The real difference between education and propaganda is generally accepted to be simply this: Education is what you want the other fellow to believe; propaganda is what he wants you to believe. Unfortunately in modern years, propaganda has become so skillful at infiltrating behind the lines of the news that it is often difficult to tell them apart, in spite of the fact that news should obviously be an accurate reporting of what is really happening; just as a play or a novel should be an enjoyable and artistic interpretation of some aspect of life, unburdened and unadulterated by a creaking load of propaganda which the author hopes to inject slyly—like a doctor who attempts to administer medicine without the patient’s suspecting that he is either too sick or too dumb to realize that he needs it. However, Japanese propaganda goes even further, for it includes not only what they want the other fellow to believe, but also what they are trying desperately to believe themselves.
A few weeks after the arrival of 2,000 American prisoners of war at the Davao Penal Colony in Mindanao, the Japanese camp commander went through a tableau of permitting the Americans to make requests regarding anything they might want or need. It was simply an act, for every request was met with either indefinite, vague promises (which never materialized), or a kindly “So sorry.” Among other things we asked if we might be permitted to receive at least some news. If war news was forbidden, then an occasional typed sheet of selected news items of a general nature would be greatly appreciated. However the Major replied that inasmuch as the Japanese do not give any news to their own men, he saw no reason why they should give any to use. It seems quite logical—from the Japanese point of view—but this is just a single example of one of the unfortunate aspects of being a prisoner-of-war under a nation whose standards differ so greatly from those of one’s own. They do not sleep on beds, therefore you do not need beds; their soldiers are not given any news, so you do not need any; they slap their own men, so you cannot consider it a punishment when they slap you; they live mostly on rice and fish, so it is all right for you to die on rice.
Five months after the Americans made their original request for news, the Japanese interpreter informed them that the Major was disturbed by some of the rumors he heard were going around the camp, and therefore had sent over a typed sheet of news items in order to set us straight. (Also it proved for purposes of the record that we had been given news in compliance with our request.) This news sheet might well have been entitled “An American Tragedy.”
Two months later another “news sheet” was supplied, continuing the general theme of the first. Also at about this same time it was apparently decided that the Japanese propaganda corps had gotten the principal Manila newspaper into condition suitable for our eyes, as well as for those of the Filipinos for whom it was published, and thereafter during a total period of about 4 months we received this newspaper every few days. During the same period we received several Japanese magazines (with parallel texts in English and Tagalog). In October 1943 several bundles of a Tokyo English-language newspaper were turned over to us. They bore dates of the previous May and June. Then at the end of the year, the first number of a new publication Philippine Camp News, was distributed. This was a small mimeographed four-page folder prepared once a month, but after the 4th issue it was discontinued. Other than occasional propaganda posters and charts illustrating the terrible losses inflicted by Japan upon the United States and Great Britain, the above resume accounts for all the “news” that was officially provided to the American prisoners in the Philippines during a period of 3 years. Some of the outstanding items and articles are summarized and commented upon, herein, and inasmuch as Japanese news and propaganda are identical, the latter classification is the only one used.
In a single field I am willing to admit that the Japanese excel every other nation on earth. Their hot-air and information-suppression departments are the most efficient ever organized, and the writers of the former must have stood very high in their English courses at American universities. Particularly in their quotation of foreign writers and of foreign newspaper items, the Japanese display a diabolical aptitude in the lawyer’s art of skillful selection and isolation of fragments of a whole, then misinterpreting or extending those fragments to mean something altogether different from the correlated intent of the original.
For convenient consideration I have artificially divided the subject of propaganda into three components: War Propaganda, Economic and Social Propaganda, and Personal and Cultural Propaganda. Each of these really embodies two divisions, the Wishful Thinking Division, for Home Affairs, and the Calamity Jane Division, for Foreign Affairs.
Of War Propaganda, the Imperial Rescript is the first blast. It sets forth at great length why the Emperor was reluctantly compelled to declare war on Britain and America. Later a whole page in a Tokyo newspaper proved conclusively that the United States actually started the war. Paragraph after paragraph of “International Law” was quoted to support the contentions. Words, words, words! But the immediate local reason was that the Americans fired the first shot when they un-provokedly attacked an innocent submarine. It was true, of course, that the submarine was operating in waters which the United States had alleged to be restricted, but nevertheless it had a right to be there, because obviously the Emperor’s ships must go anywhere that may be necessary in their protection of Japanese national interests. It also complained bitterly regarding the flagrant violation of constitutional rights in that American Japanese were required to vacate military areas. However it did not mention that on the day when the Japanese special ambassador sailed from Macao in an ostensibly sincere effort to try to make a peaceful compromise with America, the Hongkong paper was said to have carried on its front page a cartoon depicting the envoy on the deck of his ship, which speeded toward America, as from its stacks emitted dense clouds of black smoke. Partially visible in the wisps of smoke which trailed along the surface of the sea behind the “peace ship,” steamed the Japanese Battle Fleet! Not bad, that one.
During the early months of the war, Japanese naval actions were hailed in the press as rivaling any naval battle in history, and comparable only to Jutland. (Inasmuch as there are still those who differ as to the real victor at Jutland, the comparison itself didn’t really mean too much.) According to the newspapers the war soon took on a holy character, a religious war which had its inception in the attempts of the United States and Great Britain to frustrate the Japanese in their sincere efforts to bring peace to the world, and which forced them to declare war, albeit most reluctantly.
Propaganda posters showed silhouettes of hundreds of Allied ships which the Japanese Navy and the Wild Eagles were sinking in bewildering and continuous succession. A special all-rotogravure tabloid-size newspaper supplement was specially printed in honor of the navy on Japanese Navy Day, in 1942 (May 27th). This annual observance is obviously a direct imitation of American Navy Day, although its date is the anniversary of the Battle of Tsushima (1905) at which Admiral Heihachiro Togo hoisted his famous signal concerning the fate of the Empire, in direct imitation of Horatio Nelson’s well-known signal which fluttered to inform every man of England’s expectations at the Battle of Trafalgar 100 years earlier. In fact, when the Japanese decide to imitate something they never do it by halves, for clear back in 710 a.d., when they waked up to the fact that Chinese culture really had something, they laid out a permanent capital city for themselves at Nara, a city which was actually in street plan an imitative duplication of the then-current capital city of China.
The Japanese Naval Academy is said to have been a duplication of Annapolis, at least in system, and why shouldn’t it be? For at Annapolis we trained and educated the Japanese officers who went back home and developed the naval school which had been founded a little earlier. Between 1869 and 1906, seventeen Japanese attended the United States Naval Academy, although only 6 of them completed the course: one in 1873, Zun Zou Matzmulla; two in 1877, Koruku Katz and Giro Kunitomo; two in 1881, Tasuka Serata and Sotokichi Uriu; and one in 1900, Heroak'i Tamira.
Thus as a thousand years ago the Japanese paid to the Chinese that sincerest form of flattery, they have during the past century shifted the object of their admiration to America, and they have carried out a conscious and deliberate imitation of those aspects of American civilization which best suit their own purposes. While they have successfully acquired many of our appurtenances, I feel, after 33 months of observation from the sharp end of a bayonet, that they just don’t “get the idea” as we know it, for mentally, on the scale of Occidental civilization, they seem to be in the Middle Ages, of about the year 1200.
The rapidity of their imitation of us can best be realized by a consideration of the career of Admiral Togo. In 1905 at the age of 58 he led the Japanese steam-propelled, armor-clad vessels into the naval battle in which radio was used for the first time under such conditions. But the Japanese never even heard about steam ships until Togo was 6 years old. No wonder that he was awarded the British Order of Merit (in 1906).
The Japanese saw their first steam-driven vessels when Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, sent by President Fillmore, arrived in Yeddo Bay in 1853. But they were not slow to catch on, and they immediately repealed a law passed more than 200 years before, which forbade the construction of ships larger than about 75 feet long in order to ensure that their citizens would be prevented from finding their way to foreign countries. The Dutch urged upon them the vital necessity of building up a navy, and provided instructors for a seaman’s training school which was opened at Nagasaki in 1855. Also a naval school was organized at Tsukiji and the Dutch presented a small warship for the training of cadets.
Two additional ships were purchased from the Dutch, one in 1857 and another in 1858. But the Dutch East Indies paid a heavy price for all this, in 1942.
Queen Victoria, in 1859, also presented to the new navy a ship which carried four guns, and which had formerly served as her personal yacht. She took her finger off the Empire number, that time, and Singapore paid for it in 1942. Of course British practice has always been to meet a threat by encouraging a counter-irritant, but the method has certainly backfired a couple of times lately!
In 1862 the Japanese ordered two ships from the United States. They were delivered a year later, and we paid for them at Pearl Harbor, Bataan and Corregidor.
It is recorded that Japan’s first real armor-clad, steam-driven man-of-war was acquired in 1867. This craft was an iron-sided lady with a very checkered past. She was originally built at Bordeaux, France, in 1864, for the American Confederate States. She was successively known as the Sphinx, Stoerkodder, Olinde and Stonewall, and at various times sailed under the flags of the Confederacy, of France, of Denmark, Sweden, Spain and the United States. Finally the United States sold her to Japan, where she was known first as the Kotetzu and later as the Adzuma. This armor plate, very good stuff!
But all this tender occidental wet-nursing of an oriental Frankenstein did not stop here. It went right on—almost to Pearl Harbor!
“After the World War the services of a British Air Mission were employed (by Japan) to lay the foundation of an efficient naval air arm, and as a result a considerable amount of British material was bought.”
Lest I be accused of indulging in a little malicious and spuriously founded anti-British propaganda I hasten to say that the foregoing is quoted from page 923, Volume 12, 14th edition (1929) of the Encylcopaedia Britannica, although I am told that it is omitted in later printings. John Bull, the silly goose, had laid the golden eggs that hatched out Wild Eagles. Perhaps he should have been rewarded with the Order of the Golden Kite in 1942, although if it had not been for the United States, such decoration would have been awarded posthumously, in accordance with usual Japanese custom.
While the bombs and shells were falling like hail on Bataan and Corregidor in the spring of 1942 we used to say: “Help is on the way, but here comes another load of American scrap iron,” for one of the most irritating aspects of our unenviable situation was the realization that a certain large percentage of the trouble which Japan was able to cause us was accomplished through the use of material which the United States had thrown away (although at a good profit to somebody). Undoubtedly there are many American junk dealers, both big and little, who should receive the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, plus crossed boomerangs in a field argent, the presentation ceremony to include the bestowal on both cheeks of a resounding kick and the placing of a sash of yellow hemp around the neck.
During the early months of the war, when the Japanese were winning, the scurrilous and insolent paragraphs directed against America made our blood seethe, but we said confidently: “There’ll come a day.” I remember one large smooth-paper publication, the size of Life, apparently a special annual magazine, for it was entitled Front, 1942. It was elaborately gotten up, consisting of full page photographs, all devoted exclusively to the Japanese Navy. Accompanying the really excellent illustrations was a running commentary which continued from page to page, and it is interesting enough to quote. (The dots indicate the turning of a page.)
“The Guardian of Asia, the Japanese Navy.”...
“A dawning hope, profound mystic beauty,—peaceful blue ocean...the Seas of Asia. There, when we oft see men-of-war with blazing sun flags, their ensigns astern ploughing these waters...we, Asiatic people are touched with an inexpressible emotion.
...We recall the Battle of the Japan Sea (Tsushima Straits) of May 27, 1905 which finally decided the direction of the current of ‘Asia on the way to emancipation,’ while thinking about the past, present and the great future of Asiatic Races....Japan’s victory over Russia at that time was regarded as a sort of Miracle by Westerners who had believed in Russia’s victory on the basis of an announced comparison of territorial areas, natural resources and armed forces between Japan and Russia, by looking at superficial phenomenon only, without taking trouble to look into the decisive forms which lay under the surface...a new aspiration, hope and mission which impelled a nation to take action with full preparations as well as into an unadulterated indignation felt by a nation over the arrogant, unjust challenger and their concentrated power.
...Was Japan’s victory a ‘miracle?’ Or was it a foregone conclusion? Be that as it may, more than 30 years have passed since the Battle of Japan Sea. And a page of another Miracle is being unfolded in world history...In coping with the change of the international situation in all its aspects, the Imperial Navy has already completed its reorganization....And the 500 men of war...with innumerable ‘sea eagles’...day and night are patrolling and guarding the waters from northern waters in north to the Mandated Islands and the Co-Prosperity Sphere in south....In its powerful size and unfathomable strength the Imperial Navy has no match in the world,...in its construction and in its armament productive capacity,...in the peerless quality of every craft,...and every vessel,...in its triple combination of resources, silent courage, and superior technique,...in its masterly strategy in both offensive and defensive operations,...in its organic co-ordination among the categories of vessels, armament and training,...especially in its daring offensive operations,...whose issue is decided in an instant amidst murky smoke,...in its indomitable fighting spirit, tenacious enough to crush any powerful foe....The Japanese Navy is not only intended for national defense...but the ligament of economic interdependence among the peoples of the Co-Prosperity Sphere is being inseparably tightened with the Japanese Navy’s cooperation....The Japanese are born of the sea. No wonder that the officers and men of the Japanese Navy are strongly attached to magnanimous freedom, stern justice and all-embracing Peace....Their life is brimful of healthy, masculine smiles....Needless to say that the greatest task of these officers and men, who devote themselves to the prosecution of their studies at spare (time) while going through hard training....consists in safeguarding the national existence of their country and establishing the New Order in Greater East Asia....Construction of the Co-Prosperity Sphere! It is an aspiration, sweeping over East Asia....The Imperial Navy is readily cooperating with the countries in the sphere in their efforts to build up their navies....Whoever dare to attempt disturbing peace in this sphere....SHALL BE SEVERELY DEADLY PUNISHED BY THE GUARDIAN AND LIBERATOR OF ASIA—THE JAPANESE NAVY.”
Thus, in bold half-inch capitals, concludes Front, 1942. I would give a great deal to see the 1945 edition!
In another propaganda magazine I found a full page photograph of two smiling young Siamese in naval uniforms (commander’s stripes), posing on the bridge of a small ship. The caption read as follows: “Officers of the new Thailand Navy which is drilling and preparing to crush the Navies of Britain and America.” I hope the new navy didn’t turn out to be just another white elephant!
When the going began to get a little tougher, the American prisoners learned, with pleasure, that on several occasions the Japanese had “accomplished their mission and withdrawn,” or that a given island was of no further value strategically and forces had been sent elsewhere. And on one such occasion they must have accomplished a terrifically important mission, for the pulling-out was enthusiastically described in the press as a glorious naval triumph. The fleet had performed the almost superhuman, by carrying out a most extremely difficult maneuver known to naval strategists as “the withdrawal deployment.” In spite of the fact that the Japanese Navy had not had much practice in this particularly complicated maneuver, the courageous and intrepid Japanese admiral, when he saw that it was vitally necessary to accomplish his purpose, did not hesitate to order it instantly! And it had been carried out with complete success. Naturally the American prisoners were highly in favor of bigger and better withdrawal deployments, and we hoped the Japanese could soon get lots of practice, so that they might become really good at it!
In the December 1943 issue of the Philippine Camp News (the second of the four issues of this special prisoners’ news sheet, mentioned before), appeared the following tabulation regarding aggregate Allied losses at sea during the first two years of the war.
“The Imperial Navy sunk or damaged 688 enemy warcraft and shot down 5,158 warplanes, in addition to sinking or damaging 677 merchantmen, according to a tabulation made on the figures announced from the outbreak of the war up to the Aerial Battle off Marshall Islands.”
“The details of the composite war results during the period are as follows:
Composite War Results Obtained by the Navy: Kinds of Warcraft
Kinds of Warcraft | Sunk | Damaged | Total |
Battleships | 18 | 15 | 33 |
Aircraft Carriers | 27 | 12 | 39 |
Cruisers | 92 | 56 | 148 |
Destroyers | 79 | 47 | 126 |
Submarines | 147 | 62 | 209 |
Special Service Ships | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Unidentified Warcraft | 6 | 5 | 11 |
Gunboats | 8 | 6 | 14 |
Minesweepers | 7 | 1 | 8 |
Motor Torpedo-boats | 35 | 7 | 42 |
Patrol Ships | 21 | 26 | 47 |
Converted Ships | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Grand Total | 447 | 241 | 688 |
Merchantmen | Aircraft | ||
Sunk of damaged | 677 | Shot down | 5,158 |
Captured | 503 | Damaged | 1,716 |
Totals | 1,180 | Totals | 6,874 |
OUR LOSSES | |||
Warcraft Sunk | Warcraft Damaged (including: damaged beyond repair, damaged, and slightly damaged) | ||
Battleships | 1 | Battleships | 1 |
Aircraft Carriers | 3 | Aircraft Carriers | 2 |
Cruisers | 3 | Cruisers | 5 |
Destroyers | 23 | Destroyers | 12 |
Submarines | 11 | Submarines | 5 |
Special Service Ships | 2 | Special Service Ships | 1 |
Minesweepers | 6 | Minesweepers | 1 |
Small craft | 3 | Small craft | 1 |
Converted ships | 2 | Converted ships | 4 |
Totals | 54 | Totals | 32 |
Merchantmen | 96 | ||
Aircraft which failed to return to their bases or dived into enemy objectives | 1,253 |
The same issue of the news sheet also contained the following item, another “annual” report, this time for the second year of the war.
“TOKYO, Dec. 7—-The Imperial Japanese Army during a period of one year between the beginning of December, 1942, and the end of November, 1943, caused the foe a loss of 640,000 men, half of which number are prisoners of war, according to an announcement of the Imperial General Headquarters at 3 p.m. today.
The announcement reads:
“Major war results attained by the Imperial Japanese Army as well as its own losses during the period of one year from the beginning of December, 1942, to the end of November, 1943, follows:
“In the South Pacific and in the Aleutians—400,000 foe troops on first line duty were engaged, of which the enemy lost 190,000 (including prisoners of war and troops giving themselves up to cooperate with Nippon, which totaled 100,000). The number of planes shot down or destroyed on the ground totaled 2,728. The number of enemy warships and transports sunk or damaged reached 185.
“On the China front—2,370,000 enemy troops were engaged, of whom 210,000 dead were buried by our men, and 204,000 either surrendered offering to cooperate or were taken prisoners. The number of ships sunk totaled 88, while the total number of ships captured reached 466. The number of planes shot down or destroyed on the ground totalled 373. “Our losses: 32,962 were killed and 313 planes were lost.”
An action report was included too:
“TOKYO, Dec. 6—A total of 22 aircraft carriers were sunk by the Imperial Navy forces in the Solomons and Gilberts waters during the period of less than one month from November 5 when the first Aerial Battle off Bougainville Island took place.”
“It is noteworthy that most of the battles were fought at dusk when the field of vision was limited, but when the Nippon Navy fliers could demonstrate their superior tactics. With the sinking of the aircraft carriers, all the planes which returned to their mother ships after sundown must have shared the fate with the carriers. All enemy fliers, crew members, and fuel too went down with the doomed ships, indicating that the sinking of those carriers must have caused irreparable losses to the enemy manpower.”
The exploits of the preceding item did not go unrewarded, for His Majesty responded with fitting grace:
“TOKYO, Dec. 7—His Majesty the Emperor of Nippon graciously expressed his satisfaction over the exploits of the Imperial Navy in the waters around the Gilbert Islands in an Imperial Rescript granted to the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 6, it was announced by the Imperial General Headquarters at 6 p.m. today.
“The Imperial Rescript was granted through the chief naval staff officer. In the Imperial Rescript, His Majesty the Emperor graciously expressed satisfaction over the exploits of the air units of the Combined Fleet. His Majesty furthermore encouraged the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, explaining that the war has now come to assume a complex nature and graciously willed that the Navy would further exert itself and live up to His Majesty’s expectation.”
The “complex nature” which the war had come to assume, brought considerable satisfaction to the prisoners, and we graciously willed that the American Navy, too, would continue to exert itself.
These items are all quoted directly from the original news sheet. Other editions of the sheet were similar in tone, and expressed natural satisfaction at the terrible toll of American losses; in fact, one of them said that American soldiers, petrified by the terrors of fighting the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific, were going insane at the rate of 7,000 per week!
The last newspapers which we received officially, described the “temporary confusion” in Italy, and the recapture of Mussolini by German autogyro. Although the Americans were said to have suffered another Dunkirk in Italy, the papers were full of disgruntled articles with a “perfidious Antonio” flavor, while our guards told us: “Italy no good.” This apparent collapse of Italy soon filled the camp with rumors that Germany had surrendered (and it continued to surrender thereafter about once a month). One of the German surrender rumors had its sole origin in the fact that somebody was said to have noticed that the guards did not go into their goose step when they passed one of their officers that morning. Therefore the whole set-up must have toppled! (Drowning men aren’t the only ones who grasp at straws.) Some of the facetious deliberately went even farther, they insisted that the Japanese major had not only been seen pacing up and down on the veranda of his quarters (wearing his kimona and “go-aheads” as he frequently did) but that he had been overheard muttering to himself: “All is lost save honor.” I noticed several guards goosestepping as high as ever, so I began to read “Othello” for the fourth time. It was still good!
As the American forces worked their way nearer and nearer to Japan, the newspapers which we were sometimes able to find, unofficially, continued to give plausible reassurance to the Japanese public, reaching a high point at the time of the American landing on Luzon. For they said, “The clever Japanese are gradually enticing the enemy nearer to our home shores in order to deal final crushing blows.” I wondered if Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Halsey realized, as they fought their way, that they were just being enticed!
These brief excerpts should give a fairly accurate conception of the Japanese military propaganda, and I shall proceed to the next department: Economic and Social Propaganda. One Tokyo newspaper (English language edition), several copies of which were once given us, included a little box at the top of the front page similar to the space for the weather forecast in most American newspapers. But this space contained no presumptions about the weather. It carried the slogan: “We fight with firmness; we build with kindness.” And the kindly undertone of Co-Prosperity was constantly stressed in many an article about the international significance of this mighty association of the Oriental powers, “with Japan as the central unit.” The central unit was going to help everybody to be strong and rich and good. But, of course, the member-states must do their part too.
One magazine article was entitled “The Philippines Can Be Economically Independent,” and the thesis was proved pictorially as well as editorially. However, the only economic activities illustrated were: a scene in an oleomargarine factory, a view taken in a tomato-catsup factory, and a picture of several Filipino women stirring up a batch of cocoanut candy. Imagine an autarchy based on and developed from nothing but oleo, catsup and candy bars! Contrast this bright economic future of the Philippines with the black picture of American economy, where (according to one news item) the desperate food shortage had reached such appalling proportions that 3 restaurants had closed in Seattle! Consider also a nearer item reflecting the benefits of Co-Prosperity, which appeared in the “Homefront” column for housewives, in which thrifty women, laboring for the glory of East Asia, were advised not to throw away the small stones which they found in the raw rice they purchased, but to save them in a little jar “for the chickensyou have,—or hope to have.”
Japanese newspapers did admit that America had built many good roads throughout the Philippines, but the actual result was only an obnoxious one, for the roads made the Filipinos long for the unnecessary luxury of an American automobile, which America of course wanted to sell them. The Filipinos were constantly exhorted to return to their ancient, noble and warlike virtues, to work hard, to give up the unwholesome pleasures that America had been trying to teach them to enjoy. Instead, they must learn to live miserably and like it.
Further stressing the idea of Japanese kindness, a full newspaper page (Tokyo paper) rhapsodized on the idyllic life which the American prisoners were leading in Japan. The prisoners themselves “said” that not only was there plenty of green vegetables and other essential foods, but that: “Moreover, we cook it ourselves, so we can have it just the way we would at home.” One happy and delighted American was even alleged to be having such a wonderful time that he was “quoted” as saying: “Oh boy, I don’t care how long the war lasts!” Incidentally, I believe that this was the same paper which included elsewhere a photograph of the Japanese Emperor and his Empress. Quite a bundle was brought into the camp, but because of the Imperial photographs, we were ordered not to put the newspaper to any undignified or degrading uses. However, as this was the only current supply of paper of any kind, it was scarcely practicable to observe the injunction too meticulously.
One issue of the Philippine Camp News filled two of its four pages with an exhaustive geneological investigation into the ancestry of Mr. Roosevelt, and reached the inescapable conclusion that he was definitely of Semitic origin. (The voice might have been the voice of Hirohito, but the hands were certainly the hands of Hitler.)
Another issue of the same publication included a frightful article in which the Calamity Jane Division really opened up: “LISBON, October 22—Reflecting the increasing delinquency of American girls, which is the cause of one of the biggest headaches to American parents and social organizations, two reportedly pretty girls, still in their teens, have fought a bloody midnight duel with knives in Hollywood over the affections of a married man, according to a dispatch received here.
“The report said that the fight was preceded by a formal challenge and witnessed by seconds.
“A bus driver with two children, reportedly the cause of the duel, said: ‘I know both of them as they used to talk to me on the bus but they are only acquaintances.’”
However, this article, portraying so vividly the horrible social aberrations which were rampant in the sordid scene of the United States, not only failed to terrify us, but it actually had an effect which was quite the contrary. It sounded to us as though the long-neglected American male was at last coming into his own, and therefore it behooved us more than ever to get back as quickly as possible. The only disquieting aspect of the whole affair, as far as we were concerned, was the complete failure of the object of this enthusiastic if somewhat violent biological competition, to live up to his divine role. For as you have just read, reticent as a wealthy bachelor at a breach-of-promise suit, he did admit that he knew the girls, but insisted that each was “only a friend.” The coward! He had more than ample precedent, for it says in the King James version of the Book of Nehemiah (13:26):
“Did not Solomon, King of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God and God made him King over all Israel; nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.”
And so to the last classification: Personal and Cultural Propaganda.
Right from the beginning there were many photographs of Japanese soldiers giving candy to the kiddies, and joining in their little games. And within a few weeks Nippon-go classes were formed to teach the Filipino to speak Japanese. Every day or two, effusive articles in the Manila paper described the enthusiasm with which young and old, men and women, housewives and society girls were joining the classes which had undoubtedly become Manila’s most popular activity. Photographs even depicted infants, aged 3 or 4, gazing entranced as a Japanese instructor writes Kata kana characters on the black board, thus proving that even babies cry for it.
(Kata kana is a system of syllabic writing, based on about 50 phonetic characters which represent “ab” “ac” “ad” etc. That is, each character represents a definite pronounceable syllable. Another form of Japanese writing, based on a similar system, is a set of symbols called Hiragana. Neither of these should be confused with the Chinese ideographs which Japan took over during her “admire China” period, and still employs with essentially their original meanings as used in writing, but with an entirely different spoken form. The Japanese refer to them as Kanji characters. Thus while a Chinese and a Japanese can each read the ideographs and each absorb the same general idea from them, neither one can say a word that is very intelligible to the other.)
After several months of the Nippon-go classes, the Japanese began to hold frequent declamation contests for their enthusiastic students, offering prizes for the best accent and diction.
Akin to kindness, Humanism came in for considerable stress, laying particular emphasis on the real brotherly affection which the Japanese felt for the Filipinos. One Japanese General, early attacker of the Philippines, was quoted by the newspapers as saying, during one of his speeches, that he personally loved every Filipino from the depth of his heart, and would protect every one of them,—(if they cooperated). More humanism was expressed by a large news photograph of two Filipino girls, perhaps 17 or 18 years old, who were jumping rope. In the background, three smiling Japanese soldiers contemplated the girls’ ankles. The caption: “Skip-rope furnishes entertainment to these happy Philippine lassies and their very good friends, the bronzed soldiers of Nippon.” So, back to the simple life, girls, and stay the hell away from those wicked American soda fountains.
But the triumph of humanism was reached when the great Premier of Japan himself visited Manila to congratulate the Filipinos upon their fortuitous escape from American imperialism. Candid cameras caught him at all moments of the day. He was pictured greeting the puppet president, he was shown chatting with a wizened fish-wife in neighbor-like informality, and indulging in all the mawkish insincerities known to political mummery,—almost to the kissing of babies, but not quite, for they say that the Japanese haven’t found out about kissing yet. A glowing article by some collaborator was entitled “The Humanest Man I Ever Met.” The author built his hero up to the skies, laying it on with an extravagant trowel, climaxing his encomiums with the following: “There is a general impression that he is short, because his shoulders are stooped from ceaseless desk work in the advancement of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. But he is not short. He is tall. When he draws himself up to his full height, he is 5'-2".”
In the Arts too, Japanese propaganda was ready for the Filipino. Tokyo sent a “Musical Mission” to the Philippines, two men and two women, in order to educate the public to an appreciation of Japanese melody and harmony. Song-writing contests were held, the words of which must develop a stated theme appropriate to the beauties of Co-Prosperity. Another competitive musical activity was an essay contest on the subject: “Why I like Japanese Music.” The writer who won this lively tilt based her preference on the following reason: “Because its minor keys make it so much more appealing than American music.” Nevertheless, during the months from January through April, 1942, when (still operating in Manila Bay in a gunboat) I listened to many of the programs sponsored by the Japanese-operated Manila radio, they invariably played standard American dance tunes and popular music, seeming to take special delight in “Waiting for Ships that Never Come In.” The announcements were made in a lush feminine voice that fairly dripped honey (in perfect English). One day she remarked that there seemed to be an impression that the Japanese did not wish the Filipinos to listen to their radios. But this was quite incorrect. In fact the Japanese really wanted them to have the pleasure of enjoying their radios. However, first, they must bring the radio set to headquarters and have it registered (and I suppose, also to have the wave length “adjusted”). That was all there was to it. Really, as simple as that. Some very uninformed people had been worrying unduly. You should dismiss all those silly rumors about not listening. She ended with cooing, buttery reassurance:
“So, as the Japanese high command says: Be at ease. Everything is O.K.”
The Manila radio also conducted a “lonely hearts” program of sorts. The letters “sent in” were read by a male voice which almost choked back audible tears as, over the air waves, he launched these heart-rending epistles to individually-named soldiers in Bataan whose wives “wrote them” to stop the foolish, futile fighting against the kindly Japanese, and come on back home to mother and little Aguinaldo.
In the field of pure literature, laudation of the Nipponese furnished pregnant material for another essay contest: “Why I Like the Japanese.” Somebody won hands down on this one, and really deserved the prize. “Because they are so sincere, and so honor-bound in keeping their word.”
No culture is complete without its poetry, even though poets are so universally misunderstood. I came across a whole column in a Tokyo paper regarding the life and works of one of Japan’s greatest modern poets. Several examples of his best works were included in the column. One of them was such a charming little verse that I memorized it, then and there.
“The path in which we, human beings, walk—
“They run across it sidewise.
“The Anglo-Saxons are
“Really monkeys.”
I trust that we have shown them whether or not they can make monkeys out of us.
The Philippine Review was a cultural magazine which was published quarterly. It contained articles on Philippine and Japanese native and ancient culture, the fine arts, literature, the drama and allied subjects. Some of the articles were of genuine interest. One copy of this magazine quoted three lectures which a lieutenant, of the Japanese Propaganda Corps, had given to the ladies of Manila in order to explain what every young girl should know about a woman’s place as envisaged by Japanese ideology, to wit: in the home; and further, to wit: in the nursery. For some curious reason he didn’t even mention Marie Stopes or Margaret Sanger. But with delightful naivete, the lieutenant invited his “Ladies Only” audience to consider the hen. For the hen is happy and contented in her divine role of laying and hatching the eggs which produce that brilliantly-plumed fighting-cock whose glorious combats fill her with joyous pride as she stays at home laying more eggs. I wonder how the lieutenant’s biological comparison was received by these Filipino ladies, who no doubt were already tragically poisoned by American ideas. But if he were still around Manila in early 1945, I should be willing to wager that, in the words of a famous author, “he learned about women from them!”
(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not to be construed as reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the Naval Service at large.)
(The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness: to Lieutenant Charles R. Mixer, USNR, and Mr. Louis H. Bolander, of the U. S. Naval Academy Library, for the list of names of Japanese midshipmen who graduated at Annapolis, and for facts regarding the early Japanese Navy; to the Encyclopaedia Britannica for permission to quote from its article on Japan.)
Captain Alan McCracken, Naval Academy class of 1922, was in command of the U.S.S. Mindanao, South China Patrol, just prior to the war. On the day of Pearl Harbor the Mindanao was en route from Hong Kong to Manila. She arrived at Cavite the morning of the bombing which leveled the Navy Yard. The ship continued to operate in and about Manila Bay until after the collapse of Bataan. Captain (then Commander) McCracken was captured by the Japanese when Corregidor fell. He was a prisoner- of-war at Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Central Luzon, at the Davao Penal Colony in Mindanao, and at Bilibid Prison, Manila, from which he was released upon the arrival of American forces in February, 1945. After several months’ hospitalization he returned to duty.
★
THE COLONEL’S SANDWICH
Contributed by JAMES H. McCONNELL, former Lieutenant (Ch.C.)
U. S. Naval Reserve
It was the Colonel’s custom to open the day’s activities at dawn with a sandwich, and it was the duty of his faithful orderly, Ziggie, to make the sandwich and get it to the Colonel.
One morning during the attack at Saipan, the Colonel got away from his command post a little ahead of time. Ziggie made the precious sandwich, then looked in vain for the Colonel. Word came that he was up front, several hundred yards.
Ziggie passed the sandwich to the nearest man—“for the Colonel,” was the word. In praiseworthy time the sandwich reached the Colonel, having been passed hand to hand by dozens of alert soldiers. The travel-stained condition of the sandwich added to the Colonel’s appreciation of his men’s loyalty, for any one of them could have declared it a battle casualty en route!
{The Proceedings will pay $5.00 for each anecdote submitted to and printed in, the Proceedings).