The goals of the Estado Novo were to remain united, cohesive and undivided. There was a desire to erase all possible traces of social heterogeneity, with foreigners representing a potential danger. The building of homogeneity called for a very authoritarian stance, because it presupposed the elimination of the other, the dissimilar. This article shows that the fear, the aversion towards the other reached extreme levels with regard to the Japanese.
