Evening star., 1942-03-27

the air when
their place was
Henry McLemor.. on the ground,
and generally mixed up and be-
wildered.
The obvious way to combat such
trickery is by similar trickery, with
Americans cutting in on japanese
radio communications and giving
their pilots a few false orders. But
this is easier said than done.
How many of our men could cut
in on a Japanese conversation and
say in bona fide Japanese. Pal,
you'd better not come back to home
base for a while. The Yanks are
cutting up around here or Homo
rsble Togo, this miserable person
advises that you bring your ship
into Sydney. Everything Is under
control"
NY guess is that there aren't IS
men in our Army who can speak
japanese without a Vermont,
Brooklyn, Mississippi or some other
sort Of accent. The Japanese lam
guage isn't something you pick up
overnight. In fact. you don't pick it
up at all To learn it you must pour
over it for years until your eyes
get as bad as those Of the average
japanese. The proper high school
gradua ton present in Japan is a
diploma and pair Of bifocal lenses.
I have studied the language of and
on for IS years and have mastered
but two words. And I have to say
'banzai" twice TO keep from only
knowing one word.
I'm afraid that our officers and
men are not going to fool the jap
anese when they start impersonating
Japanese authorities over the radio.
The boys from the south of Japan.
fooled by Cracker American voice
saying. You all out yonder sho'
better not land right now. There
are so many searchlights playing
around here it looks like a big
possum hunt" Just how this would
sound in Japanese I don't know, but
! do know it wouldn't sound much
like Japanese. Imagine trying 10
say 'possum" in japanese.
The same goes for the boys from
the east side of Toxic. You know
good and well that they would be-
come suspicious of a voice that told
them 10 land at such and such a
place as soon as their "erl" ran low.
If the Japanese have secret
weapon. that secret weapon un-
doubtedly is the knowledge they
have of US and the lack of knowl-
edge we have of them. For years
they have studied us. copied us,
learned every blessed thing about us.
They know our language, our slang,
our psychology. They know our
ways and our habits.
We know nothing of them. ! can
| name on no fingers at all my inti-
mates who studied japanese in high
school. Yet, the japanese get Eng
lish right along with rice cooking
and losing face as one Of the re-
quired subjects in first grade. AS
you may or may not know. one Of
Hitlers prime axioms of warfare is
Begin by learning your enemys
language"
Now is it not obvious why he
chose Japan as one of the Axis
members? Hitler hates to 60 back
on an axiom So. when he took his
first gander at the Japanese Ian
guage, he undoubtedly said, Let's
make them part of the Axis so we
can live up to our axiom"
We Americans know nothing
about Japan, Outside of a few
womens garden club members, who
have studied Japanese flower ar
rangement, We have been COM
pletely disinterested in the mind and
manners of the japanese Oh, a
few of us had heard an ugly rumor
that the japanese slept on wooden
pillows, and jumped down volcanic
crater when frustrated in love, but
it was all so completely foreign to
US that we didn't bother. We spent
our time learning all about the
French. English. Germans, Italians,
and. so help me, the ancient Ro-
mans. Even the ancient Romans
are better understood by the aver
age American than the japanese.
One thing this war has done,
though. 1t has made a hero of 1t.
Pinkerton at last. He used to get
Kisses for roughing up Madame But
terfly. and going off and leaving her.
But now
"Banzai, Banzai, for 1t. Pinkerton.
Distributed by McNaught Syndicate. IncD