang up within and among them, and the changes that occurred as the Japanese moved from wage labor to ownership of farms and small businesses. Masterson also explores recent economic crises in Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, which combined with a strong Japanese economy to cause at least a quarter million Latin American Japanese to migrate back to Japan.
 
Illuminating authoritative research with extensive interviews with migrants and their families, The Japanese in Latin America examines the dilemma of immigrants who maintained strong allegiances to their Japanese roots, even while they struggled to build lives in their new countries.
 

About this title

About the Author:

DANIEL M. MASTERSON is an Associate Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.

SAYAKA FUNADA-CLASSEN is a researcher at the Institute of International and Cultural Studies, Tsuda College, Tokyo.

Review:

"A first-rate piece of scholarship. It provides an invaluable overview of the history of the Japanese on the continent, with extraordinary richness of detail throughout."

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0252071441
• ISBN 13: 9780252071447
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368