Letters from Mitsusada Umetani

When he was executive director of the Federation of Overseas Emigrant Cooperatives, Umetani Mitsusada often wrote letters to his former superior when he was in the Government-General of Taiwan, Hiroshi Shimomura (the then managing director of the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper Company), several of which are included in the Papers of Hiroshi Shimomura, Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room. Umetani stayed in Brazil 2 times from December 1927 to July 1928 and March 1929 to March 1930. Here 5 letters are posted, which were wrote from June 1928 (during his first stay in Brazil) to December 1930 (before he resigned executive director of the Federation). The letters shows how Umetani's enthusiasm and expectations for the future of the emigration project during his first trip to Brazil is gradually dulled by obstructions by those around him and other circumstances. Umetani later was forced out of office of executive director by "schemers" he called.
The letter dated November 24, 1929 shows that Umetani had doubts about the emigration project being carried out through the overseas emigrant cooperatives, and he advocated the dissolution of the cooperatives after he resigned executive director.

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