BRAZIL AND “ITS FUTURES”: NIHONJIN, A STORY OF JAPONESE IMMIGRATION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

Nihonjin (2011) is the fi rst novel by the Brazilian author Oscar Nakasato and in which he re-enacts the process of integration of the Japanese immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the 1920s. Through the Inabatas’ saga, the ex-centric subject of the offi cial history is placed at the center of the novel, which lies within the scope of a new generation of narratives about immigration. The (re) construction of the family memory is thus the element that sparks a writing process which is, at the same time, autobiographical and metafictional which, in turn, defines the limits of its representation. Through an intercultural compromise and a permanent inter-generational antagonism, the present analysis will seek to understand Nihonjin as an arena to discuss the place that the Nippon-Brazilians – an entity made by permanent duality – occupy in the bosom of the “multicultural” nation.