Japanese immigration in the Amazon needs further study, says scientist

Rikkyo University professor, Hiroaki Maruyama, points out that the Japanese presence, despite its small number, was important to the region’s development and has a role in the history of emigration to Brazil that merits further research

Agência FAPESP– “There are few studies about the Japanese emigration to the Amazon, despite the fact that migrants in the region played an important role in the history of relations between Brazil and Japan,” said Hiroaki Maruyama, professor from Rikkyo University, at the Japan-Brazil Symposium on Scientific Collaboration, jointly organized by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and FAPESP, March 15-16 in Tokyo.

Maruyama lived in Brazil during the 1990s, as visiting professor of the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in Recife, state of Pernambuco, and head of the JSPS Representative Office São Paulo. He directed the Institute for Latin American Studies at Rikkyo University from 2007 through 2009. He is the author of books and articles about Brazil and South America.

“Japanese immigration in the Amazon began nearly 20 years after the first wave arrived in Brazil, headed for the state of São Paulo. But the population of nikkeis – Japanese migrants and their descendants – in the Amazon region was always very small, which helps explain the scarcity of studies,” said Maruyama. “In 1960, they numbered only 4,933, which corresponded to 1% of the total number. In 2000, the proportion has increased to 93,514, but it was still equivalent to only 6.7% of the total.”

“Nevertheless, those who went to the Amazon played an important role, not only in the history of Japanese emigration to Brazil, but also in the region’s development. They introduced an organized agriculture and were successful in cultivating products such as black pepper and jute,” he said.

According to the researcher, the history of Japanese immigration in the Amazon can be divided into three periods in keeping with their characteristics: the initial period, the period of collective emigration prior to World War II, and the post-war period.

“In the initial period, which ran from the beginning of the 20th century to almost 1925, the region’s attraction was due to the rubber boom that began in the late 19th century. They came from Peru where they had been working as rubber tappers,” he said.

As the rubber race lost steam, the migrants moved into the Brazilian Amazon region. “They were adventurers without backing. Wherever they settled, they began to earn a living by selling the vegetables they grew. Since there were not very many of them, they barely formed a community, but rather quickly assimilated into Brazilian society through marriages,” he said.

Maruyama noted that the period up through the end of World War II, from 1925 to 1945, was very important and come to pass because Brazil had asked Japan for help in rebuilding the region’s economy after the decline of rubber production.

“It was a period that offered a lot of support for Japanese emigration. Immigrant organizations were formed and received vast extensions of land for free, based on concession contracts. The places the Japanese arrived to were prepared after having been previously selected through surveys conducted by the Japanese government. It, along with private companies, financed the travel and construction of large facilities. Many emigrants studied up on the region before they left Japan. There were several people who were relatively wealthy and saw in the Amazon an opportunity to increase their fortunes,” he said.

“But the difference between the dreams they had before boarding the vessels that would take them across a good part of the world and the realities they faced was something they could never have imagined. Due to the difficulties of life in the Amazon, problems like malaria and the outlook of an uncertain future made more than two thirds of the immigrants decide to leave the region for areas like the state of São Paulo,” he said.

Japanese emigration to Brazil, interrupted in 1942 because of World War II, resumed with the normalization of relations between the two countries in 1952. But according to Maruyama, immigration supported by the Brazilian government, mainly for the production of jute, was not successful.

“The immigrants, who left a scene of confusion and poverty in Japan, arrived to the most varied of locations that were unprepared to receive them. There was no careful planning like before. The result is that most left the region quickly, in search of better conditions in other areas,” he said.

Maruyama, who interviewed several families of Japanese descendants in the Amazon, noted that those who remained became completely assimilated into Brazilian society, through marriage. “Today, most of them live in cities, and this ended up weakening both the Japanese language and culture in the region. And this is something we also need to understand better,” he noted.