Jap?

This is coolbert:

"He mee-stah Tojo!!"

From a prior blog entry, a U.S. World War Two [WW2] Intelligence Bulletin article entitled:

"Is He Jap or Chinese?"

Well, here is the answer. As shown in LIFE magazine. The type of stuff fanned by war time hysteria!

[please note the continued use of the pejorative term "Jap"!]

"LIFE-December 22, 1941, Vol. 11, No. 25, pp.81-82"

"How To Tell Japs From The Chinese"

"Angry Citizens Victimize Allies With Emotional Outburst At Enemy"

"In the first discharge of emotions touched off by the Japanese assaults on their nation, U.S. citizens have been demonstrating a distressing ignorance on the delicate question of how to tell a Chinese from a Jap. Innocent victims in cities all over the country are many of the 75,000 U.S. Chinese, whose homeland is our stanch [staunch] ally. So serious were the consequences threatened, that the Chinese consulates last week prepared to tag their nationals with identification buttons. To dispel some of this confusion, LIFE here adduces a rule-of-thumb from the anthropometric conformations that distinguish friendly Chinese from enemy alien Japs."

To a westerner, there is NO discernible difference between a Japanese and a Chinese? Between the two groups, Japanese and Chinese "can tell" one another apart with a single glance? NOT so much racial features but mannerisms, cultural characteristics such as dress, etc.?

Wartime hysteria and anger feeds a fire where "emotion clouds reason"!!

coolbert.