Children raised in Brazil
The story of the Nikkei children who were born and raised
in Brazil is very different from that of the children who were
raised in Japan. 
Language fluency is
the key component in explaining the difficulty children raised
in Brazil have in assimilating to Japanese
schools and culture. All the children that I interviewed in
this group had either dropped out or were planning to leave the
Japanese school system. When asked why they had dropped out, they
all had the same response; they could not understand anything
at school and the language classes were not sufficient. The boys
in this group had all been in fights due to misunderstandings
with the Japanese children. A 13- year old boy told me that everyday
he was taunted by Japanese students with, "Go back to Brazil,
you dumb Brazilian. " During another interview, an 8 year-old
boy told me, "The Brazilian is friendlier than the Japanese.
If a Japanese gets mad at us, they all join together and hit us.
Just like they hit him. Three of them hit him." He pointed
to a friend and the friend replied, "No it was four of them."
"Or was it four, five or six?" His friend chimed in.
"Four."
I asked them what caused this fight and they responded, "We
don't know why. They get mad just because we are Brazilian."
He ended his story with a shocking statement: "We are discriminated
against for being Brazilian." Where did this harsh language
come from? How could an 8 year-old boy come to this conclusion?
This expression and the truth of discrimination are part of the
Nikkei community, making it unavoidable, even for the children.
These fights were all a direct result of their language and cultural
barriers. The children involved fights leave or are pulled out
of Japanese school by their parents, who are worried about their
child's well being.
These Nikkei- Brazilian children go on to attend Portuguese
language schools
and /or work in the factories. Sharing
Portuguese as their first language, their social lives are therefore
spent mainly with Brazilians. When I was interviewing them on
their likes and dislikes, the overwhelming number loved Brazilian
food, dance, clothes and anything else that distinguished them
from the Japanese. A few children even preferred Italian food
to either Brazilian and Japanese.this is an issue that needs further
exploration.
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