---
title: 'U.N. Day Poster #13: UN Technical Assistance Is Sometimes Extremely Simple (Japanese poster distributed in Asia)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-13-simple-technical-assistance-scythe-japanese-1953/
description: A photograph of a man in a field holding a long-handled scythe blade and a knife. Tagged by technique, with source and rights.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. U.N. Day Poster #13: UN Technical Assistance Is Sometimes Extremely

[![U.N. Day Poster #13: UN Technical Assistance Is Sometimes Extremely Simple, 1953 US poster: A photograph of a man in a field](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/un-day-poster-13-simple-technical-assistance-scythe-japanese-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/un-day-poster-13-simple-technical-assistance-scythe-japanese-1953.jpg)

# U.N. Day Poster #13: UN Technical Assistance Is Sometimes Extremely Simple (Japanese poster distributed in Asia)

A photograph of a man in a field holding a long-handled scythe blade and a knife. Japanese text says UN technical assistance is sometimes very simple, such as advice to replace the sickle with the scythe, that small changes bring great progress, cites the scythe in Ethiopia and the plough and row-sowing in Afghanistan, and states that the harvest became five times larger. The tell is card-stacking: one or two chosen examples and an unsourced fivefold figure stand for the programme as a whole.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (Japanese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
国連の技術援助は極めて簡単な場合もある。例えば小鎌を大鎌に取換える勧告などがそれである。

ごく簡単な変化から、大きな進歩が生れる。エチオピアに於ける大鎌の紹介、アフガニスタンに於ける鋤並びに條播の紹介等が、その好例である。この改良により、収穫は五倍となつた。

13
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
UN technical assistance is sometimes extremely simple. Advice to replace the sickle with the scythe, for example, is of this kind.

From very simple changes, great progress is born. The introduction of the scythe in Ethiopia and of the plough and row-sowing in Afghanistan are good examples. Through this improvement the harvest became five times as large.

13
```

The character read as 鋤 in the Afghanistan sentence is small and may be a variant; reading uncertain.

[← U.N. Day Poster #12: Knowledge Promotes the Growth of a Nation's Spirit and Material Life (Japanese poster distributed in Asia)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-12-knowledge-promotes-growth-japanese-1953/) [U.N. Day Poster #14: Long-Term Economic Development Plans Make Assistance Highly Advanced (Japanese poster distributed in Asia) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-14-long-term-economic-development-japanese-1953/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.