Experience in moving and Japanese language studies narrated by Nikkei children returnees to Brazil

Focusing on their relationship with the Nikkei community

Abstract

This study investigates the life experience of returnee children, within the Brazilian Nikkei community, whose parents worked in Japan. Child returnees to Brazil have often been analyzed in the context of education. However, this study envisages the everyday experience of these children who actively lead their lives within the regional Nikkei community using their knowledge of Japanese. This is analyzed qualitatively, based on research interviews and observations conducted in one Nikkei community. From the interviews, it became apparent that their desire to return to Japan was their purpose in studying Japanese. A memoir of one of the returnee children, now a university student, was reconfigured as her life story. This enabled her account of her experience of moving and Japanese language studies to be related to a much larger picture of her family history. The circumstances of how her experience led to her participation in the Nikkei community are depicted.