The Blood Chit

Cool pic from the past posted on FaceBook by a friend of mine from the We The Armed boards that goes by the handle of “Harm”, its his Fathers “blood chit” from WW2.

Basically, the blood chit was a bribe from the US Government Chinese Government (thanks for the correction Harm)to return a downed flier to us instead of turning them over to the Japanese.  It was normally carried as part of their kit bag or sew into the liner of their flight jacket.  Upon landing or parachuting into Chinese territory it was to be given in exchange for safe passage.  It was usually written in at least Chinese and usually several other local languages at the same time.  At the time (hell, even now) not many Americans had any working knowledge of the Chinese language or culture outside of what they found at a Chinese restaurant.  This meant that communicating when downing behind enemy lines would be difficult, this just made it a bit easier.  At the time China was as vast as it is now but without many of the modern means of communication we have now.  I can only imagine the look on some peasant’s face when he was given this to a man that fell out of the sky and found out his country was at war at all!

And that classic 1911-A1 in the pic (also his Grandfather’s) might as well be a picture of a baseball game or apple pie…it really doesn’t get any more American than that!