Japanese migration to Brazil was part of a peaceful expansionist policy

USP historian makes the above assertion in a study on the first stage of Japanese immigration to Brazil, which covers the process of cultural integration.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – Japanese immigration to Brazil beginning in 1908 represented a peaceful means for Japan to continue developing without the military excursions it was using to become a global power at the time.

However, the arrival of Japanese in Brazil under the auspices of the coffee barons during the Old Republic (1889-1930) split opinion and sparked an intense debate between those in Brazilian society who were in favor of and against this immigration.

The less than cordial integration of the two cultures through immigration is described in the book Under the sign of the Rising Sun: A Story of Japanese Immigration in Brazil – volume 1 (1908-1941) (Sob o signo do sol levante: Uma história da imigração japonesa no Brasil – volume I (1908-1941), penned by historian Shozo Motoyama, who is also a professor at Universidade de São Paulo’s School of Philosophy, Letters and Humanities (FFLCH) and president of the Nippo-Brazilian Studies Center.

Released at the end of April, the book describes the first stage of immigration to Brazil – begun in 1908 and ending in 1941 when Japan entered World War II – as part of a peaceful expansion orchestrated by the Japanese government.

One of the greatest world powers at the time – with major business conglomerates such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo – Japan was simultaneously experiencing major economic problems with high unemployment and poverty in rural areas.

As a result, the country was facing criticism from several segments of society that did not agree with the way in which it had been developing, namely, conquering countries through military force as it had in the imperialist period, when it invaded Korea, Manchuria and part of China.

One of the alternatives identified to continue peaceful growth was immigration, which was seen as a win-win situation – both for the country that sent the immigrants and the country that received them – unlike military conquests, in which only the invading country stood to gain.

For this and other reasons, the Japanese government decided to utilize immigration policies for citizens to move to countries such Brazil, which needed manual labor for coffee crops in São Paulo, providing the necessary support for immigrants to establish themselves abroad.

“There was a coherent policy in Japan and consensus in giving refuge to immigrants who came to Brazil. And the success of Japanese immigrants to Brazil depended largely on the help granted by the Japanese government through consulates and other political and diplomatic representatives in the country,” said Motoyama in an interview with Agência FAPESP.

According to the researcher, on the one hand, the immigrants satisfied the interests of the Japanese government and Brazil’s coffee barons, but on the other hand, the process of integration into Brazilian society was not as natural as the historiography published on the subject.

For example, the National Congress documents examined by Motayama, dating back to 1934, reveal an intense debate between the blocks of Congress members in favor of and opposed to Japanese immigration at the time. This debate marked the preparation of the third Brazilian Constitution, due to the social ascension of the Japanese at the time.

“Until the end of the 1920s, the group that most supported Japanese immigrants was the majority in Brazil. In the following decade, however, this had changed principally because of the Constitution of 1934, which imposed a series restrictive laws regarding the arrival of Japanese immigrants,” said Motoyama.

“During the New State (1937-1945), President Getúlio Vargas (1882-1954) acted in a contradictory manner: on the one hand encouraging  restrictions to Japanese immigration and on the other hand taking measures to bring the Japanese to Brazil,” he said.

To defend their position, the group opposing Japanese immigration supported their arguments with the prevalent racial theories of the day, such as Social Darwinism.

Supported by certain representatives of the Brazilian elite of that day, the theory known as “whitening” stated that Brazil’s lack of development was due to the country having been peopled by “inferior races” (blacks and Indians) and that the country would only develop as its population turned “whiter.”

As the cycle of immigration of Negros to Brazil ended, the focus shifted to the Japanese, who had begun to arrive in the country.

Defending the Japanese, the São Paulo farmers accepted an absurd theory touted by a Brazilian farmer and congress member that these immigrants were whiter than the Portuguese, who had undergone an intense process of miscegenation in the country.

“The São Paulo farmers were very pragmatic. Because they needed workers, they did not want to know what race they were, as long as they were good workers,” said Motoyama.

Second phase of immigration

Motoyama plans to publish a new volume of the book, which will cover the second phase of Japanese immigration, from 1941-2008, in early 2013.

In contrast to the first phase of immigration (1908-1941), in which the Japanese had the help of their government to settle in Brazil, in the next phase the immigrants could not rely on the support of compatriots due to the country’s devastation during World War II.

Additionally, if the Japanese immigrants (and immigrants in general) had previously enjoyed a warm welcome and a certain degree of empathy in Brazilian society, they began to be seen as enemies with the onset of the war.

“The war created a series of issues, not simply prejudice, and the Japanese began to be treated as the enemy, which to a certain degree is natural. In the United States, the prejudice against the Japanese at the time was much worse,” says Motoyama.

According to the researcher, documenting this second phase of Japanese immigration for this book will likely be much more complex because there is a series of systematized records on the first phase of Japanese immigration.

In the second phase, when immigrants gradually lost prominence, there are more studies on their descendants – known as the Nissei (the first generation of children of Japanese nationals born in another country) – and the historiography of the period has many gaps.
 
In the second wave of Japanese immigration to Brazil (post-World War II), approximately 50,000 people arrived who had been exposed to a completely different culture than those of pre-war Japan. As a result, there was culture shock among the old immigrants and the newcomers and Nissei.

“These situations are not well-documented and, in my opinion, not even written. We will have to interview people and attempt to clear up a series of phenomena that occurred in this second phase of immigration,” says Motoyama.

In the second volume of the book, the researcher also intends to cover the contribution of Japanese immigrants, mainly their descendants, the Nikkei, to Brazilian science, technology and education.

More information can be obtained by contacting [e-mail] or (55-11) 3209-3875.