- Japanese Bolivian
Infobox Ethnic group
group=Japanese Bolivian
"Japonés Boliviano"
flagicon|Japanflagicon|Bolivia
poptime=7,986
popplace=La Paz,Sucre
langs=Bolivian Spanish , Japanese
rels=Christianity , MahayanaBuddhism ,Shinto
related=Japanese people ,Japanese American s,Japanese Canadian s,Japanese Peruvian s,Japanese Paraguayan s, KoreansJapanese Bolivian (Spanish: "Japonés Boliviano", Japanese: "Nikkei Boribiajin") is a
Bolivia n-born person of Japanese ancestry.History
Since Bolivia has no coast, the first Japanese settlers came from neighboring
Peru where their contracts ended prior to the 1950s. Most Japanese settlers had origins fromOkinawa , while the rest fromGifu-ken ,Hiroshima-ken ,Kanagawa-ken , andOsaka . In 1899,Mapiri River Region in La Paz experienced the first entrance of 91 Japanese workers assigned for rubber plantations. Since then,Andes Mountains continued to attract few more hundreds of Japanese laborers, who luckily caught work in mining and railroad construction. The inlandAmazon River region appeared as the second main destination for the workers, who also came through Peru to work on rubber plantations in northwestern Bolivia. The end ofWorld War I andGreat Depression shifted Japanese workers in the rubber and mining industries respectively. The only places in Bolivia that survived changes were the town ofRiberalta and La Paz, which served as the Japanese commercial activities. In 1930s, most Japanese remained as settlers and many brought wives from their home country while most married local women; these made difference that divided the community.When
World War II began, only 29 Japanese Bolivians were deported toUnited States . But because more than that, the war had not much effect on the lives of residents of Japanese descent in Bolivia, since the local government did not make anti-Japanese measures. Since the end of the war, the government warmly permitted Japanese refugees. Treaties after 1954 guided in a new chapter of Japanese Bolivian history and the massive influx of agricultural settlers from U.S.-controlled Okinawa and mainland Japan. The need of relocating surplus populations from war-torn Japan met the Bolivian government's wish to develop the eastern lower lands inSanta Cruz Department . With the financial help of the Japanese government, the Colonia Okinawa and Colonia San Juan de Yapacaní were established; the two settlements formed the distinctive communities with separate identities—one Okinawan and the other mainland Japanese—that are also currently in transition from the immigrant to the Bolivian-born generation.Language and Religion
Most Japanese Bolivians only speak Spanish, while only a selected number can speak Japanese. Those who attained higher education speak English. In religion, the majority are Roman Catholic Christians, while the rest are Buddhists and Shintos.
Prominent Japanese Bolivians
*
Pedro Shimose – essayist, professor, and poetExternal Link
* [http://www.discovernikkei.org/wiki/index.php/Migration_Historical_Overview_Bolivia Migration Historical Overview - Bolivia]
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