How to spot a jap (1942)
 

http://www.ep.tc/howtospotajap/

1942 US Army/Navy educational comic strip.
Curious, isn't it?

anyone else noticed that the colo for the cover of this "guide" resembles the Taiwanese flag an awful lot? did they (whoever made this) get china and Taiwan confused? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/normal.gif

yes i saw some of these in person, in the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles, Little Tokyo...and a lot of other posters during the WWII when japanese americans were being forced to go to camps.

When I was at the Nisei Museum in Los Angeles recently, they had on display an old cover from Life Magazine with VCR-like instructions of "How to tell a Chinese Person from an (obviously evil) Japanese person.
I'd find it ludicrously funny if I weren't convinced that many people still feel that way even in our "socially enlightened" modern times.

http://www.janm.org/

During the II WW even US citizens of italian descent suffered internment as the japanese ones.

Anyways, concerning anthropological differences, check this one out:
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2006/03...-japanese.html
and the comments:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/die...8803791221928/

Ever wonder what the Chinese flag looked like before Mao Zedong?

During WWII a few Italians and Germans did get sent to the camps, but it wasn't anywhere near the scale of what the Japanese community had to deal with.

no, never did wonder about that. as I was raised for several years in Taiwan, the teachers and people generally don't like "China" too much. At school, they just always had the current Taiwanese flag

The flag used as the national flag of China from 1928 to 1949 was this one:

http://www.worldstatesmen.org/China.html (bottom row, middle)

Taiwan today views itself as the decendant of the original Republic of China which was founded in 1912.

They compare the Chinese to Europeans and Americans in almost every instance. Nice ethnic bias, Land of the Free!

Racial politics is it's own punishment. After all, wasnt it top leading american "experts" who proclaimed that the japanese body structore made them unfit as pilots? Good call eh? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif

im quite sad to see that someone has posted stuff like this on here. it has nothing to do with current american-japanese relationships, and even less to do with kendo.

Agreed, wrong time, wrong place.

I disagree it's the lounge section, and the purpose of Legionario for posting that fact of history wasn't to promote racism.

Honestly I don't understand your judgement.
I have read all kinds of topics in this section of the forum, and I have opened this one just to give an insight about europeans/asians historical/anthropological relations in the near past.
Again, in all honesty I don't understand why this thread should make you sad. If you need I can dig back into this section of the forum to find countless other threads thath have nothing to share with current american-japanese relationships and even less to do with kendo.
Is or isn't this one the Lounge forum where (almost) everything goes?

Of course, wasn't it obvious? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/wink2.gif

I'd be very surprised if it was.

That was a different time and racial stereotypes on all sides were quite common. In the case of this training booklet, it was for use by GI's in Asia. The "Taiwanese" flag symbol indicates it was used by US forces operating in China.

Let's be thankful that we have grown beyond this.

Have we really?

my initial reaction to that book was that I felt offended.

however after a few seconds to calm myself, I really don't think it is that big o f a deal. The fact is, a lot of Americans had absolutely no exposure to Asia during those times, so they must have wanted a way to pick out their enemy. Though a little ignorant, the booklet was an attempt to educate people.