2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Migration, Memory, and Literature: Mapping Japanese Nationalism in Nikkei Communities in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina
| Project/Area Number |
16K02612
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
間藤 茂子 早稲田大学, 国際学術院, 教授 (90579468)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Nikkei writers / Japanese Peruvian memory / migration / national identity |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I published one article exploring how Japanese Peruvian poet, Jose Watanabe, creates an unconventional image of home drawing on a theory of cultural mobility articulated by literary historian Stephen Greenblatt. The other two publications were book chapters on Augusto Higa Oshiro’s short stories, in which I argue how and why Japanese Peruvians’ memory is destabilized by alternative voices unfitting to the mainstream established legacy of suffering and overcoming. I also published a book review on a novel by Colombian American writer Rafael Reyes-Ruiz that depicts transnational and transcultural encounters. The other academic activities include presentations on Higa’s story and Peruvian writer Luis Arriola Ayala’s short story about a Peruvian illegal migrant worker in Japan at international conferences in Barcelona (Latin American Studies Association, May) and Lima (La Asociacion Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y Africa, Aug.). For the LASA conference, I also served as an evaluator of submissions for the track Latin America and Asia. I also had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Arriola Ayala about his process of writing based on his own experience as a migrant worker in Japan.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
The aim was to start analyzing two texts by Bolivian poet, Pedro Shimose, and Argentine novelist, Maximiliano Matayoshi, but publishing articles on Peruvian Nikkei writers took longer than I expected. At the same time, I have been working on a book project on Japanese Peruvian memory and migration that compiles four articles on four different authors. I also found non-Nikkei Peruvian authors who write about the Japanese Peruvian community in Lima and cultural encounters with Japanese people and society and have not been able to shift my research focus into Bolivian and Argentine writers. During my research, I discovered the visible presence of a Japanese Paraguayan community and made some personal and professional connections with the Paraguay Embassy in Japan as well as with the National University of Asuncion. These are the two main reasons why my research project on Japanese Bolivian and Japanese Argentine writers have been delayed.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I have started examining the novel Gaijin by Japanese Argentine writer Maximiliano Matayoshi and will write a paper on it drawing attention to the main character’s sense of belonging. I will attempt to explore it by applying the studies of oceanic traveling space that allow me to look at the notion of nation and belongingness from different angles. I will also work on a pending article on a story by Japanese Peruvian writer, Carlos Yushimito del Valle, for a book chapterpublication. My other academic activities include 1) a possible visit to Paraguay in October to participate in a conference on Japanese immigration to Paraguay; 2) to finish a pending book project that will be published in Lima; and 3) to attend a conference on Hispanic literature in Latin America (place to be announced later).
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