Songs from the Land of Eternal Summer: Beyond Duality in Japanese Brazilian Publication and Colonia Man'yôshû

Abstract

Abstract Upon arrival to Brazil in 1908, Japanese immigrants began creating a communal Japanese Brazilian narrative that acts as an alternative to Japanese and Brazilian histories and literatures. Pre-World War II immigrants, bound not only by their immigration experience but also by language, composed tanka poetry to capture the community's experiences vis-à-vis Japan and Brazil. These tanka were collected in the 1981 anthology Koronia man'yôshû 『コロニア万葉集』. In this article, I examine Japanese Brazilian communal formation through the publishing industry in Brazil and themes that the immigrants included in their anthology. I argue that as the community began to move beyond an image of itself as a “mini-Japan,” it produced alternative histories and narratives that influence both Brazilian and Japanese national literatures and histories, moving beyond a duality of identity rooted in both countries.