During the Ono & Ono reading, I made note of 3 major points:
During the late 1880s and early 1990s, there was a Japanese Diaspora. In this time period, many people from Japan migrated to South America, taking up residence in Brazil, Peru and other countries. These groups of people are called Nikkeijin. While they are considered “ethnically” Japanese, they are not often considered “culturally” Japanese.
Leading up to WWII, there was a rise in Japanese nationalism. Japan emphasized that they were different from foreigners because of their “blood”. This morphed into a fusion of Japanese heritage, ethnicity and culture, and encouraged “purity” of the Japanese people. This relates back to the idea of “imagined communities” and Nihonjinron.
During the Meiji era, the Ainu people of Japan were forced to integrate into Japanese society. The government passed the 1899 Hokkaido Aborigine Protection Act, which took all of the land of the Ainu people and forced them to become farmers or laborers. Was this forced integration similar to the forced assimilation of Native Americans throughout America’s history?