An Ethnography of the Lives of Japanese and Japanese Brazilian Migrants. Ethel V. Kosminsky
some immigrants created fake or “composite families,” which excluded non-productive children and elders and increased the number of people able to work as if they were part of the same family. Hiroshi Saito (1961: 47–75) refers to this period as the first Japanese immigration to Brazil, from 1908 to 1925. Most of these immigrants came from Japanese agricultural areas.
The Second Period of Japanese Immigration to Brazil, 1926–1941
The second period of Japanese immigration to Brazil began in 1925, in response to the 1924 U.S. law that officially prohibited Japanese immigration. With the door to the United States closed, Japanese immigrants turned to Brazil. Between 1926 and 1941, 148,975 settlers arrived, which represented more than 75 percent of the total number before World War II. Most newcomers remained in São Paulo State (Mita 1999: 57).
Compared with the earlier period, the number of people who came from Japanese cities increased, although still more than half came from agricultural areas. As the Japanese government subsidized this immigration, the number of “composite families” diminished, and real families, which included both children and elders, grew (Saito 1961: 47–75).4
The colonization of Bastos started in 1928, when the Japanese government engaged Bratac, the Brazilian Colonization Society Ltd. (Sociedade Colonizadora do Brasil Ltda.), and a division of the Department of Interior, to buy a big plot of land (12,932 alqueires) and send Japanese emigrants who could afford to settle as small agricultural owners5 . However, as there were not enough people, the company sold plots to earlier Japanese immigrants, who had come to São Paulo as laborers on coffee plantations.
The Third Period of Japanese Immigration to Brazil, Post-World War II
Between 1942 and 1952, Japanese immigration to Brazil stopped due to World War II. During this period of extreme Brazilian nationalism, the Vargas government, as well as the Brazilian elite, held Japanese immigrants in contempt as an insular people—virtually cocooned within their own ranks—who did not wish to integrate into Brazilian society. Prohibitive measures meant to punish this behavior were set in place. One such example was the banning of Japanese schools. At the same time, a terrible conflict within the Japanese colonies ensued between those who did not believe that Japan was defeated in World War II and those who believed it was. This conflict led to killings and the arrest of some immigrants who did not accept the Japanese defeat.
Japanese immigration resumed in 1953 (Saito 1961: 38–40), primarily to reunify relatives or partners of previously settled immigrants and their descendants. Immigrants now were primarily mechanical engineering technicians, young males who went to work in Japanese industries located in agricultural colonies (such as Bastos), in São Paulo, and in other states starting in the second half of the 1960s. They were fewer in number compared to those from earlier periods who went into agriculture (Bassanezi 1996: 30). Even so, some immigrants settled in less-developed agricultural areas of the Brazilian Western-Center and Amazonia, as well as in Paraguay and Bolivia (Sakurai 2008: 255–257). They were known as “new Japan” (Japão-Novo) among Japanese Brazilians (Vieira 1973: 152).
The data is not precise but we can estimate that there are currently 1,500,000 people of Japanese origin in Brazil, mostly living in São Paulo (Sakurai and Kosminsky 2006). They are the descendants of the almost 250,000 Japanese immigrants who arrived in Brazil between 1908 and 1972 (Levy 1974; Quoted by Bassanezi 1996: 8).
Japanese Settlements in Brazilian States
Before focusing on São Paulo State, I will describe Japanese settlements in some Brazilian states that were arranged by Japanese emigration companies with the support of the Japanese government.
Japanese Immigrants in the Amazon Region
The first Japanese immigrants arrived in the Amazon region, in the state of Pará, in 1929. They settled in Acará colony, now called Tomé-Açu. The immigrants had a terrible life and those who didn’t die from deprivation and tropical diseases eventually moved to south Brazil.
In 1929, forty-three Japanese immigrant families arrived at the port of Santos. From there they went by ship to the colony of Acará inhabited by Native Brazilians, which was located 200 km from Belém, the capital of Pará state. The 1929 Great Depression affected the Amazon region very badly. The Amazon elite hoped that the immigrants would work in agriculture in order to improve the area’s economy. Therefore, they gave extensive land concessions to Japanese immigrants and to whoever wanted to cultivate the soil. Nanbei-Takushoku-Kaisha (Natanku), a branch of the company Kaneboo, received a concession of one million hectares of land located in several parts of Pará State, including the colony of Acará. This colony was the only one established by that colonization company. Tsukasa Uetsuka and Kotaro Tuji later received a concession of land in 1931. This second concession of land saw a group of young male students, who had graduated from Koto Takushoku Gakoo or Kotaku, a college of colonization, settle in the Amazon area.
The immigrants intended to cultivate cocoa in order to develop the colony and for subsistence they would cultivate rice, corn, manioc, and other cereals and fruits. However, the cocoa crop failed, perhaps due to the lack of experience of the immigrants or due to the lack of time and resources that could support its adaptation to the soil. Moreover, many immigrants died from malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases. Even cultivating plants for subsistence proved difficult, because the plants needed to adjust to the climate and soil. After cocoa failed, the immigration company abandoned them in 1935, helping them only with transportation, medical care, and education. Impoverished and sickened, the immigrants decided to leave the colony and most went to São Paulo. From 1929 onward, the colonization company brought 352 families or 2,104 people, but by the end of World War II in 1945, only 60 families remained.
Immigrants who came through the second concession of land faced similar problems. From 1931 onward, 270 families arrived in that area, but only 50 or so families remained. This group cultivated jute, but when World War II started, they abandoned the crop and scattered in outposts along the Amazon River. Some of their leaders were sent to the Acará (Thomé-Açu) internment camp.
The colony of Thomé-Açu began to prosper due to the cultivation of black pepper, which was sold throughout the country and eventually exported. This boom lasted from 1950 to 1970. At the same time, the second group of Japanese immigrants succeeded in cultivating jute. In 1953, a new flow of Japanese immigrants started arriving in Thomé-Açu and within ten years 700 families lived in the Amazon region. As the economic basis of the colony was the monoculture of black pepper, all subsistence products had to be brought from outside. Typically, the eldest sons followed their parents’ agricultural occupation. The younger children including those who were born in the colony were sent to college in Belém, the capital of Pará State.
In the 1950s, more colonies were established through the Uetsuka/Tuji company, and eventually with the financial support of JAMIC (under the name of Japanese Immigration and Colonization Ltda. in Brazil), a Japanese government enterprise. All the colonies failed for reasons similar to those that affected the earlier immigrants before World War II with the exception of the second Thomé-Açu colony. Most immigrants moved to the colony of Thomé-Açu, some went to big cities such as São Paulo and Belém, and others settled as small horticulturalist and poultry farmers in the outskirts of these big cities. The immigrants eventually cultivated black pepper, too. Others emerged as intermediaries selling these products in the cities. Other colonies appeared in Belém’s suburbs in the 1960s.
In 1967, a disease decimated all the black pepper plants in Thomé-Açu and the Belém suburbs, compelling Japanese immigrants and their families to move to western Pará State, where they cultivated black pepper in small colonies. When the disease reached the plants as well, the immigrants finally decided to stop monoculture and began cultivating several crops. Among these crops, melon and papaya were successful and were sold in the south of Brazil. Thus, immigrants and their families cultivated fruit plants on the outskirts of cities and left their residences in the distant countryside. Several immigrants and their children moved to Belém, where parents opened small stores, and children attended college and worked in professional occupations. After 1965, very few immigrants arrived in the Amazon area. There was also a temporary immigration of Japanese technicians and company administrators, who came to work in the company’s