by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
I pause the flow of previous articles to comment on the news circulating—amid a flood of statements and denials—about the potential immigration of ten million Japanese to Brazil. Japanese? Some have mentioned Chinese instead of Japanese, which would add a very sensitive note to the situation.
So many thoughts come to mind on this subject that my love of brevity compels me to condense them into numbered points—small pills, one might say.
There’s a reason I analyze the news so closely despite its current uncertainty. Turmoil often prompts the launching of trial balloons for overly ambitious initiatives. Objections to such plans are usually more impactful when they are still in the trial balloon stage. And I genuinely want to be effective.
Brazil has 8.5 million square kilometers of arable land, much of it still lying fallow. Across these vast areas, our population continues to grow rapidly. In the twenty-first century, this combination could make us the leading nation on Earth. This is a fundamental condition for Brazil to fulfill its providential mission as the world’s largest Catholic nation: to offer the Church and Christendom the glorious services, strong defenses, and vigorous expansion once exemplified by France and the Roman-Germanic Empire in the Middle Ages, and by the Iberian kingdoms in the modern era.
Recently, some of us have promoted and practiced misguided ideas that contradict this. Instead of actively encouraging higher birth rates, efforts are being made to limit them. Rather than expanding the population into vast unused areas, it is concentrated into large and medium-sized urban centers. They claim there are still too many people in rural areas between these centers. Therefore, the CNBB advocates land reform to distribute land to manual laborers. The organization argues that land belongs only to the worker who nurtures it with his sweat. The CNBB also threatens to introduce a land-sharing program, even in urban areas, soon. This sparks widespread conflict.
While Brazil’s population is shrinking and risking chaos and class conflict, the areas where we should be expanding remain neglected.
And suddenly, a dark joke emerges: give this land to foreigners!
Within the flawed logic of land reform advocates, this even seems somewhat coherent. If the only way to own land is by farming it directly, what right does Brazil have to lands it doesn’t cultivate? The most outrageous reasoning is pure absurdity. While many Brazilian women are using contraceptives and our lands are left unused, we are handing these lands over to foreigners.
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Today’s Brazil is composed of a diverse mix of Whites, Indigenous peoples, and Blacks, united by the charmingly harmonious and Christian Portuguese character that has, since its beginnings, shaped a homogeneous mentality and blended these groups together.
On top of this large block, which can be called monolithic because of its harmony, there are numerous and significant patches of immigration here and there, mainly from Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Syrians, Lebanese, and Japanese. I am not referring to the Portuguese because Portuguese people in Brazil are not foreigners but authentic and beloved Brazilians.
But, while we appreciate these charming influences, we must prevent any of them from growing to a point where they threaten the unique national identities of Portuguese, African, and indigenous cultures. Otherwise, Brazil risks losing one of its most valuable qualities: the richness of its authenticity.
Well, that is where large-scale Asian immigration could lead us. Let’s ask the Japanese government whether it would accept, in exchange for its ten million emigrants, that one-tenth of Japan’s population be educated in schools run by Brazilians, learning Portuguese and only experiencing Brazilian culture. It would feel offended and refuse. Why is the reverse not true? Especially since, in this specific case, we are not talking about a simple cultural invasion of Brazil by Japan but rather an ethnic (and consequently, a cultural) Japanese immigration-invasion of Brazil.
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Another point: I truly value the Japanese immigrants living here. Many of their children and grandchildren hold trusted and respected roles among the many young people who, with admirable dedication, have joined me in the ideological struggles that have shaped my life.
It is in this spirit of affection and trust that I oppose the excessive immigration of Japanese people here. I really like sugar, but that doesn’t mean I should put disproportionate amounts of it in everything I eat.
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However, I must immediately highlight the concern that the king’s share, meant for the Japanese, could unexpectedly end up in the hands of excess populations from communist China due to unforeseen manipulation. In other words, Brazil might draw in a large number of agitators and revolutionaries of all types, speeding up communist influence in this poor country.
The arrival of ten million Buddhist Japanese would significantly threaten our country’s religious unity. And the influx of ten million Communist Chinese would be even more damaging, an irreversible disaster.
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As I reflect on all this, I am reminded of the futile efforts I made to open our territory’s doors wider to shelter a few handfuls of anticommunist Vietnamese refugees, many of whom were Catholics, wandering and perishing tragically at sea because they refused to live under a communist regime.