EFFORTPOST Yellow Peril in South America the Japanese immigration to Brazil

Hi everyone

Continuing with my LATAM autismus posts today I'll talk a bit about how Brazil came to have so many japs (around 2 million descendants if we include Hapas which makes it the largest Japanese diaspora in the world, larger than the one in the United States). Speaking for myself I had 2 Co-workers who were of Japanese descent, a former boss of mine and my sister's Godmother is the daughter of Japanese immigrants.

So our story begins in the 19th century. In 1868 the Meiji restoration happens and Japan rapidly modernizes to catch up with the rest of the world. The Japanese population grows to unsustainable levels and unlike Britain, Japan doesn't have (yet) colonies to ship their people. However the government encourages their citizens to migrate. One of the earliest places they go to is the United States, more specifically Hawai. However it turns out 19th/early 20 century burgers are racist as frick and by the early 1900s they start restricting Jap migration. With the 1924 migration act, the Japanese are banned from entering the US.

Which lead us to Latin America. The first LATAM country to establish relations with Japan was Peru , in 1899 the first 790 immigrants arrived in Puerto Callao near Lima. The Peruvian Japanese community became prosperous and many of you probably know their most famous representative, former President (and for many dictator) Alberto Fujimori, whose presidency was filled with extremely dramatic events.

But now let's go back to Brazil. In 1871, a year after the end of the Paraguayan War and after having freed thousands of slaves who served in the army, the abolitionist movement gained force with the government of Prime Minister Jose da Silva Paranhos, the Viscount of Rio Branco, presenting a bill which was passed by parliament and signed into law by the Emperor which was the “Lei do Ventre Livre”, which translates as “Free womb Act”, this law made the children of slaves born henceforth that date as free citizens (they would still remain under the tutelage of their parents masters until reaching adulthood under “apprenticeships”). This meant slavery had an expiration date. On the top of that, racism was highly fashionable and according to the 1872 census only 38% of the Brazilian population was white (mostly descendants of Portuguese colonists who arrived en masse during the gold rush of the 1700s), pardos were the largest racial group, and blacks were the third largest. The government decided to take advantage of future abolition and whiten up the country. The first immigrant colonies in Brazil were the German colonies in the Southern States, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, however the number of German arrivals was small, so the government promoted italian, portuguese and spanish immigration. In 1888 Slavery was abolished as the Princess Regent (the emperor was sick and following medical treatment in Europe) Isabel signed the Golden Act which was passed almost unanimously by Parliament (one of the few people to vote against it, the Baron of Cotegipe told the princess that doing so she had lost her throne).

Almost 5 million europeans migrated to Brazil between 1870-1940, being settled mostly in São Paulo where the coffee plantations where located, but also in large numbers across the southern states and Rio de Janeiro, in the latter the immigrants were mostly portuguese and urban.

So going back to Japan. The first diplomatic contacts with Japan were made by Brazilian Navy Vice-Admiral Artur Silveira da Mota, the Baron of Jaceguai. He arrived in Tokyo in November 1880, and made the first contacts with Japanese diplomats, however it would take another decade for more to come into fruition.

On November 15th 1889 the Brazilian Emperor, Dom Pedro II was deposed and Brazil became a Republic. In 1890 President Deodoro da Fonseca signed a decree banning Asian and African migration unless with authorization of Congress. In 1892 congress passed a law authorizing the migration of Japanese and Chinese immigrants. In 1895 a trade treaty was singed with Japan and by 1897 a permanent Brazilian diplomatic mission (called legation) was established in Tokyo.

In 1902, Italy banned the subsidized migration of italian citizens to Brazil. The reason was that in São Paulo, most of the italians employed in the coffee plantations were treated on a similar fashion as the BIPOCs they were replacing, except they were payed just enough to buy food and a few clothes.

The plantations still required a workforce. In 1906 the President of the Imperial Migration Association, Ryo Mizuno visited Brazil and in 1907 an agreement was signed to send 3000 Japanese immigrants, the first 781 arrived at the Santos port (São Paulo state) on June 18th 1908, on board of the Kasato Maru which is the Jap-Brazilian Mayflower.

Reception of the Japs by the public was mixed, on one hand many praised the Nips for being clean, unlike the Europoors who arrived daily , many newspapers on the other hand condemned the bringing of “yellows” who would pollute Brazil and the whitening process. Oliveira Viana, a Brazilian sociologist compared them to sulfur calling them “unsolvable”.

Most of the first Japs to arrived never learned any Portuguese and they were pretty much exploited at the plantations. Their children, the Nissei weren't much different, 90% of Nissei spoke solely Japanese. However with time many of them became small producers themselves, in 1911 saw the first buying of lands by japs.

Then came the 1920s, as mentioned before in 1924 the Americans banned Asian migration of any sort, so the Nippons began to arrive in larger number in Brazil. Some 190k Immigrants migrated between 1908-1941, around 110k between the 1924-1933 period alone.

By the 1930s !macacos were getting tired of them. In 1930 Getúlio Vargas became President after a coup, later in 1937 he would establish his dictatorship, the Estado Novo. Vargas was a nationalist and many in his government tried to stop yellow migration. As early as the 20s bills were proposed at congress banning blacks from migrating and limiting Yellows to 5% of migrants at most. Migration was finally limited under Vargas by establishing quotas (except for Portugal )

In 1939 a poll showed that 87% of Jap Brazilians subscribed to Japanese Language newspapers, so a decreed by President Vargas banned them along with radio. Brazilian eugenicists were voicing loud concerns about the Yellow race polluting the Brazilian Nation

In 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, the Justice Minister, Francisco Campos forbade the entering of 400 Japanese Immigrants of the ground that:

their despicable lifestyle represents a brutal competition with the workers of this country, their bad faith, their selfishness and their bad character makes them an ethnic and cultural tumor located in the wealthiest region of Brazil

In 1942 Brazil declared war to Germany and Japan, so immigrants and descendants of immigrants of said countries were considered enemies of the state. In São Paulo crowds gathered around Japanese Neighborhoods yelling

DEATH TO THE FIFTH COLUMNISTS”

In the countryside Nip farms were attacked and in many cases the Brazilian attackers killed their animals. The Nikkei were banned from driving cars, or trucks or any motor vehicles, the Japanese schools were closed by the government. After Japanese subs sank Brazilian merchant ships the police decided to do a round up at the Jap neighborhood of Liberdade in São Paulo, they woke up everyone and told them they had 12 hours to move

On june 10th 1943 some 10k japs living in Santos were forced to abandon their houses within 24 hours and move to the coast. Apparently the government ran around 31 concentration camps (similar to US internment camps) to imprison Japs and Krauts. During Carnival, emperor Hirohito was mocked which made the japs seethe

Jap students who contributed to the war effort in agricultural colonies were exposed in sorts of human zoos.

The war ended in 1945 but not the Brazilian xenophobia, in 1946 an amendment was proposed into the constitution being drafted which would have banned the entering of all people of the Japanese race, the article was defeated by a single vote.

By the 1950s things had changed, the Nikkei became more integrated in society forming a stable middle class. Today they're definitely over represented among engineering and science majors. Among their contributions sushi became very popular in Brazil, not to mention Hapa celebrities like Sabrina Sato. Most of the young Nikkei are mixed, after the 1960s and 70s mixed marriages became more common along with integration and none of them speaks Japanese, they're pretty much Brazilian through and though and interesting they handle “le generational trauma” better than Asian Americans.

Some pics of the immigrants from the good old days.

A public warning, it says “it is forbidden to speak Japanese, Italian or German in public. These were made during WW2.

!latinx !neolibs

@Kongvann I forgot to notify as an effortpost

This video talks about the immigration, but what's funny is the seething in the comments section from people saying “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BLACKS AND THE FORMER SLAVES! WE DIDN'T NEED IMMIGRANTS, YOU, THE HOST, YOU'RE NEGRO WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS VIDEO AND HOW CAN YOU SAY THIS COUNTRY WAS DEPOPULATED”

It has become a recurring thing on social media that every time a special about the history or commemoration of a diaspora (Japanese, German, Italian, Portuguese) leftoids pop out saying they were brought to Brazil out of le BAD FAITH and RACIST WHITENING and soy about pan african larpers. !nooticers

Bonus I forgot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shindo_Renmei

There was a Nippo-Brazilian terrorits organization called Shindo Renmei,they were responsible for the death of at least 23 people and printed fake news about Japan having outstanding victories while dismissing Japan's defeat as “allied propaganda”.