Japanese Peruvian

I hadn't written about Japanese immigrants museum in Peru yet. 

It is not related to hairdressing or my holiday, so please pass it if you are not interested. 

Also, I'm just translating the leaflet and what I read at the museum, so there might be mistakes, so please forgive me for that. 

I was very curious about Japanese people who left Japan for North and South America. 

I didn't know why and when they moved. 

And this museum gave me an answer (well, at least the one in Peru).  

When Edo period ended in 1868 and the emperor came back to Tokyo, the first Japanese moved to Hawaii. Then, to the mainland US, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. 

Apparently, moving to Peru happened almost coincidence at the first place.

Around that time, Japanese people in the States and local people often had conflict and there were anti Japanese groups within US workers. So they make it more strict for Japanese people to move there. 

So they were looking for more  opportunities  in South America.  

At that time, the Chinese were shipping their people almost like a slave to Peru, then the ship had an accident near Japan. 

When Japan was dealing with Peruvian government, one of the Chinese workers complained about their bad treatment by the Peruvian authorities. 

So Japanese sent all the Chinese workers back home, then as Peru and Japan talked about the solutions,  they found a good opportunity for both of them. 

Japan was overpopulated at that time, shortage of work as well. Peruvian needed workforce for their agriculture and so on, so they concluded a treaty. 

First Japanese people left for Peru in 1899.

What I was amazed about was that they tried to keep their heritage as much as possible. 

(a bag one of the immigrants travelled with) 

(Yes, I had to take this picture) 

They didn't have Internet or WhatsApp (well, we didn't have one when I moved to the UK in 2002), I just wonder how terrified they were as much as excited for the future. 

New place, new job, new language, new culture... 

I did it, but not in 1899!!

And I flew, not a three month ship journey. 

They introduced how they kept their identity and also become a part of the society. 

They even had a president. (Well, he was and still is controversial figure though) 

And there was a museum Japanese man founded. (Museo Amano, if you are interested. It was an amazing museum about textiles pre Spanish colonisation) 

There are so many things I don't know about Japan. Almost embarrassing. 

I am grad I went to this museum and learned about their history. 

Thank you for reading. 

Ryoko