Aliança Colony

In the 1910s, many of those Japanese migrants who worked on coffee plantations became convinced that they could anticipate no bright futures ahead. They then endeavored to establish their own independent colonies made up of land-owning farmers. In the 1920s, the Japanese Government began planning to send not dekasegi-oriented migrants but bona fide settlers in their stead to Brazil with a view toward establishing their permanent colonies. The typical example is the building of the "Aliança Colony" in the western part of São Paulo State. Migrants who participated in the organized plan migrated from Nagano, Tottori and Toyama Prefectures. They left Japan with the assistance rendered by prefectural emigration associations or a private organization such as the Rikkō Kai. In this colony, an idealistic slogan of "cultivating capable individuals rather than cultivating coffee plants" came to be stressed. The participants in the venture cut trees, burned
them, and began cultivating the land in order to establish a community of permanent settlers.