Part II Hisako's Note (3) Emigrant's life (and death of two brothers of mine at the same time) )
3 Emigrant's life
By the time the first Japanese emigrants landed at the port of Santos, Brazil, on June 18, 1908 (Meiji 41) in line with national policy, the prosperity of coffee farming was very much in decline.
At the peak of the emigration (1925-1941) travel had been subsidized seven pounds (70yen) per person for families which had more than three workers. About 150 thousand people crossed the ocean to Brazil.
My parent had emigrated at this period. In those days every emigrant believed that they would be able to return home after a few years with a fortune. None of the emigrants who arrive alongside my parents expected that they would stay longer than ten years. That is possibly why they never learnt to understand or speak Portuguese.
You must remember that life in the vast expanses of Sao Paulo was very poor. My parents have begun by working in the vast stony hinterland of Sao Paolo where crops were difficult to grow. I remember that by the time I was ten, the family had been able to begin selling vegetables (cucumber, tomato, cabbage etc.) grown in our own field, from the back of a cart we had pulled to the marketplace.
From then on, we had at last been able to live an ordinary life. My parents often said that the house was bright if I were there. But on my twelfth birthday two of my brothers had drowned together in the pond. Two coffins had been sent out of the house. My mother's lament had been beyond description. From the time on the household had been utterly dejected so that even my cheerfulness could not help. I was made to sit in front of the Buddhist alter night after night. If I were to nod as my mother chanted the sutra (Hannya-shingyou), my eldest brother would hit me. This had lasted for the three full years.
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