So, I think it was 1941, Showa 16th year in July, when at that time the publication of foreign language newspapers was restricted. And because of that, since the overwhelming majority of Japanese couldn’t understand Portuguese, ultimately they were no longer able to understand the news from the Japanese language newspapers. Around that time the Pacific War started and the only news we were able to get from Japan was what we could hear through the shortwave broadcasts. And then when the war ended, people started to debate whether Japan had lost or won. And, it’s unimaginable today, but “winners” (i.e., those who believed Japan won the war) and “losers” (i.e., those who believed Japan had lost the war) began to emerge.

It was really the so-called intelligentsia of Japanese society, the ones who could speak Portuguese or English that understood that Japan had lost the war. But groups like Shindo Renmei labeled those who said that Japan had lost as traitors. And so, thinking about it today, it’s really crazy what happened next. If I remember correctly, 23 people among the so-called “losers” (those that acknowledged Japan had lost the war) were killed and 150 to 160 people were injured. So, the Brazilian government had to get involved and well, they arrested those people and sent them to “Anchieta Island '', an island prison off the northern coast of Sao Paulo State.

On the 100th anniversary in 2008, there were people who came out saying “I killed so and so”. One such person had left a note like that tied around their belly and it’s now on display at the Immigration Museum.