Description
The propaganda t-shirt is part of a series of garments that reflects back on the Japanese expansion in the first half of the twentieth century. Printed on the back of an oversized shirt in military green is an image of three happy children respectively holding the flags of the Empire of Manchuria and that of the Republic of China. In short, Manchuria (also known as Manchukuo) was the so-called “puppet state” of the Japanese Empire in Northeast China from 1932 until 1945. The other flag was that of China itself from 1912 until 1928. Both flags show the same colours for a reason, each one stands for a population group. Red is for Han, yellow for Manchu, blue for Mongol, white for Tibetan and black for Hui. The original image included the text “Gung-ho of Japan, China and Manchuria, peace on Earth.” It thus aimed at encouraging people to support the Japanese settlement in Chinese territory.