The links between Japan and Brazil date back over a century. Today, Brazil remains home to the largest ethnic Japanese population outside of Japan. However, the country wasn’t always kind to its Japanese-Brazilian population. Now, Brazil’s government is apologizing for the past and seeking to make amends.
“Hostile foreigners”
Between 1885 and 1923, the Japanese government, facing crushing poverty at home, encouraged mass migration abroad. Some half-million Japanese citizens went overseas looking for greener pastures during that time. After the US passed laws limiting Japanese immigration, many turned instead to Brazil, which was facing a severe labor shortage.
By the 1940s, the issei, or first-generation immigrants, were a powerful economic force in Brazil. However, they faced massive discrimination – both from regular citizens as well as from the government. The government cracked down on immigration and discouraged interracial marriage to prevent the “yellowing” of Brazil.
Under dictator Getúlio Vargas between 1930 and 1945, Brazil dubbed the Japanese-Brazilians “hostile foreigners.” It pursued a policy of forced assimilation that banned multi-lingual texts and forced children of immigrants into military service. It also led to incidents such as the forced evacuation of Japanese citizens from the city of Santos in 1943.
The suppression led to a backlash. It helped to fuel a Japanese nationalist movement that was responsible for dozens of deaths of Japanese-Brazilians in the post-World War II years.
Making amends
In the mid-1990s, during the tail of Japan’s economic boom, the country made it easier for Japanese-Brazilians and other nisei (second-generation) Japanese to obtain visas. This led to a strong Brazilian-Japanese population within Japan itself. It’s no exaggeration to say that the ties between the two countries, strained when Brazil sided with the Allies during World War II, continue to run deep.
Still, the past lingers for many people. Japanese-Brazilians have been pushing the government of Brazil for an apology for years – particularly, Japanese-Brazilians in Okinawa. Okinawan-born Japanese and Ryuchuan made up some 60% of those forcibly evicted from Santos. In 2015, the Okinawa Kenjin of Brazil Association filed a formal request for reparations, accusing the Brazilian government of imprisoning and torturing Japanese-Brazilians as suspected spies.
Last week, in response to the petition, Eneá de Stutz e Almeida, the president of Brazil’s Amnesty Commission, issued a formal apology “for all the barbarities, atrocities, cruelties, tortures, prejudice, ignorance, xenophobia and racism.”
The news was welcomed by many in the Japanese-Brazilian community. 81-year-old Yonajiro Akihiro said the demand was more about the apology than receiving reparations. “We asked for this wholeheartedly so that history doesn’t repeat itself.”
59-year-old Shinyashiki Kofuku said he grew up hearing his grandfather tell stories of how they’d have to hide Japanese textbooks when police showed up, as speaking foreign languages was banned under the Vargas government. He says his parents named him Kofuku (幸福), “happiness,” in hopes that, unlike them, he’d live in a “happy country” and have a “happy life.”
A multi-way street
The apology continues a trend of countries making amends for the treatment of Japanese citizens outside of Japan. Japanese in the United States and other countries suffered forced incarceration at camps during World War II despite having no involvement with Japan’s Imperial government. The United States apologized for the program during the Reagan era.
The Dominican Republic has also offered compensation to Japanese immigrants there. Between 1956 and 1959, some 1,319 people migrated with encouragement from the Japanese and local government. Migrants were promised land but received nothing upon arrival and instead suffered under harsh living conditions.
On the flip side, Brazilians living in Japan also work towards greater societal acceptance. The 2023 movie Familiar (ファミリア), for instance, documents the struggles of a Brazilian resident of Japan to find family and a sense of beloning. In the real world, cases of discrimination against Brazilian residents sometimes make headlines, such as an incident in which a Brazilian-Japanese woman sought public assistance and was told to “go back home.”
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Sources
日本人を過去に「敵性外国人」呼ばわり…ブラジルは謝罪した 負の歴史に向き合う姿に日本が学ぶべきこと. Tokyo Shimbun
「踏め」と命じられた昭和天皇の写真 移民たちは拒否し収監された. Asahi Shimbun
《ブラジル》大戦中「日本人出ていけ。でないと逮捕」 サントス強制退去事件ゆかりの地巡る 特派員含め72人が現場視察. Diario Brasil Nippou
Brazil apologizes for post-World War II persecution of Japanese immigrants. AP News
Dominican Republic Compensates Japanese Immigrants. Yomiuri Shimbun
ファミリア (映画). Wikipedia JP
