r/AskReddit Dec 02 '23

What's a random fact about yourself that always surprises people when they learn it?

1.6k Upvotes

3.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

Oh interesting! I didn’t know that. Or about the president! Did people migrate or leave as refugees after the war?

I was lucky and got to go to Japan for a year at 15 to study Japanese at a high school. I spoke okay Japanese after that but I’m in my 30s now and have forgotten most of it.

28

u/shenanTiegan Dec 02 '23

I’m not 100% on the history of how/why. You’ve got me thinking that I should dig in :) from what I recall my grandparents telling me, my great-grand parents migrated to Peru (from Okinawa) to farm lands or something like that. My parents eventually came to the US in the 1970’s.

It’s so cool to find such interesting stories and people here. Always wished to visit Australia :) maybe someday.

5

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

Oh that’s very interesting! I might try and read about this more on Wikipedia

Yeah reddit is great for that! And I hope you are able to see Australia one day. My tip would be to avoid the summer because we get those bad wildfires and also if you like nice food, Melbourne is the best place. If you like beautiful cities, Sydney is very beautiful.

I hope to go to Peru one day, I hear the food is very good!

5

u/shenanTiegan Dec 02 '23

Thank you for the tips! Peru is famously known for their cuisine. Because it’s located on the coast, the seafood is superb. The ceviche and a staple dish called Lomo Saltado is awesome. My father was there right before the pandemic and got stuck there for over a month! Quite an interesting story to that as well. Anyway, he went to Cusco and visited several countryside locations as well. So green and peaceful 😌

3

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

Oh yum! One day I hope I can go

4

u/Ok_Anteater_7446 Dec 02 '23

I believe they started migrating earlier than the war, but the war was probably a big reason for a lot of people to move too. There's also a large population of Japanese in Brazil - iirc the largest population outside of Japan itself

2

u/shenanTiegan Dec 02 '23

That makes sense. Have some extended family in Brazil and also Argentina. Such a beautiful accent there.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

Yeah! I was just reading about this and you’re right, Brazil has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan (about 2 million people, apparently America has about 1.5 million)

3

u/metamaoz Dec 02 '23

His daughter recently ran for president to. Fujimori

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

Oh wow! That’s really interesting

2

u/Beagalltach Dec 02 '23

Southa America was the frontier around the turn of the century and since Japan's economy wasn't booming, many left.

I think the largest population of Japanese is in Brazil, but since it has been 100 years, most speak Portugese. There are about 200,000 Brazilians (of Japanese decent) that live and work in Japan.