Behind the screen: the “Tanaka Memorial” and the anti-Japanese movement in Brazil during the interwar period

Abstract

Whether in Japan or Brazil, little is known about the anti-Japanese movement in Brazil that occurred in the first half of the 20th century. The height of this movement was in May 1934, when the new Brazilian constitution was passed in the National Constituent Assembly. The aim of this article is to clarify the impact of the “Tanaka Memorial,” a spurious document referring to Japan’s imperialist ambitions over Brazilian territory and commonly used at that time to justify segregationist and anti-Japanese movement in Brazil. Initially, we will give an overview of this anti-Japanese movement during the interwar period (1918-1939). Furthermore, through the Japanese diplomatic cables and the memoirs of Noda Ryōji, the then first secretary of the Embassy of Japan, that was printed in the magazine Burajiru, we will view the radical change of thoughts toward Japanese immigration of Félix Pacheco, a poet, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the President of the influential Brazilian newspaper Jornal do Commercio. We will also discuss the general understanding and acceptance of the “Tanaka Memorial” in Japan and Brazil and examine how Brazil’s anti-Japanese movement transformed in light of the positioning of Félix Pacheco and his newspaper company. In short, we seek to demonstrate how the “Tanaka Memorial” was involved in the anti-Japanese movement in Brazil, although apparently not intrinsically related.