Sao Paulo J-Town

Today we went on a walking tour of the "J-Town" of Sao Paulo.  It was of particular interest to me since I've worked in Japan as well as studied the language at GaTech for 3 years now.  The manner in which the Japanese immigrants assimilated as well as their current self perception struck me as strange.  I walked around attempting to strike up conversations with as many asians as possible.  Many I found were Korean and had nice/brief conversations with them.  The Japanese that I did find were different in their reactions/conversations.  The first Japanese lady that I spoke with ran a tourist shop and was born in Brasil.  Her parents had immigrated from Japan and she spoke fluent Japanese.  She was very friendly and talked [in Japanese] with me for 10-15 minutes.  She didn't possess any of the fears of "not seeming Brasilian enough" that was mentioned in class.  On the contrary, she seemed happy and willing to speak with me in Japanese and we both parted on good notes.  The next person I'd like to mention was also a tourist shop owner 3 blocks away.  It was difficult for me to tell what race he was at first since he spoke portuguese.  Eventually he was speaking English to my classmates while they were making purchases.  I noticed there was Japanese writing on the wall so I asked him what it said [I already knew, but I figured it was a good way to ask him if he was Japanese].  He proceeded reading the hiragana and kanji in perfect Japanese so I went forward and started speaking to him in his language.  He gave me a look and quickly turned away, ignoring me, and speaking in English to my classmates.  I thought he might not have heard me so I repeated my introduction and all he said was "haiiii!" in an annoyed voiced.  While it's unsure about the reason for his response, I couldn't help but think that it might be what you professors were saying.  That perhaps he'd rather not identify with the Japanese or even speak Japanese.  Honestly, I have no clue what his reasons were, but his mood and demeanor definitely changed when he found out I knew Japanese.  He was most likely a 1st or 2nd generation Japanese-Brazilian.  Based on what you professors have said, it strikes me as odd [coming from a melting pot] that immigrants would try to hide their heritage instead of being proud of it.  It's apparent to me now that Brasil is a country of complex racism that goes in every which direction.