Crazy 1930s-40s Extremists Who Tried to Rewrite Japan’s History

1.     From Madness to Murder

Those who dared doubt Shindo Renmei’s assertions of Japan’s victory were beaten up or murdered. By the time it was over, dozens were killed. In 1946, Japan’s new government prepared documents for distribution in Brazil, outlining reality and declaring that Japan had surrendered. Shindo Renmei dismissed that as fake news, and beat up or murdered Japanese immigrants caught reading or distributing the documents. To reduce the violence, Brazil’s government prohibited newspapers from publishing news of Japan’s defeat, and ordered the term “unconditional surrender” removed from official communications. Things then gradually simmered down. A last gasp occurred in 1950, when Japan’s Olympic swimming team visited Brazil. When its members expressed shock at the idea that Japan had won the war, diehards claimed that the athletes were actually Koreans masquerading as Japanese. That was so ludicrous, that it eroded Shindo Renmei’s last remaining support, and the organization soon vanished into history’s dustbin.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Discover Nikkei – Shindo Renmei, a Dark Chapter in the History of Japanese Immigration in Brazil 

History Collection – True Believers: 10 Japanese Holdouts Who Did Not Surrender After World War II Ended

Lesser, Jeffrey – Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil (1999)

Matthew Legare – Terror in Japan: The October Plot, Blood Brotherhood, & May 15 Incident

Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 35 No. 3 (Jul. 2001) – Nationalist Extremism in Early Showa Japan: Inoue Nissho and the ‘Blood Pledge Corps Incident’, 1932

Shimazu, Naoko – Nationalisms in Japan (2006)

Sociedade Brasileira de Bugei (SBB) – Shindo Renmei [Portuguese]