The Shindo Renmei sect (dirty hearts)

A group of Japanese immigrants who lived in São Paulo and did not believe the defeat of Japan in World War II, proclaiming the victory of the army of Emperor Hirohito and punishing with death the so-called "makegumi” or “dirty hearts", the Japanese (and Okinawans) who accepted defeat. They formed a secret organization called Shindo Renmei (League of the Path of Subjects), in order to keep alive the pride of the Japanese community in Brazil.

The “kachigumi”, how were known the members of the Shindo Renmei, declared war on the Japanese defeatists, the “makegumi” (“dirty hearts”), transforming the city of Marilia, in São Paulo state, in a feudal Japan. This group of militarists Nips considered their fellows “makegumi” as traitors and therefore deserving of death. Before doing "justice", the “tokkotai” (short for Taiatari Tokuetsu Kogeitai or Special Units of Attack by Shock Body) sent letters to makegumi with guidelines for practicing seppuku (harakiri), the Japanese ritual suicide that was done to recover personal honor or keep the family name, or else, they should wash their throat in order not to stain the tokkotai’s katana. During this war among Japanese-Brazilians, 23 people were killed and about 100 injured.

The influence of the group managed make about 80% of immigrants in a total of 200 thousand Japanese at the time believe in the sovereignty of the country in the battle against the Allies (US, URSS, England, France). The Shindo Renmei was helped mainly by the creation of the Bastos Radio, which broadcast fanciful news in Japanese language about the WW II. It also falsified newspapers, magazines (including the American Life), pamphlets and all kind of publication that spoke to the Japanese surrender and claimed that the vehicles were Brazilian-American propaganda to demoralize Japan.

The barrier between the Portuguese and the local Japanese language was crucial to the expansion of the Shindo Renmei, making it easy to deceive the Japanese colony. The constant growth of the organization looks caught the attention of politicians at the time, especially the former governor of São Paulo, Adhemar de Barros, who had welcomed the number of Japanese who could vote in the elections of 1946, thus demonstrating its support for the group.

However, the Brazilian government soon discovered a violent organization involved in a unprecedented ideological movement into a peaceful community . Through the DOPS (Department of Political and Social Order), the government stopped the sect in less than a year, arresting 30 thousand suspects, condemning 381 and deporting 80 kachigumis.

Just in 1947 the real news of the defeat spread into the Japanese colony, and the few remaining kachigumis were not enough to keep the Shindo Renmei, so the organization became extinct.

We know that one of these kachigumis was a karate master in a famous old lineage, but his identity will remains secret forever by respect.

Source book: Fernando Morais. Corações Sujos – A História da Seita Shindo Renmei, Cia. das Letras, 2000.

See the movie here.

See the documentary about the terrible sect ("Yami no Ichinichi")