WEBVTT

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THE SYMBOLIC
SOUTHERN BORDER

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Am I Nikkei or not?

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Six years I denied it.

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There were things that
I had to problematize with myself.

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NIKKEI: JAPANESE MIGRANTS
AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

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DIASPORA.

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In this place, a few years ago,

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there was a main entrance that said

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\"Welcome to Tapachula, Chiapas\".

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According to history,

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this was the place where they arrived.

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Well, this beach has changed a lot
because this area didn\'t have seawalls.

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And we used to come
and hang out

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at my family\'s plots and houses,

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weekend homes for resting
on the seashore.

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But they have disappeared,
as many other places here.

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INAUGURATED BY HIS IMPERIAL
HIGHNESS PRINCE AKISHINO

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Nikkei is not Japanese.

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I tell them to assume
that Nikkeis are Mexican.

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The community is built when they
create mechanisms of self-perception,

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but also of identity
construction.

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I identify as Nikkei,

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I\'ve studied and learned
the culture in a historical sense.

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But I\'ve also learned
what happened to this community.

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So, in this rescue
of collective identity,

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I understood that my identity
was within collectivity.

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Identity is reinvented whenever
a consul or an ambassador comes,

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or when we are interviewed
or something.

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But that\'s the theatricality
of identity.

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So I questioned that.

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I questioned theatricality

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I questioned participations,
the gaze in which they are assumed

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and also the attribution of an identity
more as a political springboard

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instead of a cultural matter.

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And the community has that,
it has disputes and fractures.

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If not, then it would be
a romantic community.

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I\'m not saying that
everything moves like that,

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because there are also
the bottom Nikkeis.

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Wherever you go
around the country,

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there are economically
well-positioned Nikkeis

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who are visible

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and there is an invisible
\"nikkei-ness\"

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IN 1897, A GROUP OF 35 JAPANESE MEN
ARRIVED TO THE SOCONUSCO IN CHIAPAS

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WITH THE INTENTION OF FOUNDING
THE \"ENOMOTO COLONY\"

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THEY BUILT THEIR FIRST HOUSE HERE.

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HOUSE

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My great-grandfather\'s name
was Zenpei Nakamura.

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He came with the Enomoto colony group

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on behalf of Viscount
Takeaki Enomoto\'s colonizing project.

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Agronomists studied Mexico
from north to south and regionally.

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They agreed that
the most fertile land

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for the coffee production
was this region.

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And colonization was
at their convenience because...

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quite a lot of land was given
to this group of migrants.

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The idea was to colonize here
with an ambition of agriculture.

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Three years later, the group fails
in their task of planting coffee,

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because it doesn\'t
grow in the region.

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But they already had families.

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This Enomoto colony started a cultural
miscegenation at a national level.

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Escuintla and Acacoyagua
are references of nikkei-ness.

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As a child,
I came to Escuintla a lot.

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Whenever I came to
Escuintla or Acacoyagua,

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there were many Nikkeis who
had more Asian features.

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There are many
Chinese descendants as well.

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And with the idea of kinship,

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here it\'s very common
to call each other cousin or \"paisa\".

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So I grew up with that logic
of kinship through identity.

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I think what moves
this community locally,

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and really throughout the country,
is nostalgia.

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Memory and nostalgia are playing
an important role in identity.

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It\'s an inherited
and constructed nostalgia.

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There is a symbolic idea of Japan,
of what it represents for many people.

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They said that when they arrived,
my grandfather was at the front.

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He was supposedly the guide,
the one who opened the way.

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When they got to Tapachula,
he was carrying a spear as they say.

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And that spear was his identity.

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I think because he was
the only one with a sword,

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people were spreading the rumor

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that we were descendants
of Samurai.

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We didn\'t know him
because my grandfather...

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he didn\'t realize it, but they say
he got a thorn stuck in his foot.

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They say that the thorn
reached his heart.

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That\'s what they say, because
he wasn\'t sick or died of an illness.

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Maybe he didn\'t want to look bad
in front of my grandmother,

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but he didn\'t complain

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and when they realized,
it was too late.

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I remember going to Escuintla.

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We went to my grandfather\'s grave.

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My great-grandfather\'s grave
is also there.

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And my family from Escuintla
also arrived at the cemetery.

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The importance of the date
is to remember our ancestors

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and those who are not with us.

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The Escuintla cemetery used to be
part of my grandfather\'s ranch,

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the Nakamura\'s.

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Hearing my father\'s stories
always fills me with nostalgia.

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My father is Manuel Nakamura Escobedo,
he is originally from Escuintla.

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My father\'s family came to Tapachula
and there we lost...

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The connection between commerce
and what was a family association,

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a family neighborhood, was lost.

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The one who named it
was my father.

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He registered it as the Nikkei Ranch.

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My great-grandfather came up with
the idea of planting and producing coffee,

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and my father too.

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He aspired to have his own land.

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But he is no agronomist.

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And neither am I.

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But when I had the chance to plant,
I started with coffee.

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We\'ve been merchants
for a short time

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and it\'s been very difficult
to keep going my friend.

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Once I asked Uncle Oscar:
Hey Uncle, why didn\'t you go to Japan?

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And he said: What for?

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I was born here, here is my culture,
here is everything.

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It\'s like... what is rooted.

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The homeland.

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This is mine.

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I don\'t need to go somewhere else.

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That over there is nostalgia,
that is symbolic.

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Bocabarra is the name of the place.

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Bocabarra bar.

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I have clients, I think from everywhere.

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Hondurans, Salvadorans,

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Cubans, Colombians, Haitians,
who are just arriving.

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A lot of diversity of people here.

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Our Soconusco region is very interesting
because this is a corridor.

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Obviously, for any type of migrations.

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In some way, identity is always
anchoring itself

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with this idea of the symbolic.

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How long will the symbolic remain
after five diluted generations?

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In an increasingly
complicated history.

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In a territory with totally diverse
and complex migrations.

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When will that story say...
\"That\'s it\"?

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NOSTALGIA
NORTHERN BORDER

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SEA

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The first one who came
was my grandfather.

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He was hired specifically
as a fishing technician.

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Actually, as a diver
for abalone fishing

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here in Baja California.

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He also came with other Japanese
from the same area or prefecture,

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some of them came to learn
how to dive and work here.

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I don\'t know exactly when my grandfather
started living here in Ensenada.

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Apparently in 1931,
and many of them,

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most fishermen lived in what is now
the red zone of Ensenada,

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which is in the city center.

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The sea is the same, after all,
it\'s the Pacific.

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Maybe it felt like you\'re in a place
with no borders.

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I don\'t really know how long
they stayed in their camps.

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If I\'m not mistaken, it was
from March to November or something.

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They returned for vacation
around Christmas,

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mainly because of New Year\' Eve
which was important.

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My dad told me that my grandfather
spoke Spanish well,

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but he spoke in slang
from the ranches of Baja California.

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No, I didn\'t know him.
He died in 1965.

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None of the grandchildren knew him.

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Divers don\'t live long because
it\'s a very tiresome profession.

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They develop many issues
with blood pressure.

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Besides diving,

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they probably knew way more about
this peninsula than many people here.

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My great-grandfather was a diver,
my grandfather too.

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My aunt, the oldest,
always worked in fishing companies.

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She started fishing companies herself.

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My dad was a boat engineer.

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And my uncle, the youngest,
became an oceanologist.

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That lineage to the sea
was continued in a way.

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They arrived at some places
where Japanese tombs remained.

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We knew some of the places

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because of a time capsule found
in the Japanese Association.

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My father had also
mentioned them to me.

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I had also started
working on my thesis

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about how cultural identity
is formed through the family.

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And I had started working
with a case study of my family.

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I realized that the story
was not only about fishing,

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but that there were farmers,

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there were people from the city
or town that was Ensenada at that time.

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I think we were lucky
because my grandfather

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was one of the Japanese who spoke,

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who talked to his children.

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My grandfather and grandmother.
Ollichan and Obachan.

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I don\'t know if they had in mind
that they had to tell their story,

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but I know of many Japanese people
who didn\'t talk.

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They kept their stories
to themselves.

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I remember my grandmother
being silent.

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I remember her laughing.

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She laughed a lot in silence,
but she laughed.

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Trying to imagine
my grandmother\'s trip on boat.

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Trying to imagine if she was cold.

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Trying to imagine the avalanche
of emotions she was surely feeling.

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Another continent, another house,
without your family.

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Seeing hours and hours
of an eternal sea must also be...

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It\'s not only the experience
that your life is changing,

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but looking at the sea for so long
must be quite astonishing.

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On the one hand, my grandpa arrived.
He came for fishing.

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He worked as a fisherman.

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And my grandmother arrived because
my grandfather proposed to her.

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I think she arrived
around 1930, 1920.

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I don\'t know.

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My family\'s history
is like a mystery.

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I don\'t know if you\'ve noticed it
with other families.

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My mother has told me the most,
and she\'s not Japanese.

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Being married to my father,
she discovered things.

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But it really is a mystery.

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The story of the Japanese family.

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And my family is no exception.

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Why so much silence?
I really don\'t know.

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It\'s a mystery I like,
but it hurts once in a while.

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Right?

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If our families don\'t tell us,
we have to imagine it.

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With whatever we can get,

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with the little we have been
told since we were little,

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you try to complete the story.

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You try to connect the dots
and let your imagination go.

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My grandmother was such
a beautiful woman.

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Even though I don\'t know
much about her,

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I think she said a lot with her eyes.

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My grandmother never talked much.

00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:38.160
They arranged her marriage
with my grandfather.

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They married her,
she had her marriage ceremony all by herself.

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What a thing.

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Then they sent her on a boat
to this side of the world.

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I know she was very scared.

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I don\'t remember who told me that.

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But I know she found my grandfather
very handsome when she saw him.

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What a relief.
Can you imagine?

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My grandfather
had to go through paperwork

00:37:04.600 --> 00:37:07.330
to bring this woman over here.

00:37:07.330 --> 00:37:10.620
I investigated and I discovered that

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it was indeed a migratory
movement of Asian women.

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It started with a migration of men
to this part of the world

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who wanted some wives,
so they sent them over.

00:37:29.120 --> 00:37:33.060
This movement is
called Picture Brides,

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because they met each other
only through a picture.

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I am a faithful believer
that we are a product

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of all the experiences we live
and experiences are inherited.

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I was very impressed by
the story of my grandmother,

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I am still shocked to be
a Picture Bride\'s granddaughter

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It\'s something that
I keep in mind constantly,

00:38:03.710 --> 00:38:08.910
starting with my relationship
with my boyfriend, for example.

00:38:08.910 --> 00:38:13.460
Or with my son,
what am I going to teach him?

00:38:13.960 --> 00:38:17.530
Regarding relationships,
life decisions.

00:38:17.530 --> 00:38:20.810
It\'s something very present in my life

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and probably in the way I see
and how I take pictures.

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The light is undoubtedly
beautiful in any form,

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but the one in Ensenada
has a nostalgia to it.

00:38:44.080 --> 00:38:51.830
I think my observation of time
has to do with that moment

00:38:51.830 --> 00:38:56.490
of my grandmother
moving forward with the ship,

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and time is passing by
but she is still.

00:39:35.490 --> 00:39:39.660
I took that portrait
on Christmas Eve,

00:39:39.660 --> 00:39:43.830
at a dinner at
my Aunt Martha\'s house.

00:39:44.870 --> 00:39:51.330
And my dad brought my grandma,
she was sitting there.

00:39:51.330 --> 00:39:56.830
By then, she didn\'t
talk much anymore,

00:39:57.130 --> 00:40:00.080
all she did was smile.

00:40:02.370 --> 00:40:06.890
I recall a lot when she was
preparing her coffee with milk.

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When she stirred the spoon
in the cup,

00:40:10.490 --> 00:40:15.030
that half-hollow sound of milk.

00:40:15.030 --> 00:40:18.010
It doesn\'t sound like
water or coffee...

00:40:19.010 --> 00:40:23.530
I remember that sound a lot,
and I remember her like that.

00:40:28.660 --> 00:40:33.910
Women who had no choice
about their lives,

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they assimilate their lives as they are
and are happy with what they have.

00:40:38.950 --> 00:40:44.330
I think there was a power to that.
I like to think about that.

00:40:44.330 --> 00:40:50.580
I don\'t like to think of women
of that time as resentful.

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Because in fact I don\'t remember
my grandmother that way.

00:40:55.870 --> 00:40:58.490
Her gaze didn\'t tell me that.

00:40:58.490 --> 00:41:05.180
And I can\'t compare
the freedom I have,

00:41:05.180 --> 00:41:10.160
the privilege of deciding
for my own life

00:41:10.160 --> 00:41:16.330
and what she had, she really had
no choices in her life.

00:41:16.330 --> 00:41:21.750
We, women, definitely have to
understand where we come from,

00:41:22.750 --> 00:41:27.280
because that will explain
what we are now.

00:41:40.370 --> 00:41:43.920
I think photographing her during
the last years of her life

00:41:44.420 --> 00:41:47.200
completes an important cycle.

00:41:47.200 --> 00:41:50.200
Yes, with her sweet eyes.

00:41:50.200 --> 00:41:52.910
In the end, my grandmother
died in her sleep.

00:41:52.950 --> 00:41:54.780
In silence.

00:41:54.780 --> 00:41:57.910
Everything about her was silent.

00:42:57.780 --> 00:43:02.370
THE FRACTURE

00:50:00.620 --> 00:50:02.440
DURING WORLD WAR II,

00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:05.110
IT WAS DECREED THAT
MEXICO\'S JAPANESE POPULATION

00:50:05.110 --> 00:50:07.940
COULD NOT RESIDE NEAR COASTS
OR THE NORTHERN BORDER

00:50:07.940 --> 00:50:09.740
AFTER THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

00:50:09.740 --> 00:50:12.130
FORCED RELOCATION TO
THE COUNTRY\'S CENTER

00:50:12.130 --> 00:50:16.240
INCLUDED THE FREEZING OF BANK ACCOUNTS
AND DISPOSSESSION OF PROPERTIES

00:50:22.240 --> 00:50:27.200
THE SECRET

00:51:13.490 --> 00:51:16.370
We were curious girls, I think.

00:51:16.370 --> 00:51:23.620
Because we were checking and there were
some big, big drums, full of molasses.

00:51:24.240 --> 00:51:27.160
Like thick piloncillo.

00:51:27.490 --> 00:51:33.080
When we were there, there were
bands with the reeds, squashed,

00:51:33.080 --> 00:51:36.580
like the factory was working
and it suddenly stopped.

00:51:49.580 --> 00:51:52.780
I was born in Jesús Carranza.

00:51:53.580 --> 00:52:00.660
From there we went to
Las Choapas, Veracruz,

00:52:00.960 --> 00:52:04.990
with my dad, my mom, my
sister and my little brother.

00:52:05.780 --> 00:52:11.580
One afternoon
they sent a notification to my dad.

00:52:11.620 --> 00:52:13.920
Probably from City Hall.

00:52:13.930 --> 00:52:19.700
They told my dad he had 48 hours
to leave for Mexico City.

00:52:20.740 --> 00:52:24.530
And that\'s how we moved.

00:52:25.620 --> 00:52:30.370
My dad left two houses there,
almost all of his belongings.

00:52:31.240 --> 00:52:34.160
All he had was a trunk.

00:52:40.870 --> 00:52:46.870
Well, we arrived in Temixco and
my dad went to work in the fields,

00:52:46.870 --> 00:52:53.080
to plant rice, tomatoes,
melon, cucumber.

00:52:53.830 --> 00:52:56.040
They harvested mostly
all the vegetables

00:52:56.040 --> 00:53:02.410
that were consumed
there in Temixco.

00:53:21.870 --> 00:53:26.070
Each of us had a small
room all made of wood

00:53:27.070 --> 00:53:30.280
and our bed was also
like a wooden platform.

00:53:30.910 --> 00:53:34.240
And we slept there,
without any padding or nothing.

00:53:41.160 --> 00:53:46.030
There are still parts where
the kitchen and dining room were

00:53:46.780 --> 00:53:48.370
but it\'s been torn down.

00:53:48.370 --> 00:53:51.780
For example, the roof
is not there anymore.

00:53:51.780 --> 00:53:55.950
Now there\'s a vine,
but part of the walls are there.

00:53:59.620 --> 00:54:03.690
I remember I used to chat
with a neighbor.

00:54:04.190 --> 00:54:07.490
There was no fence,
it was barbed wire.

00:54:07.490 --> 00:54:14.580
So the neighbor would do the laundry,
and I would talk to her

00:54:14.580 --> 00:54:16.950
through the barbed wire.

00:54:20.330 --> 00:54:26.120
My dad told me that he came
to make a fortune, but he didn\'t.

00:54:26.120 --> 00:54:30.200
My mom said the fortune
he made were his children.

00:54:32.080 --> 00:54:37.160
Once, I asked him if he wanted
to return to his land, and he said no.

00:54:37.160 --> 00:54:39.870
No, daughter,
there is no point anymore.

00:54:44.280 --> 00:54:49.410
I think he did miss it,
because he got sad in the afternoons.

00:55:07.450 --> 00:55:10.860
This property was purchased
by a group of Japanese men,

00:55:11.160 --> 00:55:15.780
including Mr. Matsumoto
and Sekiguchi.

00:55:15.780 --> 00:55:19.830
They formed an association
to help their countrymen.

00:55:31.780 --> 00:55:36.870
Enrique Shibayama, he was privileged
because he could go out.

00:55:36.870 --> 00:55:42.200
And he went to Cuernavaca alone
to attend high school.

00:55:49.450 --> 00:55:54.660
It wasn\'t a concentration camp,
it was some sort of campground.

00:55:55.330 --> 00:55:57.350
Several families went there.

00:55:57.850 --> 00:56:01.410
Others went to Mr. Matsumoto\'s
house here in El Batán.

00:56:02.330 --> 00:56:05.700
A lot of people
are very grateful

00:56:05.700 --> 00:56:09.780
because they had
accommodation and work.

00:56:23.240 --> 00:56:27.670
It\'s something they
say: I have it in mind,

00:56:28.170 --> 00:56:30.660
but I don\'t know
if I should tell you.

00:56:31.660 --> 00:56:37.030
I realized that it was a way
for the community to protect itself.

00:56:37.490 --> 00:56:42.160
Because it wasn\'t a story
that was publicly accepted.

00:56:49.830 --> 00:56:53.230
It\'s not that they came here
to suffer,

00:56:53.230 --> 00:56:57.490
but they were pretty much
in a similar situation.

00:57:05.370 --> 00:57:09.370
In 2018, a plaque was unveiled.

00:57:09.370 --> 00:57:16.080
Over 70 years later,
it was recognized that

00:57:16.280 --> 00:57:23.620
the Ex-Hacienda was where
the Japanese stayed during wartime.

00:57:24.330 --> 00:57:29.030
It\'s something that should
and must be said.

00:57:29.030 --> 00:57:31.840
It was not only a confinement,

00:57:31.840 --> 00:57:36.910
the Ex-Hacienda of Temixco
was a concentration camp.

00:57:36.910 --> 00:57:44.900
This space has to become part
of the collective imaginary

00:57:45.300 --> 00:57:50.370
and the history of this community.

00:57:52.280 --> 00:57:56.330
Several strong emotions arose.

00:57:57.030 --> 00:58:02.950
After many years, we were finally
able to publicly express

00:58:02.950 --> 00:58:09.010
and make visible that piece of history
that had not been seen

00:58:09.010 --> 00:58:14.780
and had not been considered
as a piece of Mexican history,

00:58:14.780 --> 00:58:20.840
because in the end, it was the
Mexican State that decided at the time

00:58:21.040 --> 00:58:28.370
to confine locals as well as
mestizo Mexicans in this space.

00:58:35.660 --> 00:58:42.890
Later I discovered that
they locked them up

00:58:45.790 --> 00:58:51.370
in order to hurt their
dignity and pride.

00:58:57.780 --> 00:59:05.280
In Temixco, everybody
tells their own experience.

00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:09.620
There are many versions.

00:59:25.490 --> 00:59:29.180
Well, I couldn\'t say
if it was fair or not,

00:59:29.180 --> 00:59:31.740
but the point is that
we lived it, right?

00:59:34.450 --> 00:59:38.530
And that can no longer be erased.

00:59:38.530 --> 00:59:41.200
Well, I think that many years
have passed

00:59:41.210 --> 00:59:44.080
and it\'s something that
cannot be forgotten.

01:00:41.080 --> 01:00:49.530
THE EX-HACIENDA OF TEMIXCO
BECAME A WATER PARK IN 1968

01:01:06.120 --> 01:01:07.950
I do have good memories.

01:01:07.950 --> 01:01:11.750
Because after
everything happened,

01:01:12.750 --> 01:01:17.410
we went there to celebrate
our birthdays sometimes.

01:01:17.410 --> 01:01:20.550
I personally have fond memories
of the Hacienda.

01:01:20.550 --> 01:01:22.740
But it wasn\'t what it used to be.

01:01:32.450 --> 01:01:35.950
When they got to
the Hacienda de Temixco,

01:01:35.950 --> 01:01:38.950
they met and got married very soon.

01:01:39.660 --> 01:01:42.910
My grandmother was 15
and my grandfather was 30 years old.

01:01:42.910 --> 01:01:44.700
He was twice her age.

01:01:45.120 --> 01:01:51.450
Their first child was born there,
and I discovered through my research

01:01:51.490 --> 01:01:58.530
that he was the first child born
in the Hacienda between 1942 and 1945.

01:02:02.910 --> 01:02:06.910
In fact, several of my relatives
lived there.

01:02:06.920 --> 01:02:14.780
My grandparents, four great uncles
and my dad\'s older brother.

01:02:15.280 --> 01:02:18.620
Several told me
what they had experienced.

01:02:18.990 --> 01:02:22.930
My Aunt None and my grandmother

01:02:22.930 --> 01:02:29.160
told me that they had
a really hard time there.

01:02:29.580 --> 01:02:32.770
And they had suffered
through certain things.

01:02:32.770 --> 01:02:35.490
They did call it
a concentration camp.

01:02:54.490 --> 01:02:58.080
I don\'t think I\'ve ever dared
to speak about it,

01:02:58.080 --> 01:03:00.580
because it may be
a bit sensitive

01:03:00.580 --> 01:03:05.330
but I also think we must honor
the people who lived

01:03:05.530 --> 01:03:07.660
without the possibility
of telling the truth.

01:03:08.410 --> 01:03:14.340
What my grandfather actually did was
help the entire Japanese community

01:03:14.350 --> 01:03:17.200
that was concentrated at that time.

01:03:18.120 --> 01:03:21.780
As their doctor, he became
someone very special

01:03:21.780 --> 01:03:24.990
because he began to
cure them, and so on.

01:03:24.990 --> 01:03:27.280
So he started to be very popular.

01:03:28.370 --> 01:03:32.870
But since my grandfather
used to be a military doctor,

01:03:32.870 --> 01:03:35.590
they start to accuse him
of being a spy,

01:03:35.590 --> 01:03:38.450
so that he would be
transferred to Perote.

01:06:00.330 --> 01:06:05.080
THE PEROTE FORT IN VERACRUZ
FUNCTIONED AS A PRISON FOR CIVILIANS

01:06:05.080 --> 01:06:07.940
OF GERMAN, ITALIAN
AND JAPANESE ORIGIN

01:06:07.940 --> 01:06:11.160
SUSPECTED OF ESPIONAGE
DURING WORLD WAR II.

01:06:31.990 --> 01:06:37.660
PRISON

01:06:47.950 --> 01:06:54.860
I think he taught us that even though
he went through hardships,

01:06:54.860 --> 01:06:58.780
he was a very cheerful,
sociable and positive person.

01:06:59.490 --> 01:07:04.810
He never wanted to talk about
the difficult moments he lived,

01:07:04.810 --> 01:07:08.870
he said very little about it.

01:07:09.410 --> 01:07:11.150
He never wanted to talk
about Japan either.

01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:14.310
We asked him a lot about Japan

01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:18.660
and he always tried
to change the subject.

01:07:36.410 --> 01:07:40.620
Most of them never returned.

01:07:41.700 --> 01:07:47.580
Mexico City was one of the centers
of forced relocation

01:07:53.530 --> 01:08:00.870
It\'s a relocation that in a way forced
this Japanese community to be silent

01:08:01.990 --> 01:08:05.780
I didn\'t identify myself
as a descendant of Japanese.

01:08:05.780 --> 01:08:09.410
I swear I didn\'t even know
my last name was Japanese.

01:08:10.030 --> 01:08:12.580
I found out much later.

01:08:21.330 --> 01:08:28.080
THE SECRET WAS HIDDEN
FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT

01:08:46.780 --> 01:08:53.530
HOW DO INVISIBLE WOUNDS HEAL?

01:09:16.620 --> 01:09:22.700
MEMORY IS AN ISLAND
IN THE SEA OF OBLIVION

01:09:25.990 --> 01:09:29.740
Only memory will be left,
nothing more.

01:09:38.700 --> 01:09:43.660
THE GHOST

01:10:09.450 --> 01:10:13.990
On behalf of parents, Chuo Gakuen
teaching staff and students,

01:10:13.990 --> 01:10:19.080
we warmly welcome you
to the 1991 Gakugeikai.

01:10:19.530 --> 01:10:21.310
To carry out this festival,

01:10:21.310 --> 01:10:25.160
we really pushed ourselves
and we hope you will like it.

01:10:25.160 --> 01:10:26.450
Thank you.

01:10:59.990 --> 01:11:07.700
Chuo Gakuen was founded in the middle
of World War II on December 5, 1944.

01:11:09.240 --> 01:11:11.490
It was a very difficult time.

01:11:19.450 --> 01:11:24.370
In the beginning,
it was a privileged meeting place.

01:11:24.950 --> 01:11:26.750
Here, my parents got married

01:11:27.850 --> 01:11:35.910
and many parents of the Chuo Gakuen\'s
community had their reunions.

01:11:44.660 --> 01:11:50.620
Your grandfather
was president in 1972.

01:11:51.080 --> 01:11:56.870
In 1974, he was president of the Board
of Directors for several years.

01:11:57.240 --> 01:12:01.660
Your grandmother was a teacher
when she was very young and single.

01:12:01.660 --> 01:12:07.660
But I know that they had a farewell,
with all her students.

01:12:13.990 --> 01:12:19.080
Your family, your grandma,
your grandpa and then your mom.

01:12:19.120 --> 01:12:21.240
When you were students here,

01:12:21.240 --> 01:12:25.120
it was a moment in which
Chuo was going downhill.

01:12:25.280 --> 01:12:28.080
There was no money,
no teachers.

01:12:28.080 --> 01:12:31.580
And we asked your mom
if she could help us.

01:12:32.450 --> 01:12:35.200
Just like your family,

01:12:35.580 --> 01:12:36.950
There are many families.

01:12:40.700 --> 01:12:42.100
I\'ve done the math,

01:12:42.100 --> 01:12:46.330
I\'ve spent almost 60 years of my life
here in Chuo Gakuen.

01:12:46.330 --> 01:12:49.830
And I feel very happy
being part of this school.

01:12:51.200 --> 01:12:54.580
And I would like
the school to live on.

01:12:54.580 --> 01:12:57.740
I don\'t know for how long,
but as long as possible.

01:14:52.870 --> 01:14:55.870
Hello!

01:14:55.870 --> 01:14:58.280
How\'s everybody doing?

01:14:58.280 --> 01:15:02.120
Everybody, let\'s dance!

01:15:56.780 --> 01:15:59.780
It\'s all those things, it\'s very sad
not to know.

01:15:59.780 --> 01:16:05.030
I mean, I know we don\'t know,
but you feel the weight.

01:16:05.030 --> 01:16:08.740
All my life I\'ve felt it,
you\'ve felt it.

01:16:09.870 --> 01:16:11.650
It\'s like a burden,

01:16:11.650 --> 01:16:16.990
an incredible sadness
that I think is a big part of me.

01:16:16.990 --> 01:16:21.910
I don\'t know what it is,
but it gets to me all the time.

01:16:27.870 --> 01:16:32.080
Understanding history is understanding
what people have been through

01:16:32.080 --> 01:16:34.030
and where this...

01:16:34.990 --> 01:16:38.910
this sadness or fear comes from

01:16:39.700 --> 01:16:43.280
that is passed down
through generations.

01:19:37.870 --> 01:19:42.160
GHOSTS