TY - JOUR
T1 - Race, nation and diplomacy
T2 - Japanese immigrants and the reconfiguration of Brazil's 'desirables'
AU - Quan, H. L.T.
N1 - Funding Information:
The transplanting of Japanese to Brazil was realised through a chain of highly deliberate and systematic efforts: first, by a collection of small-scale Japanese emigration companies, and later, by larger Japanese emigration corporations, and by the financial support of large Japanese banks such as the Bank of Japan and the Bank of Taiwan (Kunimoto, 1993, p. 109; Normano, 1934, pp. 43–44). The motivation and process of this exodus should haunt observers of both Japanese and Brazilian development programmes.
Funding Information:
from the Bank of Japan, big Japanese commercial banks, commercial and shipping companies, and even city governments, the Nambei Corporation engaged in similar activities in Northern Brazil. For instance, as part of the Kanegafuchi (spinning) enterprise, the Nambei Corporation founded the Com-panhia Nipponica de Plantac¸oes do Brasil (Japanese Corporation of Plantations in Brazil) and obtained a 2.5 million acre parcel of land from the Brazilian government for a period of two years. With the support of Brazilian capitalists from Rio de Janeiro, the company transplanted workers from Japan to Brazil to engage in cacao, cotton, and rice cultivation. Along with these crops, the settlers also supplied corn, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and tropical fruits for the markets in Belém, the capital city of the State of Pará.11It was the Miyatsuka enterprise, however, headed by the Tsukas Miyatsuka, that dominated the commercial activities in Northern Brazil during the 1930s. Miyatsuka established an ‘Amazonia Institute’ in Tokyo to train specialists on agro-industry. The institute sent agricultural engineers to Brazil with the objective of establishing a model colony and transplanting Japanese-managed British rubber plantations from Malaysia to Brazil (Normano, 1934, pp. 51–52). These enterprises were supported by the Oriental Development Company and the Kanan Bank (p. 52). Other commercial interests involved in financing the settlements in Amazonas and Pará included a virtual ‘who’s who’ of Japanese Zaibatsu (conglomerates) — Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda (Fukunaga, 1983, p. 53). The Miyastuka enterprise built houses, opened schools, organised social clubs, and established headquarters to manage the lives of immigrants.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2004/5
Y1 - 2004/5
N2 - An examination of early Japanese immigrants in Brazil (1908-1942) suggests that the infrastructure of Japanese-Brazilian relations was framed before Brazil declared war on Japan in 1942. This infrastructure was built on a desire by the governments and elite of both countries to achieve two objectives: capitalist expansion and domestic tranquility. These two objectives were manifested in a coherent programme of migration, expansion of international trade, and domestic order. In Japan, this was translated into a concerted campaign by governmental agencies and officials, corporations, and banks to export people and capital to Brazil. In Brazil, efforts were made to cooperate with the Japanese emigration establishment to manage and regulate the activities and lives of Japanese migrants. The success of this diplomacy was a product of an organised campaign that effectively exploited the dynamics of migrant labour, investment-relations, and racism.
AB - An examination of early Japanese immigrants in Brazil (1908-1942) suggests that the infrastructure of Japanese-Brazilian relations was framed before Brazil declared war on Japan in 1942. This infrastructure was built on a desire by the governments and elite of both countries to achieve two objectives: capitalist expansion and domestic tranquility. These two objectives were manifested in a coherent programme of migration, expansion of international trade, and domestic order. In Japan, this was translated into a concerted campaign by governmental agencies and officials, corporations, and banks to export people and capital to Brazil. In Brazil, efforts were made to cooperate with the Japanese emigration establishment to manage and regulate the activities and lives of Japanese migrants. The success of this diplomacy was a product of an organised campaign that effectively exploited the dynamics of migrant labour, investment-relations, and racism.
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U2 - 10.1080/1350463042000230836
DO - 10.1080/1350463042000230836
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:3042781530
VL - 10
SP - 339
EP - 367
JO - Social Identities
JF - Social Identities
SN - 1350-4630
IS - 3
ER -