Japanese Community and Christianity in Peru During the First Half of 20th Century : Analyzing the Diaries of Jiro Kanashiro(1894-1988)

摘要

Japanese immigration to Peru was started in 1899 thanks to the personal network between Japanese and Peruvian elite who studied in San Francisco, USA, in late 19th century when both nation-states were demanded rapid modernization. However, in 1930s Japanese Community in Peru which had as much as 20 thousands people at that time suffered from severe anti-Japanese policy motivated by nationalism that dominated all over the world especially after Great Depression. So that the Japanese bilingual schools for second generation in Peru were located between nationalism of Peru and Japan. Key person for Japanese integration to Catholic community in Peru was a French catholic sister called “Madre Francisca” who worked as a nurse in Dos de Mayo Charitable Hospital from 1906 to 1941 looking after especially Japanese patients. She was a first catholic person with whom many Japanese immigrants encountered in the state of both physical and mental crisis, and afterward she became to be called “Mother of Japanese immigrants”. Thanks to her endeavor, two Canadian Catholic missionaries who had surname Yonekawa as naturalized Japanese and good command of Japanese language came to Peru in 1936 and 1938. They activated Catholicization in Japanese-Peruvian community and formed Catholic Cultural Association for Nisei motivated by the then Japanese Consul in August 1940. From his point of view Japanese-Peruvian community need to cope with anti-Japanese movement through Catholicization, as four months before the community in Lima suffered from a great riot against Japanese owned shops and houses. The author tries to describe the role of Christianity among Japanese immigrants in Peru during the first half of 20th century analyzing the diaries of Jiro Kanashiro (1894-1988) who immigrated to Peru from Okinawa in 1914 with his wife as contracted plantation workers, and later had success in rice production in northern coast area called Chimbote. He was baptized by Father Yonekawa in 1950, but during 1930s he was strongly influenced by Methodists’ mission called Salvation Army and also by Japanese intellectual Christian leaders. The Salvation Army was born originally in London in 1865, and afterward landed at Tokyo in 1895. They were one of the first institutions that realized benevolent social activities in the frame of modern nation-state offering shelters and aids for the victims of natural disaster, poverty and social evil. Although Jiro Kanashiro’s case of Christianization shows uniqueness among Japanese immigrants in Peru, his life trajectory is colored by important and transnational persons, institutions, and events in order to understand the Japanese community during the first half of 20th century in Peru.