Good Japanese made WW2 film about the fighting on Saipan.

'Battle of the Pacific' 2011.
Whole film.
English, with English subtitles for the Japanese language bits.
The Japanese faced impending doom there, but were brainwashed into thinking there was no way out.

[link to www.youtube.com]

So you see brainwashing can come a lot from ourselves, not just from outside ourselves.