SAO PAULO--More than 100,000 items documenting the lives of the first Japanese immigrants to Brazil over a century ago are deteriorating in quality, putting their preservation for posterity and future research prospects at risk.
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To help it overcome the challenge and preserve the historically important articles, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko have sent a donation to the museum as parts of efforts to provide encouragement for local Japanese-Brazilians.
Brazil is home to the world’s largest population of Japanese immigrants, with 1.9 million people of Japanese origin currently residing in the nation.
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IMPERIAL FAMILY SUPPORT
Fortunately for the museum, it has friends in very high places. When it opened in June 1978 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Japanese emigration to Brazil, Akihito and Michiko, then crown prince and princess, attended its opening ceremony.
After ascending to the throne, the imperial couple visited there again in 1997, and their three children have also dropped in at the museum.
Portraits of Akihito and Michiko, painted when they were the crown prince and princess, are shown at the exhibition space on the facility’s ninth floor.
Crown Prince Naruhito, who visited there in 2008, handed a donation to a museum official in line with the emperor and empress’s desire “to do something concrete to help the community of Japanese immigrants.”
The fund is to be used for constructing the archives.
“I am pleased that imperial family members remember the existence of Japanese immigrants here,” said Yamashita. “I want to work hard to pass down the history of Japanese-Brazilians.”
