016.Amazon River 04.Tomé-Açu

I found a small article in the guidebook that wrote there was a Japanese colony in the suburbs of Belém, a large city at the mouth of the Amazon river. So I took a bus from Belém to Tomé-Açu without giving it much thought. Due to the influence of the rising water, the outward trip took 8 hours. The concept of suburbs in the Amazon seemed to be different from that in Japan.

Tomé-Açu began settlement in 1929 as one of the earliest Japanese colonies in Brazil. In the latter half of the 1940s, despite the harsh climate and malaria epidemic, this colony succeeded in cultivating pepper. But that was only a short-lived dream. Due to price volatility and disease, it hit bottom again. When I looked at the bar chart showing monthly prices at that era, I even felt fear that it had been pushed from heaven to hell in just a moment. Later, after remorse for relying on a single kind of farm product in a felled farmland, the Japanese immigrants switched to a farming method called Agroforestry in which they cultivated multiple varieties through mutual interference among trees. In the early 1990s, when I visited, the results were beginning to appear.

Tomé-Açu looked a midsummer landscape in Japan when I got off the bus. The Japanese immigrant' children, with whom I passed each other, had the feature of Japanese people in other days. Still nostalgic Japanese-style wooden houses were here and there, and some houses had Japanese sliding doors with traditional paintings in the interior. The reason why Tomé-Açu seemed to have continued to cultivate pure culture of Japanese society in the prewar time without any interaction with the outside world might be the position of the immigrant community, which was more bound by their home country than the home country. Meanwhile, compared to the settlers of other countries who were closed to Brazilians, the Japanese imparted agricultural techniques and information without discrimination. So Japanese could melt into Brazil. That was the story of Professor Kobayakawa, who received respect among people and was an agricultural leader from Kyoto University, the top university in Japan.

Mr. S, a successful farmer, invited me to dinner at his house. At the dineer table, a man called Ko-chan attended together. He left Tomé-Açu and had a business in São Paulo. When they talked about a scholar who had come to Tomé-Açu to give a lecture on agriculture, Ko-chan said, "I kicked my seat because it was just a silly talk." I was impressed that his strength was the power to survive in Brazil. Mr. S answered, "I listen to everything. Because I can find one or two useful pieces of information definitely." Well, I was beaten.

Mr. S and Professor Kobayakawa showed that tolerance, resilience, and humility were the forces to open up the new world of the Amazon.

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reference
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