JAPAN: Pricking and Shooting

Japanese schoolgirls, fragile as butterflies, small as pixies, must not faint at sight of blood. To test their courage seven Tokyo high school girls gathered last week around a white cloth in the centre of which they had drawn a circle. After a solemn soprano chant the maidens pricked their fingers deeply, held them over the circle until it grew red and the cloth became the flag of Japan. This flag the seven schoolgirls dispatched to Crown Prince Chichibu's crack 3rd Regiment which is part of the Imperial forces still holding Shanghai.

Because...

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