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Looking Like the Enemy: Japanese Mexicans, the Mexican State, and US Hegemony, 1897–1945
At the beginning of the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese citizens sought new opportunities abroad. By 1910, nearly ten thousand had settled in Mexico. Over time, they found work, put down roots, and raised families. But until now, very little has been written about their lives. Looking Like the Enemy is the first English-language history of the Japanese experience in Mexico.
Japanese citizens were initially lured to Mexico with promises of cheap and productive land in Chiapas. Many of the promises were false, and the immigrants were forced to fan out across the country, especially to the lands along the US border. As Jerry García reveals, they were victims of discrimination based on “difference,” but they also displayed “markers of whiteness” that linked them positively to Europeans and Americans, who were perceived as powerful and socially advanced. And, García reports, many Mexicans looked favorably on the Japanese as hardworking and family-centered.
The book delves deeply into the experiences of the Japanese on both sides of the border during World War II, illuminating the similarities and differences in their treatment. Although some Japanese Mexicans were eventually interned (at the urging of the US government), in general the fear and vitriol that Japanese Americans encountered never reached the same levels in Mexico.
Looking Like the Enemy is an ambitious study of a tumultuous half-century in Mexico. It is a significant contribution to our understanding of the immigrant experience in the Western Hemisphere and to the burgeoning field of borderlands studies.
Japanese citizens were initially lured to Mexico with promises of cheap and productive land in Chiapas. Many of the promises were false, and the immigrants were forced to fan out across the country, especially to the lands along the US border. As Jerry García reveals, they were victims of discrimination based on “difference,” but they also displayed “markers of whiteness” that linked them positively to Europeans and Americans, who were perceived as powerful and socially advanced. And, García reports, many Mexicans looked favorably on the Japanese as hardworking and family-centered.
The book delves deeply into the experiences of the Japanese on both sides of the border during World War II, illuminating the similarities and differences in their treatment. Although some Japanese Mexicans were eventually interned (at the urging of the US government), in general the fear and vitriol that Japanese Americans encountered never reached the same levels in Mexico.
Looking Like the Enemy is an ambitious study of a tumultuous half-century in Mexico. It is a significant contribution to our understanding of the immigrant experience in the Western Hemisphere and to the burgeoning field of borderlands studies.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2014
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About the author
Jerry Garcia
131 books54 followersJerome John "Jerry" García was an American musician, songwriter, artist, and lead guitarist and vocalist of the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead. García was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the group.
Performing with the Grateful Dead for its entire three-decade career (which spanned from 1965 to 1995), García participated in a variety of side projects, including the Jerry García Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, and Legion of Mary. García co-founded the New Riders of the Purple Sage with John Dawson and David Nelson. He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.
Later in life, García was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 experienced a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin addiction, and was residing in a drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.
Performing with the Grateful Dead for its entire three-decade career (which spanned from 1965 to 1995), García participated in a variety of side projects, including the Jerry García Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, and Legion of Mary. García co-founded the New Riders of the Purple Sage with John Dawson and David Nelson. He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.
Later in life, García was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 experienced a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin addiction, and was residing in a drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 13, 2017
Jerry Garcia's 2014 book
Looking Like the Enemy: Japanese Mexicans State, and US Hegemony, 1897-1945
is an excellent lucid, but sadly laconic, account of the Japanese experience in Mexico from the Meiji Restoration until the end of the second world war. Garcia show the development of Japanese, Mexican and American relationship of this half century.
The Meiji government's first international treaty was with Mexico because Japan was interested in setting Japanese communities in the Western hemisphere. One of the first was in Chiapas, Mexico. Japanese became more welcome in Mexico than Chinese and other Asians in part because of their nation's defeat of Russians in 1905.
Over time, other communities were established especially along the Mexican Pacific coast and the Baja peninsular. Although the Japanese presence was never that great, the American government did not want a Japanese presence to be so close to its southwest border. So the US tried to exercise its hegemony over Mexico and, indeed, the entirety of the Americas. Japanese in the Americas were painted as a threat to the hemisphere.
After the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Mexican government adopted policies that acquiesced to America's racist and paranoid demands. They began programs that moved Japanese and Japanese Mexican citizens 150 kilometers away from Mexican coastlines and out of the border states. Unlike their northern neighbors, however, the Mexican government did not build concentration camps, but for the most part let the Japanese take care of themselves.
This is a fascinating and well researched book. Personally, however, I wish that there had been more to it. Clearly, there's the inspiration for dozens of theses and dissertations can be found in this pages. This is a great book despite its brevity.
[As of this date, Goodreads has given Jerry García, the writer of this excellent scholarly work, the author's bio of Jerry Garcia of the band the Grateful Dead. :( ]
The Meiji government's first international treaty was with Mexico because Japan was interested in setting Japanese communities in the Western hemisphere. One of the first was in Chiapas, Mexico. Japanese became more welcome in Mexico than Chinese and other Asians in part because of their nation's defeat of Russians in 1905.
Over time, other communities were established especially along the Mexican Pacific coast and the Baja peninsular. Although the Japanese presence was never that great, the American government did not want a Japanese presence to be so close to its southwest border. So the US tried to exercise its hegemony over Mexico and, indeed, the entirety of the Americas. Japanese in the Americas were painted as a threat to the hemisphere.
After the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Mexican government adopted policies that acquiesced to America's racist and paranoid demands. They began programs that moved Japanese and Japanese Mexican citizens 150 kilometers away from Mexican coastlines and out of the border states. Unlike their northern neighbors, however, the Mexican government did not build concentration camps, but for the most part let the Japanese take care of themselves.
This is a fascinating and well researched book. Personally, however, I wish that there had been more to it. Clearly, there's the inspiration for dozens of theses and dissertations can be found in this pages. This is a great book despite its brevity.
[As of this date, Goodreads has given Jerry García, the writer of this excellent scholarly work, the author's bio of Jerry Garcia of the band the Grateful Dead. :( ]
July 6, 2023
A very accessible history of Japanese Mexicans.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews