Arriving: the Early Japanese in Brazil, 1908–19

Abstract

The first period of Japanese emigration to Brazil runs from 1908 to 1919. In these years, arriving Japanese endured the process of cultural acclimatisation common to other migrant groups in the country and familiar to Japanese emigrants in other societies. This process involved moving from a near complete ignorance of the basic mechanisms of daily life, including simple phrases of language, common foods, and social customs, to a level of understanding which allowed them at least to function within certain sectors of Brazilian society, especially agricultural production and petty retailing. The next level of familiarity leading on to greater prosperity was to be reached in the 1920s. What became evident from the early years is that Japanese migrants had a very clear sense of their own minds and were perfectly capable either of enduring hardship, adapting to adversity, or protesting against mistreatment. In this, they were far more than the victims of circumstance they often appear in Japanese-language histories.