表題番号：2023C-236
日付：2024/03/31
研究課題Between Frontier Ambitions and Desolations: Analysis of Life-Writing of Japanese Immigrants in Peru through the Lens of the Plantationocene
| 研究者所属（当時） | 資格 | 氏名 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| （代表者） | 国際学術院 国際教養学部 | 教授 | 間藤 茂子 |
- 研究成果概要
- The aim of this project was to explore four life-writing texts focusing on the first group of Japanese immigrants who arrived in Peru in 1899. These immigrants worked as contract laborers in hacienda farmlands. This exploration has been conducting through the lens of the Plantationocene, a variation derived from the Anthropocene, underscoring environmental damages caused by the large-scale capitalist monocropping plantations. What I accomplished during this year was 1) to conduct a close reading of the four texts, 2) to discover another interest related to this project during my library research, and 3) to start analyzing one of the four texts. First, I looked into the concept of the Plantationocene (and the Anthropocene in general) by obtaining materials from libraries in the United States. This library research enabled me to articulate the general notion of the Plantationocene and also led me to find a clearer connection between environmental crises and migration, not only in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but also in the present day. Contemplating the connection, I became interested in analyzing a short story about Peruvian workers who are obliged to leave their country due to socio-environmental crises at the end of the 20th century, subsequently working as dekasegi contract labor workers in Japan. Although I had to set aside what I initially intended to do, I was able to complete an analysis of the short story by applying L. Berlant’s notion of “cruel optimism.” In this study, I examined the push factors for migration in the time of the Anthropocene (Capitalocene) and the enduring motivations that migrants have, despite their harsh living and working conditions, through the notion of “cruel optimism.” I presented this paper at the annual LASA (Latin American Studies Association) conference in Vancouver, Canada and received valuable feedback. Then, I revised it and submitted it to an international peer-reviewed journal. Returning to my initial plan, I started analyzing the first life-writing memory text through the notion of the Plantationocene, drawing attention to the ambitions and desolations of Nikumatsu Okada, a Japanese immigrant depicted in the text. In order to gather further information, I visited Okinawa Prefectural Archives, the Central Library of Okinawa, and other relevant sites, where I collected documents pertaining to the records of the first 799 Japanese immigrants, including Okada’s birth name and the fact that he was on the vessel that took them to the Callao port from Yokohama.