Hey, this is Josh Levine, the host of one year.

This is our season finale, so thanks for sticking with us for all six episodes about 1942.

This week, I'm going to turn things over to my slate colleague, Joel Anderson.

And just a quick warning before we begin.

This episode includes descriptions of racist violence.

In September 1942, a 32-year-old black man took the witness stand in a federal courtroom

in East St. Louis, Illinois.

All the jurors knew when they came in that day was that they'd be hearing about something

highly confidential.

But what this man was saying was almost unbelievable.

He was exposing a vast 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 weakened down.

And after we weakened down, that's the time we were supposed to rise up.

The people who were supposed to rise up were black Americans.

And there was evidence that the plans were already underway.

A week earlier, FBI agents had arrested two men driving across the Mississippi River

on a bridge that connected East St. Louis, was St. Louis, Missouri.

And the back of their car was a stash of army rifles and ammunition.

Now those men were in court, along with other people who joined up with their organization.

That group was called the Pacific Movement Other Eastern World, and a federal prosecutor

was pressing one of the members to explain their rituals.

...