At the end of this last semester, a girl in my anthropology class (who is from Japan) gave a very interesting presentation on Japanese-Brazilians. I was struck by her descriptions of Japan. At one point, she said that Japan was a place for all people who are ethnically Japanese. She also had a quote in her presentation about the Yamato Damashii, the spirit of Japan. It amounted to something like being proud of the country that you live in. So for example, Japanese-Brazilians would be part of the spirit of Japan by being good citizens of Brazil.
It was really intriguing to me. Perhaps that is because I am a hybrid myself.
At the end of her presentation, she mentioned that Japan, just this last year, told all of the Japanese-Brazilians in Japan to leave. They have all been given a one-way ticket back to Brazil. She called this the worst kind of racism.
