Diffusion and Transformation of Farmers' Cooperativism in Japanese Overseas Communities: A Cultural Geographical Study

日本人的海外移民始于19世纪80年代中期，在第二次世界大战前一直持续到世界各地。这反映了日本国内的情况，也反映了东道国的情况。务农是他们最重要的活动之一。加利福尼亚州和圣保罗是日本移民农民为农业发展做出巨大贡献的两个主要收容区。文章认为，在移民农业活动的发展过程中，农业合作精神是移民成功的重要策略之一。本研究旨在分析农业合作主义在加州和圣保罗的传播、应用和修改的过程，并对两个不同文化传统中的移民农业社区进行比较和对比。在为期两年的研究期间，收集了大量的一手和二手资料。重点阐述了两个研究区农业合作社的发展变化过程。尽管农民合作精神在加州和圣保罗的移民社区发展中发挥了重要作用，但这些地区的自然环境、社会经济结构和农业传统的差异共同创造了不同的组织形式和日本农民合作与合作社的变革过程。这项研究还表明，加州和圣保罗的日本社区的比较分析是文化地理学的一个重要主题。

Japanese overseas emigration started in the mid 1880s and continued throughout the pre-World War II period to various parts of the world. This reflected the domestic conditions of Japan as well as the situation of host countries. Farming was one of their most important activities. California and Sao Paulo constituted the two major host areas, where Japanese immigrant farmers contributed a great deal to the development of agriculture. It is suggested that in the development of farming activities of those immigrants the sprit of agricultural cooperation was one of the most important strategies for their success. This study was to analyze the process of diffusion, application and modification of agricultural cooperativism in California and Sao Paulo, and to compare and contrast the immigrants farming communities in two different cultural traditions. During the two-year study period, a great deal of primary and secondary sources were collected. The process of development and change of agricultural cooperatives in both study areas were particularly clarified. Although the spirit of farmers' cooperation played the major role in the development of immigrant communities both in California and Sao Paulo, the differences in the physical environment, the social and economic structure, and the farming tradition in such host areas combined to create differed forms of organization and process of change of Japanese farmers cooperation and cooperatives. This study also suggests that the compartive analysis of Japanese communities in California and Sao Paulo is an important theme of cultural geography.