Japanese Peruvians ( or nipo-peruano; , Nikkei Perūjin) are Peruvian citizens of Japanese origin or ancestry. Peru has the second largest ethnic Japanese population in South America after Brazil. This community has made a significant cultural impact on the country, today constituting approximately 0.1% of the population of Peru. In the 2017 Census in Peru, only 22,534 people self reported Nikkei or Japanese ancestry. Peru was the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with Japan, in June 1873. Peru was also the first Latin American country to accept Japanese immigration. The Sakura Maru carried Japanese families from Yokohama to Peru and arrived on April 3, 1899, at the Peruvian port city of Callao. This group of 790 Japanese became the first of several waves of emigrants who made new lives for themselves in Peru, some nine years before emigration to Brazil began. Most immigrants arrived from Okinawa, Gifu, Hiroshima, Kanagawa and Osaka prefectures. Many arrived as farmers or to work in the fields but, after their contracts were completed, settled in the cities. In the period before World War II, the Japanese community in Peru was largely run by issei immigrants born in Japan. "Those of the second generation [the nisei] were almost inevitably excluded from community decision-making." Japanese schools in Peru Peru's current Japanese international school is Asociación Academia de Cultura Japonesa in Surco, Lima. World War II Although there had been ongoing tensions between non-Japanese and Japanese Peruvians, the situation was drastically exacerbated by the Second World War. Rising tensions ultimately led to a series of discriminatory laws being passed in 1936, the results of which included stigmatization of Japanese immigrants as "bestial," "untrustworthy," "militaristic," and "unfairly" competing with Peruvians for wages. Fueled by legislative discrimination and media campaigns, a massive race riot (referred to as the "Saqueo") began on May 13, 1940, and lasted for three days. During the riots Japanese Peruvians were attacked and their homes and businesses destroyed. Despite its massive scale, the saqueo was underreported, a reflection of public sentiment towards the Japanese population at the time. By 1941, there were around 26,000 immigrants of Japanese nationality in Peru. In December of that year, the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, would mark the beginning of the Pacific war campaign for the United States of America in World War II. After the Japanese air raids on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, the U.S.