2. Preparing Victory Parades in the Belief That Japan Had Won WWII
By the time WWII ended, Shindo Renmei had about 50,000 followers. They believed their leaders’ claims that Japan had won the war, and that the victorious Japanese were sending an occupation force, which should arrive any day now, to govern the defeated Brazilians. Group members went on a buying spree that emptied local shops of red and white cloth, intended to make Japanese flags, in order to welcome Brazil’s new overlords. The situation was further complicated by the circulation of fake newspapers and magazines peddled by charlatans. The fake media included articles about Japan’s “great victory”; the arrival of Japanese occupation troops in America; photographs of President Truman bowing to Emperor Hirohito; and coverage of the trial of General Douglas MacArthur for war crimes. The charlatans did not do it just for kicks and giggles: they made a bundle selling the duped Japanese immigrants land in the newly “conquered territories”.
