BRAZIL: Tale by a Japanese

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Brazil last week was rapidly rounding up Japanese. The Government Press and Propaganda Department told why:

Japanese officers disguised as fishermen had plotted to seize São Paulo State. Brazilian forces would be attacked by 25,000 local, secretly trained Japanese troops using anti-tank guns and artillery imported as agricultural machinery. On farms and in fishing villages, air and submarine bases were ready for a supporting invasion. Among the Jap dentists in Brazil was a General. Among the tomato growers was a onetime Jap Finance Minister.

The Department got most of this tale from the Brazilian-born son of a Japanese. Whether or not the tale had grown taller in the telling, Brazil obviously had good reason to be careful about her 186,000 Japanese inhabitants.