Description
Book SynopsisInvestigates broad questions about ethnicity, the nature of diasporic identity, and Brazilian culture. This title analyzes how Nikkei (Japanese migrants) both resisted and conformed to others' perceptions of their identity as they struggled to define and claim their own ethnicity within Sao Paulo during the dictatorship.
Trade Review“
A Discontented Diaspora is the best work that I have read on the people of Japanese descent in Latin America, bar none. Jeffrey Lesser’s research does no less than create a whole new vocabulary for the study of evolving
Nikkei personal, artistic, and political identities. This is a book that I wish I had written.”—Lane Hirabayashi, senior editor of
New Worlds, New Lives: Globalization and People of Japanese Descent in the Americas and from Latin America in Japan“Two books in one: a lively and engaging examination of Brazil’s ‘model minority,’ and a probing analysis of the ambiguities and complexities of Brazilian ‘racial democracy.’ Highly recommended.”—George Reid Andrews, author of
Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000“
A Discontented Diaspora is an important contribution to our understanding of Brazilian culture and society.” -- James N. Green * Hispanic American Historical Review *
“Jeffrey Lesser adds significantly to our appreciation of the complexity of ethnic and racial relations in Brazil with this study of Japanese Brazilians during the period of military dictatorship. . . This is an important book that examines issues of the Brazilian Nikkei ethnic identity in unique ways. Lesser has done his research well.” -- Daniel Masterson * Journal of Latin American Studies *
“Jeffrey Lesser’s examination of Japanese Brazilians provides insight into a unique Japanese phenomenon. . . . This book is a fascinating analysis of a unique population that gives us a glimpse of the might-have-been world of Japanese migrants in countries such as the United States or Australia where World War II effectively halted or even reversed the establishment of large Nikkei communities.” -- Yuriko Nagata * Asian Studies Review *
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A Discontented Diaspora should be read by anyone interested in ethnicity, gender, and national identity, and should be a 'must-read' for students of the Brazilian military regime." -- Victoria Langland * The Americas *
Table of ContentsIllustrations and Tables ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Prologue: The Limits of Flexibility xviii
Introduction: The Pacific Rim in the Atlantic World 1
1. Brazil’s Japan: Film and the Space of Ethnicity, 1960-1970 25
2. Beautiful Bodies and (Dis)Appearing Identities: Contesting Images of Japanese-Brazilian Ethnicity, 1970-1980 47
3. Machine Guns and Honest Faces: Japanese-Brazilian Ethnicity and Armed Struggle, 1964-1980 74
4. Two Deaths Remembered 108
5. How Shizuo Osawa Became “Mario the Jap” 122
Epilogue: Diaspora and Its Discontents 148
Notes 153
Glossary 189
Bibliography 191
Index 215
