論文

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of
Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanesein the Dominican Pigmentocracy
Midori KOMATSU HIDAKA

1. INTRODUCTION
From 1956 until 1959, hundreds of Japanese families arrived on the shores of
the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic (DR) as permanent settlers.
Their arrival had been planned by both governments of Japan and the DR with
contrasting motivations. Right after the United States occupation of postwar
Japan (1945-1952), the Japanese government sought to form migrationagreements with Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries due to therisk of overpopulation. Whereas the DR had been enduring a dictatorship thatwas seeking to address geopolitical resentments in the borderlands with Haiti.
The Japanese migrant families were unaware that their welcoming into the socalled “Caribbean Paradise” was part of larger discussions surrounding
Dominican nationalization and modernization projects. At the time, theDominican government sought to demarcate itself against the neighboring
nation of the Republic of Haiti within geographical spaces as well as racially andculturally. The urgency of the Dominican elite to separate its national identity
from Haiti reveals a larger regional history that continues to negate certain
ethno-racial and skin color groups into national identity constructions.
Beginning with the European invasion of the Americas, the region of Latin
America and the Caribbean (LAC) has experienced several centuries ofintermixing mostly involving Indigenous groups, Africans, Europeans, andAsians. This intermixing began as the product of forced concubinage, andsexual violence inflicted by the colonizers unto the original inhabitants andenslaved populations. After centuries of miscegenation, the mestizo or ethnoracially mixed populations became the majority which eventually influenced
national identity narratives once Latin American and Caribbean countries

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achieved independence from European powers. However, white European
ancestry continued to be exalted whereas African and Indigenous heritage wasdisregarded due to ideals of a “modern” nation which categorized non-whitenessas “backwards” (Hernández 2013; Wade 2010).
As a legacy of the large-scale historical miscegenation, the term ‘race’ is notwidely used in the region today and instead ‘color’ and other physical traits
such as hair and nose shape have become some of the main indicators of aperson’s ethno-racial ancestry. The importance of physical traits as a tool todistinguish one group from another within a mostly mixed society has resulted
in the propagation of societies based on ethno-racial and skin color hierarchies
also known as pigmentocracies. This term was first conceived by Chilean
anthropologist Alejandro Lipschutz in 1944 and it was further developed inrecent years by sociologist Edward Telles alongside the Project on Ethnicity
and Race in Latin America (PERLA). While studying several countries in LAC,
Telles and PERLA found that “skin color was a more reliable predictor of racialinequality” (2014, 226). Their research highlighted social inequalities tied toeducational attainment, occupation, and everyday experiences of discrimination
which were more accurately connected to skin color compared to ethno-racial
self-identification. Their research confirmed that darker skin individuals were“consistently located in lower socioeconomic statuses than their light-skinned
counterparts” (Telles and PERLA 2014, 227). However, public discourse
continues to use high rates of racial mixture as the pretext to deny theexistence of discrimination based on race and skin color.
Within the studies of Latin American and Caribbean pigmentocracies, there
is an apparent gap to understand the placement of ethnic or racial groups that
do not fit within the mixed trifecta of Afro-descendants, Indigenous groups, andwhite European ancestry. Migrant communities such as Asians are often
glossed over from the region’s national identity even though their presence canbe traced back to the 16th century. From 1565 until 1815, the Manila-Acapulco
Galleon Trade connected the Philippines with Mexico and brought the exchangeof goods between the two regions as well as the arrival of thousands of Asian
settlers (Hu-DeHart 2021; Hu-DeHart and López 2008; Slack 2010). These Asian
migrants eventually became assimilated into Mexican society and almost
disappeared from historical records (Slack 2010; López 2013). In the 19th century,
new arrivals from Asia rapidly increased as hundreds of thousands of Chinese

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Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

and Indian indentured workers were sent to the British Caribbean colonies as
replacement labor after the abolition of slavery (Look Lai 1993). Ebbs and flowsof Asian migration continued in the next century as most of LAC became
independent from European colonies. As these new nations sought to constructtheir own identities, LAC governments sought to introduce European and Asianlabor migrants to boost their economies and “whiten” their mostly mixed-race
populations. Not long after, Asians as well as other migrant communities
became targets of violence as “foreigners,” particularly ethnic Chinese, became
the scapegoat of economic hardships and a supposed threat to national identity(Peloso 2005; Rénique 2001; Chang 2019; DeHart 2021).
These historical shifts that Asian groups experienced and continues toexperience today speak of the larger role migrants played in Latin American
and Caribbean nation-building as both desirable and undesirable. Therefore, tounderstand the placement of Asians within the pigmentocracy, a more complex
approach is necessary. Political scientists Affigne and Lien provide a possible
research framework when studying Asians in the Americas that go beyond“black-white social matrix,”
We should think in terms of parallel hierarchies, or concentric inequalities, inwhich Asian-descent and other non-European peoples stand in separately
subordinate relationships to European, Euro-descent, and Euro-creole elites,
but in more diverse, contextually-specific relationships to one another. Sucha framework would model the intraracial dynamics among the several
ethnic groups in question, without abandoning a fundamental
acknowledgement that White elites in the region have universally definedsocial and political relations in racial terms. (2002, 18)
In the Dominican pigmentocracy, darker skin is associated with ethnic
Haitians and the bottom of the hierarchy. Whereas white Dominicans or those
associated with whiteness and modernity such as European migrants, tend to
be placed at the top. The objective of this article is to analyze the positionalityof the Japanese migrants and their descendants within the Dominican
pigmentocracy concerning other minority groups given their introduction as
foreign agents of modernization. To formulate an answer, the historical context
that led to the arrival of the Japanese migrants in the Dominican Republic will

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be explained first while emphasizing the connection between foreign migrants
and “whitening” modernization projects. Next, the main analysis will utilize data
gathered from interviews 1 of Japanese Dominicans, and Dominicans withJapanese spouses to provide perspectives on their relationship with two otherethno-racial groups, Haitians and Chinese. As Haitians are prominently the mostvisible and most marginalized migrant group in the DR, their relationship withJapanese Dominicans is indicative of their perceptions of socio-racial
positionality.
On the other hand, analyzing ethnic Chinese through Japanese Dominican
perspectives provides a much more nuanced shared experience as nonblack
migrants navigating majority mixed societies with pan-ethnic implications thatlabel Asians as “foreigners.” Here, Affigne and Lien’s (2002) “parallel hierarchies,
or concentric inequalities” may serve to address the interethnic relationshipbetween the Chinese and Japanese in the pigmentocracy. This researchconcludes that Japanese perceptions of other ethnic minorities speak of theirself-placement near the top of the pigmentocracy by complying with majority
ideologies such as denial of racially motivated anti-Haitian sentiment, and theuse of “othering” strategies like hygiene and cultural behavior to denywhiteness for ethnic Chinese. Furthermore, this has created challenges increating pan-ethnic and ethnic minority alliances which becomes a risk forethnic Japanese (and Asians in general) given their “foreign” and unstable social
placement throughout LAC’s history.

2．THE DOMINICAN HISTORICAL CONTEXTThe Dominican Republic (DR) and the Republic of Haiti share the Caribbean
island of Hispaniola with the DR encompassing the eastern side and Haiti thewestern side. Although European colonization and a large Afro-descendant
population are commonalities between the two nations, their historicalnarratives of racial identity greatly differ. During colonization, European
invaders quickly exterminated the original inhabitants of Hispaniola known as
Taínos. This led to the island being mostly composed of mulattos or racial

1

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The interviews were conducted in the Dominican capital city of Santo Domingo between February
and March of 2022 and were translated from Spanish to English by the author. Pseudonyms havebeen used to protect the anonymity of the participants.

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

mixtures between Africans and Europeans. However, Dominican history andpopular discourse continue to uphold a biracial and bicultural Taíno-European
ancestry while diminishing its extensive African influence. Two main historicalfactors have led to the omission of blackness in Dominican national identity
beginning with its Independence.
Unlike most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), theDominican Republic celebrates its independence from the Republic of Haiti andnot a colonial ruler. This comes in sharp contrast with the neighboring nation of
Haiti as the first Caribbean territory to become independent from a European
power. During the late 1700s, Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti) became one ofFrance’s richest colonies with a booming agricultural production of sugar,
coffee, and other goods (Dubois 2011; Heuman 2019). This led to massive arrivalsof enslaved African populations to work the plentiful fields. As the numbers ofenslaved populations vastly outnumbered the white masters, the Haitian
Revolution (1791-1804) was successful in abolishing slavery and achieving SaintDomingue’s independence from France in 1804.
On the other hand, the eastern side of the island experienced a repeatedtransfer of rulership between the Spanish and the French. As Spain was
experiencing turmoil due to the Peninsular War (1807-1814), Spanish authorities
treated their Caribbean colony with indifference which led to the period known
in Dominican history as España Boba (Meek Spain). This ultimately led to thecolony’s brief independence as the Republic of Spanish Haiti in 1821. However,this new nation was under economic pressure as the period of España Boba had
left them in financial disarray.
The prospect of unifying the island gathered the support of many on theeastern side as slave liberation was of popular appeal which led to theannexation of Spanish Haiti in 1822. Jean-Pierre Boyer, the president of Haiti atthe time, abolished slavery in its entirety on the eastern side and beganagrarian reforms to redistribute lands which benefited the lower classes(Ricourt 2016, 29). Latin American scholar, Milagros Ricourt explains, “Boyer’s
policies hurt deeply the interests of white landholders and the Catholic Church,
resentment intensifying among these groups, and the reaction by landowning
elites and the Church to the expropriation of their lands and the abolition ofslavery produced a hatred of Haitians that eventually converted into a racist
negrophobia that permeated the intelligentsia” (2016, 30). The former

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landholders and the Catholic Church supported the independence movements
taking place on the former Spanish side of the island, and on February 27, 1844,
the Dominican Republic achieved its separation from the Republic of Haiti
marking the foundation of a cultural divide that framed Haiti as French creole
speakers and vodou practitioners to contrast with the Hispanophilic andCatholic side in the DR.

2. 1. Anti-Haitian sentiment during the Trujillato
Almost a century later, anti-Haitian sentiment was re-ignited by the
Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. This was the second major
historical event that marked the relationship between the two countries. Trujillo
ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until 1961 through a period that cameto be known as the “trujillato.” During the trujillato, the massacre of an
estimated 15,000 ethnic Haitians took place between the 2nd and 8th of Octoberin 1937. This massacre significantly marked Dominican-Haitian relations which
the Dominican elite and intellectuals had been motivating through anti-Haitian
propaganda and Trujillo’s command to strictly mark the geographical border
between these two nations (Turits 2002).
Years before the Haitian genocide, the border had been a disputed zone since
there was not a strict demarcation of land between the DR and Haiti.
Furthermore, the borderlands had become an area of multicultural exchange
where Haitians and Dominicans intermingled and created inter-ethnic families.
Through this massive act of violence, Trujillo was instituting his control overthe Haitian-Dominican border and pleasing the Dominican elites that had been
following eugenic ideologies that exalted white Spanish heritage to contrast
with black Haitians.  Historian Richard Turits explains, “Dominican intellectuals
represented the Haitian presence in the Dominican frontier as a ‘pacificinvasion’ that was endangering the Dominican nation. This ‘invasion’ wassupposedly ‘Haitianizing’ and ‘Africanizing’ the Dominican frontier, rendering
popular Dominican culture more savage and backward, and injecting new andundesirable African admixtures into the Dominican social composition” (2002,
599).
After the Haitian massacre, Trujillo had to diminish the spotlight on his
crimes against humanity given its context right before World War II. The
unstable situation in Europe allowed Trujillo’s regime to uplift its international

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Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

reputation by inviting European refugees to the DR during the Evian
Conference of 1938. Adjacently, Trujillo was also motivated to place European
migrants on the Dominican-Haitian border to “whiten” the population in theseareas and grow agricultural production. Among them were migrant groups
from Spain and Hungary as well as Jewish refugees who sought to escape theNazi regime. However, this plan backfired given that most of the migrants had
no experience working the fields and only saw the Dominican Republic as atemporary stopover before heading to other places such as the United States(Horst and Asagiri 2000; Peguero 2017). It didn’t take long for Trujillo to find apossible replacement for the failed European agricultural settlement by shifting
his focus to Asia.

2. 2. The arrival of Japanese migrants
Once the US occupation ended in postwar Japan, the Japanese government
began to organize and encourage their population from mostly southern rural
areas to migrate to Latin America and the Caribbean (Endoh 2009). This waspart of the second wave of migration to LAC organized by the Japanese
government which included countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, andParaguay. After losing their colonies, the government of Japan had to deal withmillions of returnees coming into the mainland. With the fear of overpopulation
and already having the experience and infrastructure to organize migration
movements to LAC, the Japanese government saw this as an opportunity torestart the agreements.2 As the US placed restrictions on Japan’s international
movement due to Imperial Japan’s expansionist history, the Japanese
government had to wait until the occupation ended.
Japan and the Dominican Republic did not have an established international
relationship nor had there been previous migration agreements. Thus, themigration proposal came as an unexpected coincidental creation. Trujillo’s
pursuit of agricultural migrants to place at the border synchronized withJapan’s quest to send their people away. Negotiations began in 1954 and two
years later, the migration project became a reality. On July 26, 1956, the ship
Brazil Maru brought the first group of 28 Japanese families composed of 186
2

Other motivating factors have been theorized by Endoh (2009) such as strategic geopolitical soft
power through the Japanese government’s presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the“decompression” of potential social unrest from Japan’s rural areas.
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individuals into Ciudad Trujillo3 (Peguero 2017). This first group of families wasplaced in the north-western province of Dajabón bordering Haiti. By 1959, a
total of 250 Japanese families composed of 1,319 individuals were placed incolonias or settlements throughout the country which were strategically locatedin the Dominican-Haitian border. A few Japanese settlements were establishedin the central mountainous regions which had more fertile soil than those in thearid lands at the border settlements. To avoid the same unwanted outcomethat took place with the European migrants, Trujillo petitioned for families
composed of at least three individuals with experience working in agriculture
or fishing. This migration movement was described as a permanent settlement
and the Japanese government made sure to bring forth an appealing image torecruit families. Most of the Japanese families that came to the DR were
motivated by the opportunity to become landowners of fertile lands in what theJapanese government-sponsored programs referred to as a “Caribbean
Paradise” (Perez Hazel 2015; Peguero 2017).
However, many issues arose with the migration program from the moment ofarrival. A great number of families, particularly those placed in the borderareas, were not able to work the lands that were assigned because of the rocky
terrain or the lack of water to grow crops (Comité Ejecutivo 2006). There wasalso a lack of proper infrastructure such as roads to the markets to sell produce,
and a mistranslation regarding the amount of land to be provided created asense of false advertisement. The plethora of issues became further exacerbatedwith the assassination of Trujillo in 1961. Ownership of the lands became
muddled as the original landowners returned to demand their stolen lands
taken by Trujillo and given to the Japanese migrants. Furthermore, the politicalunrest that came from the abrupt end of 30 years of dictatorship and theensuing Dominican Civil War (1965) brought massive displacements to otherprovinces among the Japanese families as they searched for work in urban
areas or other agricultural settlements. Most of the migrants eventually moved
to other parts of Latin America such as Brazil and a few returned to Japan. Of
the 1,319 original Japanese migrants, only 276 remained in the Dominican
Republic after 1962 (Peguero 2017; Masterson and Funada-Classen 2004). This isless than 40% of the original total group which led the first and only Japanese

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Today’s capital city of Santo Domingo.

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

settlement in the DR to be regarded as a “failure.” Not long after these events,
this failed settlement would become the source of a divisive lawsuit against theJapanese government which created ruptures within the already small
community. The historical hardships and deceptions were the main catalysts ofthis lawsuit as many of the pro-lawsuit migrants felt deceived by the Japanese
government’s campaign to paint the dictator-ruled Dominican Republic as a“paradise” (Perez Hazel 2015; Peguero 2017)  
Nonetheless, despite the numerous challenges and conflicts, many of theJapanese families that stayed have been able to integrate into Dominicansociety by forming interracial Japanese Dominican families and finding economic
mobility through entrepreneurship. As of March 2020, the Japanese Ministry ofForeign Affairs estimates there are 800 Japanese descendants and 721 Japanesenationals living in the DR. Although the Japanese Dominicans encompass asmall percentage of the population in the Dominican Republic, their placement
within the pigmentocracy provides us with an outlook into how Asian minorities
are contextualized in Latin America and the Caribbean. To understand where
the Japanese Dominicans exist within the Dominican pigmentocracy, we can
examine their relationship and perspectives on other more prominent migrantgroups such as Haitians and Chinese.

3. JAPANESE DOMINICAN PERSPECTIVES ON ETHNICMINORITIESMovements from Asia to Latin America and the Caribbean can be traced
back to the late 1500s. However, their historical neglect has made it difficult toascertain their place as part of national identity narratives in most of the region.
Even though some members of Asian communities have been able to achieve
positions of political power such as ex-President Alberto Fujimori in Peru, thehistory of Asian Latin Americans has shown instability and ambiguity that
ranges from indentured servitude in the Caribbean to ethnic erasure throughnationalization projects in Brazil. In the case of the Dominican Republic,
Japanese migrants were brought in with expectations to contrast ethnic
Haitians and darker skin Dominicans through “whitening” projects ofmodernization.
In the Dominican Republic, the pigmentocracy has been framed to

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marginalize Haitians and darker skin Dominicans that are regarded as“Haitianized.” Therefore, ethno-racial or skin color groups that do not fit theparameters of racialized Haitians, may be able to move within thepigmentocracy. Asian groups such as the Japanese could attain closeness towhiteness as “nonblack” migrants, but on unsteady grounds due to their“foreignness” and lack of political power as underrepresented minorities. Theirpotential status as foreign agents of modernity could be influenced by the
conflation with their economically powerful ancestral homeland.
To further dissect the placement of Japanese migrants and their descendants
in the Dominican pigmentocracy, we can analyze their relationships andperceptions of ethnic Haitians and Chinese through the data gathered frominterviews. The interviewees are composed of Japanese Dominicans fromdifferent generations who are in interracial marriages with local Dominicans.
Their intermarried status and multiracial family formation showcase a greater
likelihood of being engaged with more diverse populations outside of theJapanese Dominican community. Some of their non-Japanese Dominican spouses
were interviewed to provide broader perspectives as well.

3. 1. Perception of ethnic Haitians
Haitians compose the largest migrant group in the Dominican Republic withsteadily growing numbers for the last 30 years4. Devastating natural disasters
and perpetual political unrest in an already impoverished nation have led
thousands of Haitians to leave their homeland and cross the borders. Within the
Dominican pigmentocracy, ethnic Haitians, particularly darker skin Haitians
have been marginalized to the bottom of the ethno-racial and skin color
hierarchy. Their status also includes their othering as “foreign.” In contrast
with the Japanese, ethnic Haitians are not considered part of the modernization
project because of their international standing as one of the poorest countries in
the world and its marginalization as a majority black nation. Furthermore, thehistorical relationship between the two countries and the exploitation of
undocumented ethnic Haitians for manual labor enforces their lower status in
the public discourse.

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Data from 2019 showed that around 4% of the total Dominican population is composed of migrants,
and out of this percentage about 86% originate from Haiti (Morales and Rodríguez 2022).

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

During the interviews, all the Japanese Dominican participants were awarethat Haitians were the number one target of discrimination in the DR. However,the correlation between anti-Haitian sentiment and anti-black racism became
convoluted in some cases by adding elements such as social class, culture, andhistory. Adriana, a sansei (third generation) in her late 20s explained,
The strongest discrimination here in the DR is with Haitians. I feel likethey get discriminated against a lot even though they are our neighbors on
the island but is more because of a cultural topic and the history…there’s
cultural discrimination. Because it isn’t racism in itself, as if to say ‘ah, it’s
because he is black.’ No, it is not because of their color. Is more about the
topic of culture since there is a history between the DR and Haiti. Is a
racism that has been inherited from generation to generation. If you wereto ask someone why you treat Haitians badly, they would tell you that it isbecause they want to invade our part of the island, that they want to takeover our country. And a lot of times no, they simply leave their country
running away from the situation that they are living.5
Adriana’s statement seems to contradict itself when saying it isn’t racism,but “inherited” racism. However, this phrasing intends to contrast with theracism found in the United States. This was further confirmed when I asked
her thoughts on those who had anti-Haitian opinions, Adriana brought up thecase of Dominicans migrating to Puerto Rico and the US, as well as Mexicans
crossing the borders to the US. Myths of non-racism in majority mixed contexts
are still quite prevalent in LAC and by denominating antihaitianismo as an“inherited” racism, it normalizes antiblackness as part of Dominican history andcontemporary ideology. Another aspect to note is that migrant stories are being
correlated with each other to express sympathy while still not addressing how
black migrants deal with double stigma in a pigmentocracy because of theirethno-racial and color status compared to nonblack migrants in the DR.
Another interview participant provided similar, but more specific descriptionsof the existing discrimination towards Haitians. Kenji, a nisei (second generation)
in his 50s replied,

5

Adriana, interview by author, February 2022, Santo Domingo.
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…usually, it is directed to Haitians because they are seeing it from thesocioeconomic point of view. Because currently Haiti is a very poor country
with a very high population, and yet, educational level I think they are a bit
better than in the DR. With a country with a lot of social, political, andeconomic problems…And from their own religious culture of voodoo…thehygiene aspect because they don’t have access to a hygienic system. All
types of discrimination come that way because if you see the other way
around, is the same thing that happens to Dominicans that go to the US.6
Kenji described Haiti’s socioeconomic status as influencing the perspective
Dominicans have of Haitians. His comment on education is a bit puzzling but
could be explained through his previous answers in which he criticized theinsufficient quality of education he experienced in Dominican schools when he
was a child or to lessen the criticisms towards Haitians.  Other aspects such as
religion and hygiene are also significant to point out. Vodou, which is associatedwith the African diaspora, is also widely practiced by Dominicans. However, its
stigma as an African religious practice goes against the Christian Catholic
image of the DR. As for hygiene, access to clean water may be difficult in apoverty-stricken country such as Haiti which leads to a lack of proper
sanitation. Furthermore, whiteness and hygiene are correlated themes. In a
study conducted in Chile by sociologist Macarena Bonhomme (2022) found that
local Chileans criticized ethnic migrants from other Latin American countries
as “dirty.” Bonhomme explains, “the hygiene some Chileans regarded as anestablished ‘cultural practice’ allows Chileans to position themselves at a higher
hierarchical tier, constructing whiteness through a set of binary oppositions:‘they’ are ‘darker’ and ‘dirty’ but Chileans, are ‘whiter’ and ‘clean’” (2022, 6).
Therefore, hygiene and certain “cultural practices” are associated withwhiteness to contrast with the “other” and to perpetuate a lower status as an
outsider.
Like Adriana, Kenji also mentioned the case of Dominicans in the UnitedStates as an example of migrant experiences having certain elements ofuniversality. Although this is partly true, the experience of Haitians in the DR
or racialized black migrants in general, tends to go in opposition to what the

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Kenji, interview by author, March 2022, Santo Domingo.

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy“desirable” migrants who are often white or in proximity to whiteness, andtherefore, at the higher strata of the pigmentocracy. Furthermore, drawing
comparisons to the United States has been a commonly used strategy todiminish the extent of racial and color discrimination found in Latin American
and Caribbean countries.

3. 2. Perception of ethnic ChineseAmong Asian migrant groups in the Dominican Republic, the Chinese
community has the largest and longest historical presence in the country
beginning in the 1860s. The first documented Chinese arrival came from Cuba
where Chinese indentured workers moved to the northern Dominican coastal
town of Samaná (Chez Checo 2021). Historical events such as the first US
occupation of the DR (1916-1924) and the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) alsobrought new arrivals to the island, but larger numbers came during the 1980s
and 90s which revitalized the community (Chen 2008). However, precise
numbers of the Chinese community in the DR are difficult to ascertain due tothe constant movements to the United States including illegal trafficking andnaturalization patterns although it is estimated to be in the tens of thousands(Sang Ben 2022, Chen 2008). Their presence in the Dominican Republic is visible
in the commercial arena as many businesses such as restaurants, laundromats,and colmados (small grocery shops) are owned by ethnic Chinese which has led
to other Asian groups such as ethnic Japanese and Koreans in the DR to bereferred as “chino” or “china” (Chinese men or woman).   However, theinterviews revealed certain variations in ethnic stereotyping between the
Chinese and Japanese.
Although aspects of whiteness have been associated with the Chinese andJapanese in the DR, there appears to be contrasting perspectives and reactions
between them. Fumiko, a nisei in her 60s explained,
There is still a certain discrimination with the Chinese that they
(Dominicans) don’t have with the Japanese. When they call you “china”(Chinese woman) and you reply you are Japanese, they say “ah, but y’all
are different.”7

7

Fumiko, interview by author, February-March 2022, Santo Domingo.
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Fumiko’s experience demonstrates the change in behavior which places theJapanese in a favorable light in comparison to the Chinese migrants and theirdescendants in the DR. When I asked Mieko, an issei (first generation) who has
been living in the DR for 20 years, if she has noticed the difference on how theJapanese and Chinese are treated, she responded,
Yes, to be honest, it is not how Dominicans treat Chinese or Japanese. I see
how Chinese Dominicans and Japanese Dominicans behave. Because
Dominicans react according to how they react to them. So Chinese
Dominicans treat Dominicans very bad. Historically, they may have a badexperience that they might think they are higher than them. I have neverseen Japanese people ordering Dominican people.8
Mieko flipped the narrative on how Dominicans may perceive the Asian“other” to say that the Chinese are responsible for the way they are treatedand stereotyped. Asians, including the Chinese, are said to be in a morefavorable position than the darker skin Afro-descendant population which could
explain Mieko’s phrasing of “they think they are higher than them” and herexperience of “Chinese Dominicans treating Dominicans very bad.” Although
Mieko was born and raised in Japan, her perspective was not far off from what
local Dominicans would say which demonstrates a desire to create distance
between the two ethnic groups by appropriating dominant thought.
I asked Daniela, a Dominican woman who is married to Kenji, what she
thought about the difference in treatment between the Japanese and theChinese in the DR. She responded,
As I have perceived it, Chinese culture is more well-known here. There are“picapollo chino,”9 Chinese diners, etc...Their appearance, the way theyrefer to people, their food, their space where their food is, they are notvery hygienic. Those are things about their behavior. They are very
careless, the great majority, with their hygiene, dirty clothing…With thatkind of appearance, people repudiate it. After seeing the unhygienic

8
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Mieko, interview by author, March 2022, Santo Domingo.
Popular Chinese-owned establishments in the DR that sell affordable meals.

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

clothing, they don’t want to eat in their establishments. The treatment
towards Dominicans as well. The Japanese have a certain level of education,
they are always impeccable, their way of speech, etc.10
Through Daniela’s answer, it becomes clear that the Chinese seemed to be
excluded from ideas of whiteness as hygiene is also used to create separation
between different racial and ethnic groups similar to ethnic Haitians. Mieko andDaniela both mentioned the treatment of Dominicans as a factor in being
perceived negatively. However, my positionality as the interviewer must be
noted. Since I am ethnically Japanese, Daniela may have felt compelled to create
differences between both ethnic groups. If the interviewer had been ethnically
Chinese, the answer may have been different.
The participants’ negative depictions of the Chinese community in the DR
are a bit puzzling given that the Chinese tend to be portrayed as a hardworking
and entrepreneurial “model minority” in local Dominican newspapers. However,on those same news articles that speak highly of the Chinese Dominicans, there
is a mixed bag of comments left by readers that compared the Chinese as
better than Haitians or deemed both migrant groups as unwelcomed.11 In April
2022, headlines of the murder of a Chinese employer by his Dominican employee
were said to have caused tensions between the two groups. However, Chinese
community leaders quickly dismissed such claims stating that “the Chinesepresence in the Dominican Republic has always been valued by the
Dominicans.” 12 The altercation between the Chinese employer and theDominican employee was said to be rooted in the constant mistreatment of his
employees. Although there aren’t many records of violent incidents between
Dominicans and Chinese, this 2022 news report speaks of the different
interplays of power existing in the DR.

10
11
12

Daniela, interview by author, March 2022, Santo Domingo.
Valdivia, Javier. 2014. “La comunidad china se inserta en el mercado.” Listin Diario. February 19.
Pérez, Jusety. 2022. “Comerciantes chinos guardan silencio tras muerte de compatriota.” Diario
Libre. April 26.
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The Dominican Republic holds a majority mulato

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or Afro-descendantdemographic that encompasses about 86% of its total population (The World
Factbook). Given that Afro-descendants have been and continue to be
marginalized by the lighter skin or white elite, most of the Dominican
population is considered subaltern in the pigmentocracy. Consequently, thisinfluences the status of migrant groups within the Dominican pigmentocracy.
The Asian population in the DR does not appear to have a uniform placement
and is prone to ambiguity and ethnic differentiation. This difference in treatment
between ethnic Chinese and ethnic Japanese, could be explained as a “parallelhierarchy” to the pigmentocracy in which the Japanese have been placed above
the Chinese (Affigne and Lien 2002). Furthermore, their smaller numbers andtheir status as a migrant “other” diminishes the agency of Asians groups as
Dominican nationals or as part of the population regardless of their
documentation status. Haitians and Haitian Dominicans are an example ofdouble marginalization because of their race and foreignness. Therefore, power,
privilege, and whiteness manifest in different arenas for Asian communities inthe Dominican context which may deviate from usual notions ofpigmentocracies.

3. CONCLUSION
The Japanese migrants that arrived in the Dominican Republic during the1950s were praised as foreign agents of modernization through the developmentof agricultural production and techniques while serving as a human shield
against the deluded belief of a Haitian invasion in the borderlands. The historicalanimosity between the DR and Haiti that stemmed from the Dominican
Independence and Trujillo’s ethnic genocide for geopolitical border control
exemplifies how the Dominican pigmentocracy has been constructed to alignwith the country’s national identity. Dominican national identity has been built
to directly contrast with Haitians at a racial and cultural level in which Haitians
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I used to term “mulato” (European-African ancestry) instead of “mestizo” (mostly used to refer toEuropean-Indigenous ancestry) because it most accurately represents the Dominican ethno-racial
demographic. Even though many Dominicans use the term “indio” for self-identification, thepercentage of indigenous Taíno ancestry is quite low given that Spanish colonists eradicated thisethnic group early on during colonization. Also, the historical framework of antihaitianismo is thereason Dominicans generally used the term “indio” even though “mulato” would be more accurate.

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

exemplify Africanism and Dominicans Hispanisism.
Paradoxically, this eventually led to the introduction of Japanese migrants asforeign tools to “modernize” Dominican identity. However, the ulterior motivesof the migration agreement between Japan and the DR are partially the reason
why the permanent settlement was deemed a failure. By giving the migrants
stolen infertile lands in the border areas and receiving sponsorship from thedictator, the Japanese migrants were placed in a difficult situation as tensions
with local Dominicans brewed. The growing number of issues from themigration program reached its climax with Trujillo’s death. Furthermore, theJapanese government’s pretext of overpopulation and sham advertisement of a“Caribbean Paradise” ultimately led to the divisive lawsuit against the
government of Japan. For the Japanese migrants that remained in the DR, theirplacement within the pigmentocracy resulted in a nuanced understanding of
national belonging. Their perceptions of other ethnic groups demonstrate thedifferent layers and branches that go beyond white-black dichotomies.
Through the interviews, there was a clear acknowledgment of the placementof ethnic Haitians at the bottom of the Dominican pigmentocracy which
involved their double marginalization as black/darker skin and foreign/other. In
the case of the Chinese, there are multifaceted factors to be considered. The
global reputation of China as a dominant nation in foreign trade as well as its
competition against the US, places them in a conflicting position given theinfluence both China and the US have in in countries throughout Latin America
and the Caribbean. Like many migrant groups, the Chinese in the DR are
conflated to their homeland which is perceived as a more powerful and modern
nation than the DR. However, the interviews as well as comments in newspaper
articles reveal the status of the Chinese community in the DR diverges from
ideals of whiteness with criticisms referencing hygiene, “cultural” behavior, andundesirability as foreign migrants. Thus, as a nonblack minority group, ethnic
Chinese may not be considered in proximity to whiteness compared to ethnic
Japanese but may still hold flexibility in their placement given the stable
position of ethnic Haitians at the bottom.
For the ethnic Japanese population, their proximity to whiteness appears to
be a result of their disengagement from pan-ethnic alliances as well ascomplacent behavior that upholds color and ethno-racial hierarchies. By
assimilating dominant ideology which denies anti-black racism towards ethnic

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Haitians and agreeing with anti-Chinese stereotypes, ethnic Japanese haveappraised their placement in the Dominican pigmentocracy as above othernonwhite ethnic minority groups. Additionally, the lack of pan-ethnic and ethnic
minority allyships has only benefited those who are already in power and at the
top of the hierarchy. Just like Trujillo and the intellectuals who sought toeliminate Haitian-Dominican multicultural spaces in the borders, this legacy
lives on by reinstating socio-political control over the lower strata of thepigmentocracy. Given the ambiguous status of Asian minorities in the
Dominican Republic and many parts of LAC, it is inadvisable to continue toreject the cultivation of racial and ethnic minority ties as social mobility can
become unpredictable in both upward and downward trends.
Overall, this research has served to further add into the scarce study of the
Asian presence in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the role of ethnic
migrant groups in majority mixed societies. Further research on interethnic
dynamics such as intermarriage and family formation between ethnic or racial
minority groups in countries throughout LAC could benefit in understanding
how dominant racial ideologies are passed down in the private sphere of ethnoracially marginalized groups.
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Shades of Whiteness, Perception of Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanese in the Dominican Pigmentocracy

Abstract

Shades of Whiteness, Perception of
Otherness: Locating the Ethnic Japanesein the Dominican Pigmentocracy
Midori KOMATSU HIDAKA
During the late 1950s, hundreds of Japanese migrant families arrived in the
Dominican Republic (DR) as permanent agricultural settlers. Both sending andreceiving countries had contrasting motivations: The Japanese government
sought to address the potential of overpopulation in the postwar era whereas
the Dominican government grappled to demarcate a geopolitical border with
the neighboring nation of Haiti. To cement a distinct national identity awayfrom the Africanisms of Haiti, the DR relied on the creation of a bi-racial andbicultural Spanish-Indigenous national identity to diminish their blackness. The
historical animosity between the DR and Haiti ultimately led to the placementof Japanese migrants in the borderlands to “whiten” or “de-Haitianize” thepopulation. White European and nonblack foreigners, such as the Japanese,were said to be the solution to deal with majority mixed populations throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by “diluting” certain ethno-racial
groups such as Indigenous and Afro-descendants. The marginalization of bothgroups is part of a larger regional development of societies based on ethnoracial and skin color hierarchies known as pigmentocracies in which whitenessand lighter skin are at the top whereas blackness and darker skin has beenplaced at the bottom. In the Dominican pigmentocracy, ethnic Haitians anddarker skin Dominicans have been placed at the bottom and European migrants
and lighter skin Dominicans at the top. Through a historical analysis andinterviews, this research aims to deduce the placement that ethnic Japanese
Dominicans have aligned themselves in the pigmentocracy through theirperspectives on other ethnic minority groups such as Haitians and Chinese. As
the arrival of Japanese migrants came as the result of the Dominican
government’s whitening pursuits, the interviews revealed that ethnic Japanese
have placed themselves in favorable positions in closeness to whiteness by
assimilating dominant discourse such as the denial of race-based anti-Haitian
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sentiment, and compliance with anti-Chinese stereotyping. However, as many
Asian groups in LAC, ethnic Japanese continue to be excluded from national
identity narratives as “foreigners” which makes their assessment in thepigmentocracy uncertain and everchanging.

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