Japanese immigration to Brazil- a story of success marked by failures, persistence, and hard work.
• Why Japan?
Japan is rarely seen as central to the history of mass migration or imperial expansion, despite having been profoundly involved in both (Mack, 2010).
An immigration of Japanese to Brazil started officially when the first ship Kasato Maru landed in the port of Santos in June 1908 (Sasaki, 2006). The beginning of a Japanese era in Brazil was influenced by two significant waves of immigration. During the first period 1908-1941, the reception and processing centres registered some 190,000 people as new arrivals from Japan. In the second, post-war era from 1952 to 1979, the number neared fifty thousand people (de Brito Fabri Demartini, …show more content…
Some of their problems may have stemmed from the institutionalised racism and a prevailing at the beginning of the twentieth-century ideology of racial superiority of Europeans over any other. Brazilian elites considered the Japanese not only less `racially desirable', but also `backward` (Tsuda, 2001, p.415) and inferior due to their non-Catholic faith (de Brito Fabri Demartini, 2006, p.82).(In contrast, an average Brazilian who had been in contact with the Japanese, would have had a positive opinion about them- Tsuda, 2001, p.417). As an ethnic group seen as difficult to integrate by consequent nationalistic governments, the Japanese were often the victim of forced assimilation programs and suffered series of persecutions, particularly during the WWII, when Japan became an enemy to Brazil (de Brito Fabri Demartini, 2006). Furthermore, the differences in the culture, custom, language, climate or alimentation were significant (Hastings, 1969,p.39) and for some too much to bear- the initial immigrant wave was marked by a high percent of returns to Japan (Maeyama, 1972, p.159). Their survival and ultimately, the success can be contributed to their unique strategy of adaptation through the drive to learn and through the organisation and cooperation based on the community structure. This unique strategy has long been a source of admiration from the host society and is often expressed in a popular contemporary saying: `two Japanese make an association, and three found a newspaper` (Maeyama, 1979, p.589). Becoming `an associational people an unorganisational society` ultimately helped them to achieve the middle-class status in Brazil (Maeyama, 1979,p. 589). They also became the most educated part of the Brazilian society (Smith, 1979,p.64). Influential in a change of perception of Japanese in Brazil was also a fact that from the second half of the twentieth century, Japan has
• Why Japan?
Japan is rarely seen as central to the history of mass migration or imperial expansion, despite having been profoundly involved in both (Mack, 2010).
An immigration of Japanese to Brazil started officially when the first ship Kasato Maru landed in the port of Santos in June 1908 (Sasaki, 2006). The beginning of a Japanese era in Brazil was influenced by two significant waves of immigration. During the first period 1908-1941, the reception and processing centres registered some 190,000 people as new arrivals from Japan. In the second, post-war era from 1952 to 1979, the number neared fifty thousand people (de Brito Fabri Demartini, …show more content…
Some of their problems may have stemmed from the institutionalised racism and a prevailing at the beginning of the twentieth-century ideology of racial superiority of Europeans over any other. Brazilian elites considered the Japanese not only less `racially desirable', but also `backward` (Tsuda, 2001, p.415) and inferior due to their non-Catholic faith (de Brito Fabri Demartini, 2006, p.82).(In contrast, an average Brazilian who had been in contact with the Japanese, would have had a positive opinion about them- Tsuda, 2001, p.417). As an ethnic group seen as difficult to integrate by consequent nationalistic governments, the Japanese were often the victim of forced assimilation programs and suffered series of persecutions, particularly during the WWII, when Japan became an enemy to Brazil (de Brito Fabri Demartini, 2006). Furthermore, the differences in the culture, custom, language, climate or alimentation were significant (Hastings, 1969,p.39) and for some too much to bear- the initial immigrant wave was marked by a high percent of returns to Japan (Maeyama, 1972, p.159). Their survival and ultimately, the success can be contributed to their unique strategy of adaptation through the drive to learn and through the organisation and cooperation based on the community structure. This unique strategy has long been a source of admiration from the host society and is often expressed in a popular contemporary saying: `two Japanese make an association, and three found a newspaper` (Maeyama, 1979, p.589). Becoming `an associational people an unorganisational society` ultimately helped them to achieve the middle-class status in Brazil (Maeyama, 1979,p. 589). They also became the most educated part of the Brazilian society (Smith, 1979,p.64). Influential in a change of perception of Japanese in Brazil was also a fact that from the second half of the twentieth century, Japan has