Flash From The Past: Interesting 1951 Chinese Army Propaganda Leaflet Targeting African American Soldiers In Korea

8DecMMXII - Clk2Enlrg

Korea, 1951: The Chinese army drops brown monotone leaflets depicting a group of black prisoners of war. One plays an accordion, a second plays a guitar. The leaflet is signed by the “Central Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army.” The text reads:

Sing-song in a P.O.W. Camp

Surprisingly, very few leaflets targeted African-American troops. The Chinese and North Vietnamese would produce dozens of racially divisive leaflets in the 1960s, but the North Koreans showed little interest in attacking that “soft underbelly” of America. There is one known case of six American prisoners released on 7 January 1951 and sent back to their own lines carrying three North Korean leaflets that read: 

COLORED MEN OF U.S. FORCES. FIND THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE!

You certainly remember that you have been mistreated with racist discrimination and in slave life. American capitalists are plotting to colonize Korea by military intervention. We should cut this chain.

HATE WAR AND COME OVER TO KOREAN’S PEOPLE’S ARMY. IF YOU WANT TO FIND THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE.

Korean People’s Army will treat you very well and send you home soon.

"Sing Song in a P.O.W. Camp" 

Another Korea War-era leaflet that uses race as a theme is signed by the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteers. A picture on the cover depicts Private First Class James Wilson shaking hands with his Communist captors:

Negro Soldiers!

Did you ever stop to think why you should be in Korea,  fighting other colored people, while lynchings, murders and insults pile up against the Negro people at home?
We say: No U.S. soldiers have any business in Korea. Korea for the Koreans. China for the Chinese. America for the Americans, Negro and white. 

The leaflet goes on to report lynchings and crimes against black men both in the United States and in the U.S. Army in Korea. It discusses politics in the United States and points out how few black Congressmen and Senators hold office. It reminds the black soldiers of how few black officers have been commissioned in the military.