Annotation source: Seoul Metropolitan Archive
Annotation and image link: https://archives.seoul.go.kr/item/97
ANNOTATION
Office of War Information (OWI) was a U.S. government agency, created for propaganda activities in and around the U.S. during WWII. Direct contacts with the targets were necessary to carry out propaganda activities. For this purpose, OWI outposts that succeeded the local branches of the overseas intelligence agency were established in different regions.
OWI set up propaganda targets and goals for its outposts in China, Burma (today’s Myanmar), India, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea as follows: 1. Long-term propaganda to prevent Japan’s influence from persisting, expanding, and strengthening in its occupied territories, 2. Long-term propaganda toward Japanese civilians, 3. White and black forms of propaganda with respect to the Japanese soldiers in each war theater, in cooperation with commanding officers of the theaters of war, 4. Propaganda toward local residents to make them solidify and cooperate with the Allied Forces in the U.S. occupied territories or where the U.S. forces were stationed, and 5. Propaganda activities to boost morale of the US troops dispatched overseas.
This document is a report from an OWI outpost in New Delhi about the interrogation of three local soldiers who had been captured as POWs by Japanese troops. After becoming POWs of Japan, they escaped together and surrendered to the Allied Forces. Two of the captured soldiers spoke about Burmese women, who had been recruited initially as nurses and then became “comfort women” for the Japanese military. The Japanese troops purportedly recruited local women as nurses at first, but later forced the village heads to submit a list of young girls in each town. Later, those girls had to work in the “Comfort Unit.” Those women who actually did work as nurses were also forced to work as “comfort women” as well. These informants saw these women on the streets of Maymyo. They saw Chinese and Japanese “comfort women” in Maymyo. They also stated that they heard the local women were kidnapped by the Japanese troops.
Contributors
[Organization] Seoul National University, Chin-sung Chung Research Team, 2015~
[Organization] Seoul National University, Chin-sung Chung Research Team, 2015~
[Organization] National Archives and Records Administration 1934~
[Organization] City of Seoul, Women and Family Policy Affairs Office 2011~
#OWI #India #Burma #Burmese #nurses
Download file: https://international.ucla.edu/media/files/US-12--Outpost-Report-WDC-289-ez-va5.pdf
LESSON PLAN
Note to teachers:
1. The discussion questions below are designed based on the original document, not the annotation. Teachers are recommended to use the primary document in teaching, instead of the annotation. However, the annotation provides useful background information for teachers when they prepare for the lesson.
2. The scaffolded questions below are designed based on the cover page, the "prisoner of war interrogation" section (from "name" to "family") on page 2, the "Japanese Relations with Women" section on page 3, and the "Jap Treatment" section on page 6.
Explain the following words to your students before asking them to read the required sections:
- A.P.O.: Army Post Office
- Burma: nowadays Myanmar
- C.B.I.: China Burma India Theater, the U.S. military designation during World War II for the China and Southeast Asian or India-Burma (IBT) theaters.
- Maymyo: a town in Myanmar
- outpost: a small military camp or position at some distance from the main force, used especially as a guard against surprise attack
- OWI: Office of War Information, a U.S. government agency created for propaganda activities in and around the U.S. during WWII. The annotation provides more information about the OWI (2nd paragraph).
- padre: a chaplain (typically a Roman Catholic chaplain) in any of the armed services
- sentry: a soldier stationed to keep guard or to control access to a place
- Shan: The Shan are the largest minority group in Myanmar, making up nearly 1/10 of the nation's total population.
- WDC: Western Defense Command, established on March 17, 1941, as the command formation of the U.S. Army responsible for coordinating the defense of the Pacific Coast region of the U.S. during World War II
Direct students to read the cover page, the "prisoner of war interrogation" section (from "name" to "family") on page 2, the "Japanese Relations with Women" section on page 3, and the "Jap Treatment" section on page 6. After reading the primary document, please answer the following questions:
1. What kind of document is this?
2. What are the physical characteristics of this document?
a. Is it handwritten or typed?
b. Are there any marks? If so, what are they?
c. Any other physical features do you notice?
d. Does any of these physical characteristics interest you?
3. What's the title of the document?
4. Who created it?
5. When was it created?
6. What was the historical context in East and Southeast Asia during the time?
7. What's the name of the first prisoner of war under interrogation? What's his nationality? Was he a soldier? What else do you know about him?
8. According to the first prisoner of war (on page 3), how were the Burmese and Korean "comfort women" recruited? How do you comment on the Japanese recruiting method?
9. What did the first prisoner of war (on page 3) saw when the train he was on paused at a small station? What does it tell you?
10. What's the name of the second prisoner of war under interrogation (on page 5)? What's his nationality? Was he a soldier? What else do you know about him?
11. According to the second prisoner of war (on page 6), what nationalities of "comfort girls" did he see in Maymyo, Mandalay and Sagaing?
12. How were these girls recruited?
13. Did these girls serve voluntarily? How do you know?
14. The Japanese government has been claiming that it bears no legal or official responsibility for the "comfort women" victims. Based on this document, do you think the claim is defendable? Why or why not?
15. What additional Questions do you have for this document?
16. Where/How can you find the answers?
*This lesson plan was designed by Jing Williams, Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at University of South Dakota.