Mitsuya Higa and Tom Tyler

Mitsuya Higa

The name Mitsuya Higa probably will not ring a bell with many Tom Tyler fans, although the circumstances which eventually led to Higa's uncle Rensuke and his family to arrive in the United States of America from Peru between 1942 and 1945 are timely enough, as they deal with the subject of deportation.

It may have been the appeal of American popular culture which led Higa's family – as well as his uncle's family – to be accepting of the Peruvian government paying for the the two Japanese families as a ticket out of the nation (during that time period, Peru had over 1771 Japanese nationals and descendents living in that country), even though they knew imprisonment awaited them, due to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policy of Japanese living on American soil following Pearl Harbor. Mitsuya was a pre-teen boy, and living in the western hemisphere, became acquainted with the name Tom Tyler through western films, with his favorite being “Stagecoach.” Mitsuya even regarded Tom as a favorite hero, the latter's appeal transcending the boundaries of race and nationality. So as soon as the boy heard that Rensuke and his family were headed for Texas – not knowing the full meaning behind the trip – believed that he could finally see all the cowboys in America and meet his favorite cowboy, Tom Tyler.

Mitsuya's father initially gave his son permission to leave Peru with Rensuke, but that was never meant to be; instead the boy remained in Peru with his family, maybe one day dreaming of visiting “the land of Tom Tyler” while his uncle remained in Texas. Yet Mitsuya Higa, as enamoured of the American Old West and cowboys as he was, grew up to become a toreador in Peru – the very first one of Japanese ancestry to do so. The entire article appears in Discover Nikkei and is worth reading.