One Year 1942: The Black-Japanese Axis
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2022
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As we catch our breath over the holidays, enjoy this episode of Slate's One Year podcast. What Next returns next week.
In 1942, federal officials targeted a group of Black Americans who were allegedly hoping for a Japanese invasion. They uncovered a plot that included stockpiles of weapons and secret passwords—but was any of it true? This week, Joel Anderson tells the story of a shadowy organization in East St. Louis, Illinois, the group’s mysterious leader, and an alleged conspiracy against America during World War II.
This episode of One Year was produced by Evan Chung, Sophie Summergrad, Sam Kim, Joel Anderson, Sol Werthan, and Josh Levin.
Derek John is executive producer of narrative podcasts and Merritt Jacob is senior technical director.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Whitenex listener, we are almost there, a brand new year. And while we recover from |
| 0:07.7 | celebrating or maybe get ready to celebrate some more, I've got a special treat for you, |
| 0:12.3 | an episode of one year, one of my favorite slate podcasts, which looks at the people and struggles |
| 0:17.5 | that changed America one year at a time. Their latest season goes all the way back to 1942. |
| 0:23.6 | Today's episode is about what happened here on the home front as the U.S. got drawn deeper into a world war. |
| 0:30.5 | Federal officials were looking for enemies stateside. When they targeted a group of black Americans |
| 0:35.9 | who were allegedly hoping for a Japanese invasion, the plot they uncovered seemed dangerous, but was any of it true? |
| 0:44.3 | We'll be back with new episodes of What Next? Next week. In the meantime, I hope you'll subscribe to one year wherever you listen. Now here's host Josh Levine with the episode, The Black Japanese Axis. |
| 0:59.3 | Hey, this is Josh Levine, the host of one year. This is our season finale. So thanks for sticking |
| 1:05.2 | with us for all six episodes about 1942. This week, I'm going to turn things over to my slate colleague, Joel |
| 1:12.5 | Anderson. And just a quick warning before we began, this episode includes descriptions of racist |
| 1:18.6 | violence. In September 1942, a 32-year-old black man took the witness stand in a federal |
| 1:25.8 | courtroom in East St. Louis, Illinois. |
| 1:28.7 | All the jurors knew when they came in that day was that they'd be hearing about something |
| 1:32.3 | highly confidential. But what this man was saying was almost unbelievable. He was exposing a vast |
| 1:38.9 | conspiracy about an imminent Japanese invasion. I'll tell you how it was explained to me that they would come across the water and get us |
| 1:47.2 | weak and down. And after we weakened down, that's the time we were supposed to rise up. |
| 1:53.6 | The people who were supposed to rise up were black Americans. And there was evidence that the |
| 1:58.8 | plans were already underway. A week earlier, FBI agents had arrested two men driving across the Mississippi River, |
| 2:06.6 | on a bridge that connected East St. Louis, Missouri. |
| 2:10.6 | In the back of their car was a stash of army rifles and ammunition. |
| 2:15.6 | Now those men were in court, along with other people who joined |
... |
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