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ix Acknowledgments Many individuals helped bring this book to its final conclusion that I wish to acknowledge. From inception to completion, this has been a long and interesting journey. The genesis of this book began when I was eighteen years of age as I spent three years at Camp Zama, Japan, serving in the US Army—it seems like a lifetime ago. It was during my time in Japan that I first learned of the movement of Japanese to Mexico. My interest in Japanese immigration to Mexico was piqued in graduate school during a seminar course I took with my adviser at Washington State University, Professor John Kicza, as I read Frederick Katz’s Secret War in Mexico. I owe a great deal to John Kicza, the Department of History, and Washington State University for their generous financial support. John grounded me well in the historiography of Latin America and especially Mexico. His support and encouragement during the ebb and flow of graduate school were instrumental in keeping me focused. I also thank Noriko Kawamura, who grounded me in Japanese history, and Paul Hirt (now at Arizona State University), for his advice and friendship. Other members of the department that I wish to acknowledge include Thomas Kennedy, Richard Hume, Leroy Ashby, Sue Armitage, David Coon, and David Stratton. I also wish to thank Linda Trinh Vo (now at UC Irvine), for her encouragement and advice as I completed graduate school. Lastly, Peter Utgaard, fellow graduate student and friend, now at Cuyamaca College. I was fortunate to have started my academic career at Iowa State University . The time that I spent in Iowa and Iowa State University will always remain important, especially regarding my intellectual development. The history department at Iowa State welcomed me with open arms. I would like to acknowledge the financial support I received from the Department of History at Iowa State, which allowed me to continue my research on the Japanese diaspora in Mexico. I wish to acknowledge my first chair, George McJimsey, for helping me settle into my first academic job. The following individuals provided strong emotional support and friendship that sustained me during my stay at Iowa State University: Sidner Larson, Devery x • Acknowledgments Fairbanks, Caskey Russell, Larry Gross, and Ed Munoz. I also wish to acknowledge Bernhard Rieger and a friendship that began as newly minted assistant professors at Iowa State University, and Elizabeth Buettner at the University of York for her hospitality and friendship. Also, for their friendship and collegiality, I thank Sharon Bird, James Andrews, Michael Bailey, John Monroe, David Hollander, Xiaoyuan Liu, David Wilson, Hamilton Cravens, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Brian Behnken, Amy Bix, Charles Dobbs, and Wayne Osborn. A special acknowledgment goes to Andrejs Plakans, my last chair at Iowa State University. Andrejs became friend, mentor, and racquetball partner, and his counsel I will always carry with me. In the years leading up to the publication of this book I have used a number of sources in Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. I wish to extend a tremendous amount of gratitude and thanks to the staff at the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN). A special thanks goes to Joel Zúniga and the staff in Galería 2 of the AGN, which holds the archive of the Dirreción General de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales, where the secret intelligence police files are. Also special thanks to Erika Ive Gutierrez Mosqueda at the AGN, who made every effort to accommodate my requests, no matter how bizarre or absurd they sounded. I also thank El Colegio de México and the late Profesora María Elena Ota Mishima, whose path-breaking work on the Japanese in Mexico echoes throughout my book. Maria Elena also shared with me original documents from the first Japanese immigrants to Mexico who landed in Chiapas. She remains the first and only professor who greeted me with a shot of tequila as I entered her office! I also thank the staff at the US National Archives and Records Administration II at College Park, Maryland, for their help in finding important US and Mexican documents pertaining to Japanese in Mexico and for their patience. A thank you goes to Lorraine Orlandi, a freelance journalist based in Mexico who conducted very important interviews with descendants of the original Japanese immigrants who came to Mexico. Lorraine generously shared those interviews with me. Thanks to Yuya Kiuchi for translating important Japanese documents. I wish to acknowledge Julia Taylor for images...

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