War II internment and redress movements in the United States, Japanese agriculture workers in Brazil, or temporary “returnee” dekasegi workers going to Japan from Latin America to work for high wages). However, in this book, we look at Japanese transnationalism from a broader perspective, also including in our picture, for example, Japanese nationals overseas permanently or temporarily, and Europeans of Japanese ancestry who have recently rediscovered their Japanese roots. We try to show the common threads running through all of these “Japanese” communities—real or imagined—regardless of venue. And until now, most studies of Japanese and Nikkei transnational migrants have focused on North America and Latin America. In this volume, we examine some little-explored venues, such as Indonesia, Spain, and Germany, and attempt to make connections among all these Japanese transnational communities. Finally, most studies of North American and Latin American Japanese immigrants have looked at the social problems resulting from racial discrimination and the political actions involved in implementing or fighting it. We offer what we believe is a more nuanced dialogue about the issues involved with Japanese transnationalism, in particular how ethnicity and ethnic identity creation—rather than only racial discrimination—have been instrumental in the establishment, creation, and re-creation of Japanese transnationalism communities all over the world.
