Hey you, Manila based readers. Are you looking for interesting things to do? Then check out the following activities of Philippine Nikkeijin 2007. In case you are wondering, Nikkeijin refers to the descendants of Japanese immigrants to the Philippines (and other countries).
A significant number of Nikkeijins are in the Cordilleras where Japanese workers who were hired to help build Kennon, Halsema, etc. settled and married the locals.
Anyways, check out the following events organized by the University of the Philippines Asian Center, the UP Vargas Museum, The Japan Foundation, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and Filipino-Japanese Foundation of Northern Luzon, Inc. Our thanks to Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes for sending us the information.
Photo Exhibit: Haponés: The Early 20th Japanese Community of Baguio”
Curator: Patricia O. Afable, Ph.D.
Edge Gallery, Vargas Museum, UP Diliman
Opens at 4 pm, November 20, 2007
Runs until January 15, 2008 (Tues-Sun, 9am-4pm)
Symposium: “Japanese Migrants to the Philippines: History, Issues and Prospects”
Organizer: Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes
9am – 4pm, November 20, 2007
Edge Gallery, Vargas Museum, UP Diliman
Speakers:
Mariko Iijima, Ph.D. (Sophia University)
“A Comparative Study of Japanese Diasporas before WWII: the Philippines and Hawai’i”
Makoto Sugii (Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University)
“Japanese Descendants in Baguio-Cordillera and their Contact with the Post-war Japanese Visitors to the Philippines: 1945-1973
Patricia O. Afable, Ph.D. Smithsonian Institute)
“Compelling Memories and Telling Archival Documents and Photographs: The Search for the Baguio Japanese Community”
Yasuko Kuroda (Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku)
“Japanese Language Education for Children of Diaspora: Report from Yokohama and Davao”
Shun Ohno, Ph.D. (Kyushu University)
“Deterritorialized Identities and Citizenships: The Implications of the Shuttling between the Philippines and Japan by the Philippines Nikkeijin”
Ma. Luisa E. Mabunay, Ph.D. (University of the Philippines)
“Tracing the Nikkeijin of Panay: Roots and Prospects”
Film Showing:
“ABONG: Small Home” (Director: Koji Ima Izumi, 2003)
It is a story of the a 2nd-4th generation Nikkeijin family in Northern Luzon.
5pm, Nov. 15 (UP Film Institute )
If you need more details, please contact the Asian Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City at asianctr@up.edu.ph or telefax: 02-927-0909. Or visit its website at www.upd.edu.ph/~ac
INFO/PHOTO SOURCE: Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes
How interesting. I knew there was a Japanese community in Baguio but I had no idea it goes back that far. I think i have an aunt who once dated a half-Japanese, half-Igorot guy in sagada sometime in the 1970s.
Hi Wil,
Yup they came when the roads were being built in Cordi. As you said, some of them settled in Sagada. Some of their descendants are now working in Japan. Thanks.