Eberhardt Bohnstedt, a general of the Wehrmacht, as director of the Salvadoran military school. In addition, he opened diplomatic relations with the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco and was one of the first to recognize his government. In addition, he gave diplomatic recognition to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and the German puppet state of the Slovak Republic. Trade with Germany and Italy increased from 1935 to 1937 and El Salvador bought several planes from the Italian government for the Salvadoran Air Force since American planes were too expensive. El Salvador sent military officers to Italy for military training. From 1930 up until 1940, El Salvador imported and exported more to Germany that the United States. Fascist influence was so abundant in El Salvador that schoolchildren were taught to do the Roman salute and 300 men imitating the Italian Blackshirts marching in the streets on San Salvador following the Italian entry into World War II in June 1940. However, under pressure from the United States, the primary coffee buyer of El Salvador, he had to abandon his sympathies and agreed to align itself alongside the Allies of World War II on 8 December 1941 after the Japanese Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Likewise, German and Italian residents in El Salvador were expropriated of their lands and were sent to concentration camps, which earned them diplomatic recognition from the United States. That change in his foreign policy, as well as the repression against the communists and opponents of his government, allowed him to obtain greater support from the United States. However, the situation changed due to Hernández Martínez's refusal to receive 3,000 US soldiers to protect the Panama Canal. The United States placed troops in the countries near the Canal, except in El Salvador, given the presidential refusal. The reason Hernández Martínez gave for rejecting the American request was that, since the arriving troops would have a percentage of black soldiers, there was an imminent risk that they would reproduce in El Salvador and that they would fill El Salvador with black children. El Salvador sent no men to fight on the battlefield during the war but it did send men to perform maintenance on the Panama Canal. During WWII, Colonel José Castellanos Contreras saved 40,000 Jews in Central Europe by providing them political asylum and fake Salvadoran passports. Criticisms Hernández Martínez's government was widely criticized by various sectors, focusing mainly on