10. From a Catholic Charity to an Imperial Cult
After WWII war ended with Japan’s surrender, the radical Japanese immigrants’ definition of “disloyalty” came to include the mere utterance of the fact that Japan had surrendered. Ironically, Brazil’s Japanese radical immigrants formed a terrorist organization, Shindo Renmei (“League of the Way of Emperor’s Subjects“), out of what had started off as an innocent charity. It was neither the sole nor first organization founded by Japanese immigrants in Brazil. All such organizations, with the notable exception of Shindo Renmei, were innocent entities that were formed to offer mutual support for the Japanese immigrant community. One such was Pia (“Pious”) a charity founded by Japanese Catholics, with the approval of both the Catholic Church and Brazil’s government, to help the poorer immigrants. One of the charity’s more active volunteers was a former Japanese Army colonel, Junji Kikawa, who eventually came to head Shindo Renmei.
