The naval battalion to which José Ernesto Matsumoto belonged was part of the first anti-aircraft wall that Tokyo had to stop the attacks of the American aviation. The battalion was stationed on the island of Hachijō, located more than 200 kilometers south of the capital's coast, out to sea in the Pacific Ocean.
Waves of American planes flew over the island Hachijō, but since the huge B-29 bombers reached an altitude of around 10,000 meters, the Japanese artillery decided not to launch a single shell since its range only reached up to 7,000 meters, as José Ernesto had warned his superiors. This measure managed to protect the island's population from an air attack. The battalion in which José Ernesto participated only saw the American squadrons pass by, destroying more than 60 Japanese cities.
In March 1945, Tokyo was the target of one of the most intense and destructive attacks of the entire Second World War. More than 300 B-29 bombers left a quarter of the capital razed and smoking with their napalm bombs. The bombs destroyed more than a million homes and the flames left the city in ashes. The most terrible thing about this air raid was that more than 100,000 people died, a figure even higher than that of the victims of the atomic bombs dropped in August on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Jesus Akachi, the son of Japanese immigrants who was born in Mexico and who was more than 200 kilometers away from the capital at the time, in the town of Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture, recalled that the glow of the flames that devastated Tokyo could be seen as far as the place where the children were sent to protect them in anticipation of the air attacks.
The Japanese armed forces, despite imminent defeat, were not prepared to surrender under any circumstances. The Japanese army began to prepare the entire civilian population to be ready for the imminent landing of the American army. In addition, José Ernesto was tasked with organizing the local population of the island to produce food derived from dairy cattle and fishing activity.
On August 15, 1945, José Ernesto heard the Emperor Hirohito announce the surrender of Japan on the radio. In September, the military commanders of this unit handed over their weapons to the American military forces that occupied the island. Back in Tokyo, José Ernesto, despite knowing about the destruction of Tokyo, was surprised to find only ruins that made it impossible for him to recognize the place where he lived.
In the months following the surrender of Japan, Ernesto managed to finish his university studies. The images of all these years are marked in José Ernesto's memory by the enormous misery and widespread hunger of the population. Not only was there no food, but even utensils to cook the little that could be obtained on the black market. Ernesto also remembers how thousands of people had nowhere to live, so many stayed overnight under bridges or in train tunnels.
The shortage was total and hunger and poverty reached such levels that the American authorities had to allow the importation of food to avoid a large-scale social uprising. At the beginning of 1946, José Ernesto received a letter from his parents who had learned that José Ernesto had managed to survive the war. Ernesto's father, Sanshiro, thanks to his direct contacts with members of the Mexican government, managed to get the Mexican authorities to take charge of his son's request to return to Mexico.
José Ernesto was not entirely in favour of returning, as he felt it was not advisable to leave a country that was in ruins and subjected to occupation forces. He had survived the war and had become educated and fully established himself in Japan. It was difficult for him to think again about the country where he had been born and whose language he had stopped speaking during his more than 15 years in Japan.
He wrote to his father that he did not wish to return to Mexico and that his presence in Japan was more necessary given the destruction of that country that he already considered his homeland. Sanshiro's response was blunt and he ordered José Ernesto to return to Mexico, at least to visit his grandfather, his mother and his brothers.
It was not until two years later, in 1947, through the intermediation of the Swedish embassy in Japan (which was the country that represented Mexico's diplomatic interests) that the occupation government, headed by General Douglas MacArthur, granted José Ernesto permission to return.
The return to Mexico was as difficult as his trip to Japan. José Ernesto once again felt out of place and a bit of a stranger in the country where he was born. His father immediately sent him to the greenhouse he had in Cuautla where they grew orchids, an activity that he did not like at first because he was really trained in the area of livestock. In any case, he made an effort to follow his father's instructions and began to learn about and manage the cultivation of ornamental flowers. One of them would be the poinsettia, which began to be marketed massively in Mexico and would be one more of the flowers that would be grown with great success in the Matsumoto greenhouses.
In 1950, he married Miss Hiroko Muray, the daughter of Japanese immigrants who had arrived in Mexico in the 1920s. That year, his father asked him to take over the property they had acquired near Texcoco in the state of Mexico, the former Tlalmimilopan hacienda. The hacienda covered 245 hectares and was suitable not only for growing flowers but also for livestock production. On the hacienda, Ernesto was able to put his knowledge of dairy cattle into practice, as he had more than a thousand head of cattle, of which 600 were dairy cows.
Thanks to José Ernesto's knowledge, the farm was able to produce a premium quality milk, the first of its kind in Mexico, which was highly successful in the market and received an award for its quality. He also managed to combine the experience acquired in the cultivation of plants and flowers, since he grew roses, carnations and orchids in five hectares of greenhouse.
In 1955, the painter Tamiji Kitagawa, who was already well-known in Japan, paid a visit to Mexico. Kitagawa had trained as a painter in Mexico under the influence of Mexican muralism during his 15-year stay in that country, from 1921 to 1936, the year in which he decided to return to Japan.
Without knowing his work, Ernesto welcomed Kitagawa to his ranch where he would create an oil painting called “The Road to the Matsumoto Ranch Texcoco.” The painting shows the entrance to the ranch, full of lollipops and eucalyptus trees. Kitagawa’s painting is very important because it is one of the few oil paintings by this Japanese painter that are preserved in Mexico.
In 1962, Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos made a state visit to Japan, the first by a Mexican president to that country. The president asked the Matsumotos to accompany him and introduce him to the history and culture of Japan. To this end, Ernesto received the Mexican president upon his arrival at Haneda Airport and accompanied him throughout his state visit.
In that decade, Japan's economy began to emerge rapidly as one of the world's leading industrial economies. Japanese companies became interested in investing in Mexico and found Ernesto to be an excellent advisor and guide for their purposes.
In 1970, one of Ernesto's friends and colleagues in the Navy, Michio Torii, had become an important official at Suntory. The company, which produced whiskey among its other businesses, was interested in opening a Japanese restaurant in Mexico. At that time, Mexican law prevented foreign companies from owning the majority of the shares, so the Matsumotos were part of the investment that allowed the first Suntory restaurant outside of Japan to be established in Mexico.
Suntory was also interested in distilling its own brand of whisky in Mexico, so it asked the Matsumotos to carry out the process at the former hacienda. In 1978, the distillery was opened, as well as a factory for making ramen, an instant soup, the first of its kind to be sold in Mexico under the brand name Instant Ramen.
Over the following years, Ernesto dedicated himself to advising various companies in the floriculture production sector, as well as guiding Japanese businessmen from various sectors (productive, commercial and financial) who wanted to invest in Mexico.
At the age of 97, Matsumoto was decorated by Emperor Naruhito who awarded him the Rising Sun Decoration in 2020, an award that recognized the intense work that Ernesto Matsumoto had done to promote bilateral relations between Mexico and Japan.
Ernesto's long pilgrimage through Mexico and Japan transcends his personal and family environment. The micro-stories of immigrants are linked to broader processes that involve not only the two countries, but are intertwined with global stories in which they are immersed. Don Ernesto has even more stories to tell us, fortunately. I hope that his strength and character continue to give us keys to understanding the history of Mexico and Japan.
© 2024 Sergio Hernández Galindo