Discover Nikkei

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Winners and losers

Then, in 1941, at the end of July in Showa 16, the publication of newspapers in foreign languages ​​was banned. As a result, the vast majority of Japanese people could not speak Portuguese, so they ended up not being able to understand the news in the Japanese newspapers. Then, the war started, and the only news from Japan they could hear was through shortwave radio, and when the war ended, people started arguing about whether Japan had won or lost. So things like winners and losers, something that would be unthinkable today, started happening.

Those who recognized that Japan had lost were the so-called intellectuals in the Japanese community who could speak Portuguese or English, but the Shindo Renmei and such ended up making those who said that Japan had lost seem like traitors, and so, looking back at it now, what happened was a bit, how should I put it, completely unreasonable. I believe about 23 people, the so-called recognition group, the defeat group, were killed, 150 to 160 people were injured, and the Brazilian government couldn't just leave it alone, so they arrested those people and sent them to a prison on an island called Anchetta, on the northern coast of Sao Paulo state.

In 2008, on the 100th anniversary, some people came forward and said, "I wonder who I killed." The message book that he had wrapped around his stomach is now on display at the Immigration Museum.


Date: September 19, 2019

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Masato Ninomiya was born in Nagano Prefecture in 1948 and moved to Brazil at the age of 5 with his family. He currently maintains a legal office in São Paulo, and in addition to working as a Law Professor at the University of Sao Paulo, also serves as Special Assistant to the President at Meiji University and as Visiting Professor of Law at Musashino University. Since its founding in 1992, he has served as President of CIATE (Center for Information and Support to Workers Abroad), Advisor to the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) for Central and South America, and also a Committee Member of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Additionally, he is considered a Nikkei community leader in Brazil, supporting various activities such as improving the working conditions of Brazilian Dekasegi, and the education of Japanese-Brazilian children. . (May 2021)

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Akutsu,Gene

Reaction of Japanese American community toward draft resistance stance

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Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft

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Talking to children about decision to resist the draft during World War II

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