Andre’s Reviews > Japan's Minorities: The illusion of homogeneity > Status Update

Hm, based on this chapter, I do wonder whether these Brazilian Japanese still present themselves as Brazilian in Japan today. It was interesting to read how they basically came to Japan with very idealized images in their head, saw themselves as Japanese in Brazil but then were identified as Brazilian in Japan.Also, this was the last chapter. Sadly.

The way this chapter described Okinawan identity makes it sound like it can be quite strenous and conflicting. The author says that this has been part of Okinawa for centuries now, but it really seems odd. Granted, no clue how much of it is still true today.

So this daimyo Satsuma used Ryükyü to basically trade with foreigners during the Tokugawa period. You know, the more I read about that period the more it is clear that it was never as isolated as claimed so often.

The chapter on zainichi Koreans in Japan and their history was interesting, but it has the problem that so many of its data is almost 20 years old by now. And as for Japan opening... well, it had just basically closed down for 2 years, so I would not put my hope on that.

I skipped this chapter on "multiethnicity" in Japan as well, that is 17 years out of date so who knows how it is today.

I skipped the rest of the chapter, as these "contemporary" chinese are decades out of date

So chinese immigrants to japan at first mostly worked in restaurants, barber shops and clothing industry... that sounds similar to US history.

Yeah, the author has a clear tendency to attribute racism by Japanese and blacks to whites, so strong that with blacks towards okinawans there is no mention of wartime propaganda, just that the blacks are mistreated and so they mistread the japanese. The rest of the chapter is supposed to be "current" time but I skip it, there is no reason to read it.

This is just weird, that the author left it uncommented that this Langston Hughes clearly could not have been correct when he said he hoped that the Japanese won't become colonials, since in 1933 they already had colonies, was bad enough, but she only once called what the empire did colonial abuses but then never again and also she never mentions Thailand as not being colonized either, none of them did.

The author even makes the claim that some japanese buddha statues depict sub saharan africans, but there is no evidence except for that one account and that one could simply have made a mistake due to the coloring of a statue. And while the author often does deal in nuance, I think there is a strong tendency to attribute japanese attitudes towards blacks to outside influence, not their own observations.