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The Japanese Contribution to Latin American Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Fumio Nakagawa*
Affiliation:
University of Tsukuba, Japan
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Japan has maintained rather intense contact with various parts of Latin America, previously through migration and recently through economic relations. Japanese scholarly production about Latin America, however, has never matched that contact. Although thousands of technical reports, travelogues, and general books on Latin America have been produced in Japan, scholarly works of value have been scarce. There are, however, a few works researched and written by Japanese, both in Japan and in overseas Japanese communities, that could contribute to, or at least add new source materials to, the study of Latin America; they are relatively unknown to foreign scholars, mainly because of the barrier presented by the Japanese language.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by the University of Texas Press

References

Notes

1. Hiroshi Mitani, “Latin American Studies in Japan,” in Earl J. Pariseau, ed., Handbook of Latin American Studies, No. 27, Social Sciences (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1965), pp. 457–63. Gustavo Andrade, “Latin American Studies in Japan,” LARR 7, no. 1 (Spring 1973):147–56.

2. See, for example, Ryoji Noda, Sekai no daihōko nanbei [South America: treasure house of the world] (Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1912); Yoshizō Yamazaki, Burajiru [Brazil] (Tokyo: Ōokayma Shoten, 1925).

3. Mitani, “Latin American Studies”; Mitani, Nihon no raten-amerika chōsa-kenkyu gaisetsu [An introduction to Latin American studies in Japan] (Tokyo: Raten Amerika Kyōkai, 1965). The latter is a detailed annotated bibliography not translated into other languages.

4. Robert J. Smith et al., The Japanese and Their Descendents in Brazil: An Annotated Bibliography (São Paulo: Centro de Estudos Nipo-Brasileiros, 1967).

5. Takashi Maeyama, Hisōzokusha no seishin-shi: Aru nikkei burajirujin no henreki [The ethics of the disinherited: the life history of a Japanese immigrant in Brazil] (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobo, 1981). A well-written and well-documented biography of Kumaki Nakao, a self-educated immigrant, who started as a contract farm worker and house servant and later became a successful businessman. He patronized immigrants' intellectual activities, and his many writings include the first Portuguese grammar for Japanese immigrants. See also Zempati Ando, Burajiru-shi [A history of Brazil] (Tokyo: Kawadeshobo Shinsha, 1956). Hiroshi Saito, ed., Atarashii burajiru [New Brazil] (Tokyo: Saimaru Shuppankai, 1975).

6. For statistical tables, in both English and Japanese, see Comissão de Recenseamento da Colônia Japonesa, The Japanese Immigrant in Brazil (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1964). For the revised narrative part in English, see Teiiti Suzuki, The Japanese Immigrant in Brazil: Narrative Part (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1969).

7. Hiroshi Saito and Takashi Maeyama, Assimilação e integração dos japoneses no Brasil (Petropolis: Editora Vozes Ltda., 1973).

8. Tomoo Handa, Imin no seikatsu no rekishi–Burajiru nikkeijin no ayunda michi [A history of the life of an immigrant—the path of Japanese-Brazilians] (Tokyo: Ienohikarisha, 1970). About a third of the original Japanese version is translated into Portuguese; Tomoo Handa, Memórias de um imigrante Japonês no Brasil, tradução de Antonio Nojiri (São Paulo: T. A. Queiroz, Editor, 1980). Rokuro Kōyama, Kōyama Rokuro Kaisoroku–Burajiru dai-ikkai imin no Kiroku [Memoir of Rokuro Koyama—record of an immigrant of the first group to Brazil] (São Paulo: Centro de Estudos Nipo-Brasileiros, 1976).

9. Takashi Maeyama, “Iminbungaku Kara mainoritii bungaku e” [From immigrant literature to minority literature], in Colonia Bungakukai, eds., Colonia shosetsu senshu [Selected Colonia novels], vol. 1 (São Paulo: Colonia Bungakukai, 1975), pp. 306–20.

10. The achievements of the immigrant botanist Goro Hashimoto should be mentioned. He discovered quite a few new plants and founded a museum in Sete Auedas, Parana. Because he did most of his writing in Japanese, his influence on Brazilian and foreign naturalists was limited.

11. Carlos H. Oberacker, Jr., A contribuição teuta à formação da nação brasileira, 2d ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Presença, 1968), pp. 461–500.

12. Iyo Kunimoto, “Japan and Mexico, 1888–1917” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1975).

13. Kumaichi Horiguchi, Sekai to sekaijin [The world and world man] (Tokyo: Daiichi Shobo, 1936). W. Dirk Raat, “Mexico's Global Revolution: Recent Trends in Mexican Revolutionary Studies in Japan, the U.K., and Europe,” paper presented at the VI Conference of Mexican and United States Historians, Chicago, Sept. 1981.

14. Raten Amerika Kyōkai, ed., Mekishiko Ijushi [History of Japanese migration to Mexico] (Tokyo: Raten Amerika Kyōkai, 1970); Julia de Muria and Fumio Nakagawa, “Entrevista con Alberto Asajiro Tanaka, diciembre 1973” (México, D.F.: INAH Archivo Sonoro, on tapes).

15. Seiichi Izumi and Hiroshi Saito, Amazon: sono fūdo to nihonjin [The Amazon: its natural features and the Japanese] (Tokyo: Kokon Shoin, 1954). Seiichi Izumi, ed., Imin: Burajiru imin no jittai chōsa [Immigrants: a report of a survey of the immigrants in-Brazil] (Tokyo: Konon Shoin, 1957). Fumio Tada, ed., Amazon no shizen to shakai [Nature and society in the Amazon] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1957).

16. Seiichi Izumi and Kazuo Terada, eds., Excavations at Kotosh, Peru, 1963 and 1966 (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1972). Reports are being printed for the excavations of 1975 and 1979.

17. For the list of major publications in the Japanese language (including translation of foreign publications) concerning the Cuban Revolution, see Yuzo Kamo, ed., Kyūba Kakumei [Cuban revolution] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1973). For the list and an overview of publication concerning the Chilean Revolution, see Akira Ishii et al., “Nanajunendai nihon ni okeru hatten-tojo-chiiki-kenkyu—Raten Amerika” [Japanese studies of developing areas in the 1970s—Latin America] Ajia Keizai 19, no. 1–2 (Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economies, Feb. 1978), pp. 234–57. The part on Chile is by Hideho Yoshida.

18. Iyo Kunimoto, “Investigaciones y estudios históricos sobre América Latina en Japón: situación presente y problemas,” Iberoamericana 11, no. 1 (January 1980):66–67 (Tokyo, Sophia University Ibero-American Institute).

19. Akio Hosono, “Industrialización y empleo: experiencias en Asia y estrategias para América Latina,” Revista de la CEPAL 1, no. 2 (June 1976):119–60; ECLA and International Development Center of Japan, Towards New Forms of Economic Cooperation between Latin America and Japan (Santiago and Tokyo: ECLA and IDCJ, 1980).

20. For the list and an overview of publications in Japan about Latin America during the 1970s, see Akira Ishii et al., “Raten Amerika.”

21. Since the mid-1970s, among all Latin American countries, Mexico is the one for which most publications have been produced in Japan. This is mostly a result of the extensive exchange of person programs between Mexico and Japan started in 1971 through which younger Japanese Latin Americanists came to have more contact with Mexico than other countries. Brazil, for which most publications had been produced until the mid-1970s, stands second today.

22. R. P. Dore, “Japan and Latin America Compared,” in JohnJ. Johnson, ed, Continuity and Change in Latin America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), pp. 227–49.