The ruptures and continuities in the thought of Arthur Neiva concerning Japanese immigration in Brazil between 1920 and 1937

Abstract

The present article aims to study the ruptures and continuities in the sometimes favorable and sometimes hostile speech of the doctor, intellectual and politician Arthur Neiva about Japanese immigration to Brazil between 1920 and 1937. Throughout the text, we will approach the three phases of discourse of Neiva that starts from an anti-Japanese first moment between 1910 and 1920; a second moment in which he proclaimed as a himself pro-Japanese after returning from a scientific trip to Japan in January 1921. And, due to political issues that tangential the very spirit of Nationalism of the 1930s, as we seek to present, a third to do in which he assumes a conservative role together with other leaders of "anti-Japanese" politicians in the National Constituent Assembly of 1934. Thus, through telegrams and newspapers of the time in Brazil and Japan, we will seek to understand not only “side” of Arthur Neiva, but also, at the end, to expose the very core of critical thinking about immigrants in the 1934 Constituent Assembly.