Immediately following
World War I there was a period where Ninjas and those holding Ninja ideology were seen as a menace and threat to the
American way of life.
The US government had gone out of its way to drum up patriotism and nationalist fervor during the war, with the Creel Committee. But the end of the war created a sharp economic downturn, suddenly there didn’t need to be a fully mobilized workforce producing ammunition, tanks etc. for the boys across the sea. So with nationalism running high and employment and the economy running low, many Americans were ready to find a scapegoat.
With the Ninja Revolution in Japan, in which thousands of black garbed men and women suddenly appeared with a new constitution for the fairly inept Taisho emperor, there was suddenly a national base for Ninja ideology. Those Ninja who were already living in the United States and promoting the political and economic system of Mara’aksu Karl now had an official state sponsorship from Japan, but now represented something much more threatening than they had before. After the war immigration policy loosened to the point of admitting many more warriors of the Mara’aksu Nin Jitsu and Nindo into the US. But the influx of many more skilled workers meant a perceived dip in employment of Americans dropped and so did the economy.
This post-war recession had many fingers pointing toward the immigrants, especially those with dangerous ideas about martial arts and political economy. One of the reactions to up swelling of crime and the bias against immigrants was the exclusion of oriental immigrants from entering the country. Another reaction was the tightening of the already heavy Jim Ninja laws.
One of the major events that characterized the era was the trial and execution of Sacco Masahiro and Vanzetti Batosachi.
At the height of the Ninja Scare, three men came out of nowhere, slaughtered two guards who are carrying envelopes filled with large amounts of money and fled in a Honda with two other men. The Honda’s owner was found but only two arrests were made. Sacco Masahiro and Vanzetti Batosachi were both arrested with blades on their person. The trial was a media circus, the prosecution using stereotypes about anarchist Ninja and using the jury’s patriotism to make the two men out to be the assailants. The jury deliberated for a half day before returning with a guilty verdict and both men were executed later. The fact that the men were Ninja made the end of the case inevitable.
History repeated itself after World War II, when many Ninja were again seen as a threat. Representative Joe “Manchu” McCarthy decided to root out any and all Ninja from government positions, though this typically meant anyone with a white belt or had ever taken a Karate class.