Category: WWII
Pocket Guide to China, 1943
CHINA has been at war for 5 years with her enemy and ours — the Japanese. She has met heavy defeats and won important victories. She has suffered more than 5,000,000 casualties in those years of war. Yet, today, the free people of China are still fighting, still holding a better armed foe.
You and your outfit have been ordered to China to help this gallant ally. Your job, fighting side by side with the Chinese, is to rid that country of the Japanese. No American troops anywhere have a more important assignment.
Two problems face you right away. You don’t know the language and you don’t know the people. That makes it harder to be a guest in China than in a country like England or Australia.
Nobody expects you to learn a language as complex as Chinese, although the glossary at the end of this book will enable you to learn enough to get along. To understand a people is something else again. It takes a blend of curiosity, common sense, and courtesy. You might well adopt as your motto one of the many proverbs that guide the Chinese in their own conduct. They say …
“When you enter a neighborhood ask what is forbidden; when you enter a country ask what the customs are.”
It is the purpose of this guide to tell you about some of these customs. It will only take about 20 minutes to read, but, by helping you to understand China and the Chinese people, it can add interest to your stay in their country and help you to do a better job for America.
Prepared by Army Information Branch, Army Service Forces, United States Army, 1943
Digitized by Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University
Pocket Guide to Japan, 1945 (updated PDF)
Japan deserves the concentrated attention of all our armed forces in the Pacific. One way to give the enemy attention is to find out all we can about him. This book is provided for that purpose. Other ways are by bombing his cities, sinking his shipping and destroying his factories. We are doing that. The best attention we can pay him is to invade his homeland. Every island we have taken has been a stepping stone to the Japanese Empire. In war it is not the first step but the last which count the most. On the sea and under the sea, through the air and across the land we will move together in the final step to victory.
C.W. Nimitz,
Fleet Admiral, U.S. Navy.
(Reformatted from history.navy.mil, appears to be missing some illustrations)
Japanese Snowcruiser
Warfare spreads into the Antarctic, obviously inspired by Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic Snow Cruiser “Big Bertha”
Captain America, the 1st Avenger
Has it already been 7 years?
USS Batfish, part 2
Photos taken below deck of the USS Batfish, Muskogee War Memorial Park, Muskogee, OK
Amazing Stories, July 1942
USS Batfish
The USS Batfish, in seven war patrols, claimed a total of 15 ships sunk and damaged 3 others. She is also credited with the sinking of 3 enemy submarines.
“For extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese combatant forces during the sixth War Patrol in the South China Sea from December 30, 1944 to March 3, 1945. Persistent and aggressive in her search for vital targets, the USS Batfish relentlessly tracked down the enemy and in three separate, brilliantly executed attacks, launched her torpedoes with devastating speed and skill and demolished three Japanese submarines. By the destruction of these formidable and threatening hostile Fleet units in a single War Patrol, the Batfish contributed significantly to the successful completion of the war. The courage, superb seamanship and gallant fighting spirit of her officers and men reflect the highest credit upon herself and the United States Naval Services.”
The USS Batfish now resides in Muskogee Oklahoma at the Muskogee War Memorial Park
Product Placement
Shanghai during the War of Resistance against the Japanese, 1937-1945
The Indies Must Be Free! 1944
Indie Moet Vrij! Werkt en Vecht Ervoor! (The Indies Must Be Free! Work and Fight For It!)
Ominous propaganda poster from the Indies showing the tentacles of the Japanese empire
