doo_OONG BOO! doo_ONG
Grant Barrett, the man behind WorldNewYork, went shopping and came home with pocket guides to China, Egypt, and Iran, issued by the US “War Department” (now Defense Department) in 1943 for soldiers serving abroad. Grant Barrett scanned parts of all three guides and made them available as jpg-images here.
Extract from the China guide, section “Forget Your Old Notions”:
If you think of the Chinese as a yellow-skinned people of a totally different race from us, you probably will never get to know them. What’s more, you’ll be playing right into the hands of Hitler and the Japs. Japan will harp on the color question first, last, and all the time. She will tell the Chinese what she has been telling them since Pearl Harbor – that Americans look down on nonwhite peoples and that Chinese can never hope to be treated on terms of equality by America. “Why fight for the white man?” Japan dins into Chinese ears.
To counteract this propaganda you have to show the Chinese that Americans treat the Chinese as we treat any of our allies, and that we respect them as human beings on an equality with ourselves. Sure, there are differences. So what? There are important similarities too. If you think of them as neighbors, as people who eat, sleep, work, and raise families as we do, you’ll be over the first hurdle.”
The heading to this entry means “Understand me?”.
