The US army published a pocket guide during WWII entitled “How to tell a Chinese from a Jap” (that’s the actual title).
Leaving aside the obviously hostile language used, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that this was deadly serious business. The army wasn’t racist; quite the contrary, they were trying to minimize friendly casualties by instructing soldiers on how to discern subtle differences within a racial group.
There’s a lesson in this for our current controversy over islamofascists, and how certain parties try to conflate them with other overlapping but yet distinct groups.
This be open thread.
Tags: Military
