Modern and Stateless: A Case Study of the International, Racialised Modernity of the Peruvian Nikkei in Seiichi Higashide’s Adios to Tears

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the process of Japanese emigration to Peru in the early-twentieth century, culminating in their extraordinary rendition from the same country at the hands of the United States government at the height of World War II, analyzing the processes through the lens of Seiichi Higashide’s 1981 testimonio Adios to Tears (Namida no Adiosu). It follows Higashide’s journey from Hokkaido, Japan to Ica, Peru, and finally, via rendition, to the United States, first to Crystal City internment camp in Texas before being ‘paroled’ as an ‘undocumented immigrant’ to Seabrook Farms, New Jersey to provide labour for a privately-held company. Higashide, along with many other Peruvian Nikkei of the same era, fell victim to a series of treaties, laws, and finally, global conflicts that ultimately rendered them stateless. Arguing that this history is the product of the fundamental irrationality of racializing global forces implicit in the notion of modernity, I suggest that its aftermaths continue to resonate today.