表題番号：2024C-239
日付：2025/04/06
研究課題From Ruins to a Replica: Reapparition of a Japanese Immigrant's Plantation Farm House of Chancay (Peru) in a Theme Park in Inuyama City, Aichi
| 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 main goal was to explore: 1) how and why a hacienda house in Caqui (the Chancay-Huaral Valley, north of Lima), now in ruin, has been replicated and relocated to Inuyama City, Aichi, Japan; and 2) how the remnants of the original Caqui hacienda have been transformed into something new in its replica. I attempt to connect the theme of this “traveling” house to my larger project in which I aim to analyze how the memory of Japanese immigration to Peru comes into contact with other memories in Peru and Japan. I could not visit the theme park in Inuyama where the replicated house is. However, thanks to this funding and different sources of funding, I was able to start analyzing a memory text—El peón y empresario Nikumatsu Okada y la comunidad japonesa del valle de Chancay (1900-1950)—a biographical account about a Japanese immigrant, who initially worked as a contract laborer in plantations but later became an entrepreneur manager of several plantations in the Chancay Valley. I aim to read it, not simply as a biographical memory text, but rather as a cultural and ecological memory text through the concept of the Plantationocene (offshoot of the Anthropocene that focuses on the impacts of plantations on socioenvironmental issues). I conducted research at a library at the University of Southern California about Japanese immigration to Latin America and the concept of the Plantationocene. I submitted the paper to a peer-review journal in the United States and have been revising it based on their feedback. Reading about the concept of the Plantationocene has led me to rethink the conventional understanding of Japanese immigration memory, which has constructed and solidified positive images of Japanese Peruvian Nikkei community as an exceptional minority group. This understanding emphasizes how they endured hardships and injustice, yet overcame these challenges through their efforts and resilience, ultimately achieving political and economic success in society. I presented this paper in progress at a conference, the 59th Annual Southwest Council of Latin American Conference, which was held on March 6-8, 2025, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This project has made me realize the challenges of articulating how to integrate the theme of the ruin into the replica (my initial goal) within the conceptual framework of the Plantationocene.