Suchergebnisse

In 2013, the Civil Liberties Act (CLA) of 1988, the U.S. government legislation which provided for a formal apology and a payment of $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American citizen and Japanese resident alien interned during World War II, celebrated its twentieth-fifth anniversary. Indeed, since its passage, the CLA has been upheld as a piece of "landmark legislation"—a precedent and even a model for subsequent redress and reparations movements; these are movements not only within the U.S. but around the world. Still, I find that the so-called "success" of Japanese American redress remains haunted—haunted by the memories of the 2,264 Japanese Latin Americans (JLAs) who were, in effect, kidnapped upon U.S. order by the governments of thirteen Latin American countries and brought to U.S. concentration camps whereby hundreds were then used in a U.S. hostage exchange program with Japan. Despite their efforts, these internees were denied recognition under the CLA and only after filing a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. government in 1998 were offered a sum of just $5,000. This dissertation maps the varied discourses marking the subsequent attempts at governmental redress for the JLA deportation and internment program over the last thirty some years. Probing the question of historical justice for racialized state violence within the overlapping contexts of U.S. empire and international human rights regimes, it asks: What are the transformative possibilities and limits of "redress" as the late-modern paradigmatic logic for racial/social justice, including its underlying liberal humanist ethicality of violence, redemption and justice? What does this case in particular open up in terms of the politics of knowledge and historical justice concerning U.S. global reach and hegemony in the Americas and U.S. empire more broadly at the current global historical moment? Ultimately, this project, deploying a rigorously interdisciplinary approach, both illuminates the very paradigmatic violence of redress as late-modern juridical justice, including its formative role as a fundamental condition of U.S. empire since the end of the cold war, and, at the same time, reveals the very paradigmatic productivity of such violence—its opening up of alternative imaginings and praxis of justice located not within the law itself but precisely in its critique and deconstruction.

This article addresses the little-known history of Japanese Latin American internment during WWII. Classified as 'illegal aliens' and 'enemy aliens', 2,264 Japanese Latin Americans were stripped of citizenship from their home countries, denied rights in the United States, and ultimately deprived reconciliation due to their undocumented status. Using the traces of this history as a case study, I explore the strategic memories Japanese Latin Americans create about non-place – spaces of statelessness or states of exception – that allow them to make claims about state violence committed against them under these conditions, and, second, argue that demands for justice against political violence entail not only bringing light to erased histories but also developing engaged acts of reception that account for survivors' claims to the memories of non-place. Visual testimonies, such as the Denshō Digital Archive and the short documentary Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story (2004), affectively connect a viewer/listener to the memory of trauma, to an inexpressible haunting, and thus are critical platforms for creating a collective memory between survivors and the digital generation of postmemory.

Japan has maintained rather intense contact with various parts of Latin America, previously through migration and recently through economic relations. Japanese scholarly production about Latin America, however, has never matched that contact. Although thousands of technical reports, travelogues, and general books on Latin America have been produced in Japan, scholarly works of value have been scarce. There are, however, a few works researched and written by Japanese, both in Japan and in overseas Japanese communities, that could contribute to, or at least add new source materials to, the study of Latin America; they are relatively unknown to foreign scholars, mainly because of the barrier presented by the Japanese language.

This paper outlines the relation of Japan, especially its private banking facilities, to the Latin American foreign debt problem. It provides relevant background information and examines the approach assumed by Japanese financial circles. Japan is regarded as having the largest financial reserves, but its presence in discussing fundamental debt relief measures has not been as significant as its total amount of credit might imply

Before Latin America : the early Japanese immigrant experience in Hawaii, Canada, and the United States -- The Latin American pioneers -- Issei and Nisei in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, 1908-37 -- The smaller Japanese communities, 1908-38 -- The impact of the Asian war, 1938-52 -- Exiles and survivors : the Japanese Peruvians, 1938-52 -- New colonias and the older Nikkei communities, 1952-70 -- Nikkei communities in transition : Nikkei-jin in Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Japan -- Looking to the new century : confronting new trends and healing old wounds

ABSTRACT The paper outlines the relation of Japan, especially its private banking facilities, to the Latia America foreign problem. It gives relevant background information and examines the approach taken by Japanese financial circles. Japan has now become the country with the world's biggest trade surplus and is regarded as having the largest financial reserves. But Japan's presence in discussing fundamental debt relief measures has not been significant as its total amount of credit might imply.