Remembering the Japanese American and the Japanese Brazilian Diasporas in Japanese Television Drama

• In Event: Screen Borders: Transnational Studies of Television and Film

Abstract

This paper examines how Japanese television dramas construct Japaneseness by making cultural memories of Japanese American and Japanese Brazilian diasporic experiences through World War II. The United States and Brazil were the two most popular destinations for Japanese immigration outside Asia in the first half of the 20th century. Television drama serves as an important educational vehicle through which people learn cultural memory and ideologies such as nationalism. Cultural memory, which is tied to identity and culture, is intertwined with nationalism. National memories of its diasporic groups play a unique role in nationalism because their ambiguous position—members living away from the national homeland—makes them simultaneously the national Self and the Other. Analyzing two Japanese television drama series broadcast in 2005 and 2010, the author looks into different ways in which the two groups’ historical experiences are remembered to educate the Japanese audience what it means to be Japanese.

Author

• Yuko Kawai, Rikkyo University