Overview

During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. In more recent decades that flow has been reversed: more than 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, the essays in Searching for Home Abroad rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. The contributors--who represent a number of nationalities and disciplines themselves--analyze how the original Japanese immigrants, their descendants in Brazil, and the Japanese-Brazilians in Japan (Nikkei) sought to fit into the culture of each country while confronting both prejudice and discrimination. The concepts of home and diaspora are engaged and debated throughout the volume. Drawing on numerous sources--oral histories, interviews, private papers, films, myths, and music--the contributors highlight the role ethnic minorities have played in constructing Brazilian and Japanese national identities.The essayists consider the economic and emotional motivations for migration as well as a range of fascinating cultural outgrowths such as Japanese secret societies in Brazil. They explore intriguing paradoxes, including the feeling among many Japanese-Brazilians who have migrated to Japan that they are more ""Brazilian"" there than they were in Brazil. Searching for Home Abroad will be of great interest to scholars of immigration and ethnicity in the Americas and Asia.

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Reviews

A unique collection... --Terry Hong, Asian Week I highly recommend Searching for Home Abroad for scholars and students of anthropology, history, and ethnic studies, as well as for all those interested in transnational migration and globalization. --Nobuko Adachi, History: A Review of Books A major strength is the empirical grounding of much of the research in fieldwork conducted in Japan and Brazil, a dimension that always adds to social analysis. --Daniela de Carvalho, Journal of Japanese Studies [S]hed[s] new light on this specific minority group as well as raise[s] some tough questions about transnationalism and ethnic-identity formation in general. --Brian Masaru Hayashi, The Journal of Asian Studies [A] very interesting, informative, analytical, provocative and readable book. --Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimaraes, Journal of Latin American Studies [A] fascinating collection of essays on diverse aspects of the Japanese migration to Brazil in the early 20th century and the recent flows of Japanese Brazilians who relocated to Japan... [A] well-grounded and engaging reading for scholars from various disciplines and migration-related practitioners alike. --Ana Margheritis, The Latin Americanist [N]ot just essential reading for students and scholars of Nikkei (people of Japanese descent) issues; [this book] is also an instructive primer on the contingency of ethnic identity. --Robert Efird, Pacific Affairs Overall, the essays collected in this volume offer suggestive insights on the convoluted and unique century old Japanese-Brazilian transnational formation. For the most part, the different contributions offer highly accessible reading for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in Asian, Latin American and migration studies. --Gerardo Renique, Bulletin of Latin American Research

"""A unique collection...""--Terry Hong, Asian Week ""I highly recommend Searching for Home Abroad for scholars and students of anthropology, history, and ethnic studies, as well as for all those interested in transnational migration and globalization.""--Nobuko Adachi, History: A Review of Books ""A major strength is the empirical grounding of much of the research in fieldwork conducted in Japan and Brazil, a dimension that always adds to social analysis.""--Daniela de Carvalho, Journal of Japanese Studies ""[S]hed[s] new light on this specific minority group as well as raise[s] some tough questions about transnationalism and ethnic-identity formation in general.""--Brian Masaru Hayashi, The Journal of Asian Studies ""[A] very interesting, informative, analytical, provocative and readable book.""--Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimaraes, Journal of Latin American Studies ""[A] fascinating collection of essays on diverse aspects of the Japanese migration to Brazil in the early 20th century and the recent flows of Japanese Brazilians who relocated to Japan... [A] well-grounded and engaging reading for scholars from various disciplines and migration-related practitioners alike.""--Ana Margheritis, The Latin Americanist ""[N]ot just essential reading for students and scholars of Nikkei (people of Japanese descent) issues; [this book] is also an instructive primer on the contingency of ethnic identity.""--Robert Efird, Pacific Affairs ""Overall, the essays collected in this volume offer suggestive insights on the convoluted and unique century old Japanese-Brazilian transnational formation. For the most part, the different contributions offer highly accessible reading for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in Asian, Latin American and migration studies.""--Gerardo Renique, Bulletin of Latin American Research"

Author Information

Jeffrey Lesser is Professor of History and Director of the Program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Emory University. He is the author, most recently, of Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil, also published by Duke University Press.

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