Chapter 1: Seven Japanese Want to Decapitate a Corporal from the Public Forces: World War II is About to Begin Again

Abstract

In the aftermath of World War II, a schism arises between the Japanese immigrants in Brazil who accept the reality of Japan’s defeat and those who contrarily insist Japan was victorious. In January 1946, seven Japanese men attempt a vendetta in the town of Tupã to decapitate a Brazilian corporal, who defiled the Japanese flag when he arrested them for violating wartime laws against immigrants from Axis nations. The episode culminates in pro-imperialist Japanese militants also scrawling “traitor to the nation” on the home of police interpreter Paulo Morita, whom they regard as a “dirty heart.” The rest of the chapter leads into a historical overview of the vertiginous growth of the Japanese population in Brazil from 1908 to 1941, and an explanation of the geopolitical events that contributed to Brazil’s reluctant decision to side with the Allies.