Historic Groups that Started Innocent then Took an Evil Turn

Historic Groups that Started Innocent then Took an Evil Turn

Khalid Elhassan - November 8, 2020

Historic Groups that Started Innocent then Took an Evil Turn
Japan’s Olympic swim team, whose 1950 visit to Brazil led to the discrediting and demise of Shindo Renmei. Museum of Japanese Immigration

1. Shindo Renmei Launched a Terror Campaign Against Innocent Civilians

Those who dared doubt Shindo Renmei’s assertions of Japan’s victory were beaten up or murdered. By the time it was over, dozens had been 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

All that is Interesting – 7 Brands With Nazi Ties That We All Use

BBC – Siemens Retreats Over Nazi Name

Cracked – Bad Groups That Weren’t Evil Originally

Daftary Farhad – The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma’ilis (1994)

Hodgson, Marshall – The Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizari Isma’ili Against the Islamic World (1955)

Holocaust Online – Siemens

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

Lewis, Bernard – The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam (1968)

National Motorcycle Museum – 1942 Harley Davidson WLA, The Liberator

New York Post, March 7th, 2016 – BMW Admits ‘Regret’ Over Using Nazi Slave Labor During WWII

Independent News, 08 November 2011 – BMW Dynasty Breaks Silence Over Nazi Past

Time Magazine, August 3rd, 2009 – A Brief History of the Hells Angels

Wasserman, James – The Templars and the Assassins (2001)

Wikipedia – Hasan-i Sabbah

Wikipedia – Shindo Renmei

History Collection – Deadliest and Strangest Terror Groups of the 1970s

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