The full title for this book is OSS Operation Black Mail: One Woman's Covert War Against the Imperial Japanese Army, and it’s a fascinating read. This was the December/January selection for the book club I’m in. Again, it’s been great for me to be exposed to what the other women in the group pick because it pushes me out of my box. I almost never read non-fiction—not because I don’t want to. It’s just not my go-to.
Anyway, this book is the story of Elizabeth “Betty” P. McIntosh, a badass woman who served during World War II on the little known psychological warfare front in Asia. Along the way, we meet all the unique personalities she’s worked with, including Julia Child. YES! The television cooking queen! They were all spies! And Ho Chi Minh makes an appearance—before he was Ho Chi Minh! (I mean, he was always himself, but you know what I mean…)
When I think about World War II, I immediately go to the battles fought against Hitler’s forces in Europe, so it was really intriguing to read about the war going on in China, Burma, and India. The book starts out with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Again, this book showed me a different view from the one I was used to reading in textbooks. Betty was a journalist living in Hawaii and much of the narrative is from her point of view. The bombing was much more widespread than the naval base, and the casualties went far beyond the U.S. sailors. Betty describes the fear and the waiting, the streets and destruction tangled up in the tattered trimmings of a Christmas just around the corner. The imagery was surreal.
Betty is recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) because of her journalism background and her knowledge of Japanese and the Japanese culture. The others recruited into the program were considered outside of the box thinkers as well. They were artists, writers, and fluent in several languages. I appreciated William Donovan’s thinking in this regard. He was the director of OSS, and he wasn’t looking for the usual recruits. He wanted people with imagination. He knew that black propaganda wasn’t the type of work where you would get instant gratification. It was infiltrating the enemy in their heads and hearts and hoping it would make an impact.
The way Black Propaganda was used is fascinating. While White Propaganda was based on truth and patriotism and exclaiming that your side was winning and powerful, the opposition just saw it as the enemy tooting its own horn. Black Propaganda operatives worked in the weeds, in the hearts and minds of those fighting the war. For example, one tactic Betty used was to take postcards that had been captured from the Japanese. These were letters to and from soldiers and their families in Japan. Because of her knowledge of the language and the culture, she was able to rewrite these letters to say things like “we’re losing this war, we’re suffering, and it’s terrible…there’s no hope.” On the flip side, letters to the soldiers hinted at wives leaving their husbands and the lack of confidence in the country’s leadership.
Black Propaganda effort included reproducing newspapers with false information and hosting subversive radio shows as if they were being broadcast from the “underground.” The OSS agents could speak the language fluently, and their knowledge of the culture left no room for anyone to question whether or not the source was authentic. In fact, I was surprised by the amount of hardship the agents had to go through to get the exact inks, papers, and presses used just to recreate their fake propaganda.
And the British were no help in Asia! I was so surprised! Granted, this book tells it from the American point of view, but it seemed as though the British were not keen on sharing supplies or equipment. There seemed to be a very condescending attitude towards the Americans in general. And here I thought the US and the UK were one big happy family.
One of the most interesting characters was Jane Foster, Betty’s best friend throughout the war. She was the beauty everyone seemed to fall in love with. She was able to swing favors from allies and went to more parties than I thought appropriate during a war. At the end of the war, many of the OSS operatives were caught up in politics between the various secret squirrel operations in DC. It was during the time of McCarthy, and everyone was suddenly suspected of being a communist. Donavan’s people were targeted because their work was put into question. At the end of it Jane Foster was alleged to be a communist and a spy.
3 STARS ON GOODREADS
This was a fascinating read, and Betty McIntosh, Julia Child, and Jane Foster were extremely intelligent, creative women who played an important part in winning the war. The reason I only gave it 3-stars was because it was a very dry read. I believe it may have been a result of Ms. Todd’s dissertation, and that’s how it reads: like a dissertation. At the beginning, following Betty’s story in Pearl Harbor was an exciting read, and I had hoped the rest of the book was more anecdotal. Instead, names and acronyms were dropped left and right, and it took more effort than I had to keep up with all if it—and I’m no stranger to working with the military and the government and acronyms! Several times, the story focused on Jane instead of Betty, making the whole of it seem disjointed. Otherwise, it’s a great read if you want to learn about a different side of World War II.
Here’s my rating system:
5 stars: I love this book so much that I must own a physical copy of it. I’m definitely going to recommend it to people.
4 stars: This was a great book. I love it, but I don’t need to own a physical copy. I’ll definitely recommend it to people.
3 stars: This is a really good book. I was entertained.
2 stars: This book was fine. I don’t hate it or anything. It was fine.
1 star: This book wasn’t for me. It might be for someone else, though. There are probably a lot of reasons why it isn’t for me. I’m not hating, though.
0 stars: I’ve read it, or maybe I didn’t finish it, or maybe I didn’t enjoy it. Could be anything.
Comment below and let me know what you thought of this book if you’ve read it!