The Hawaiian Good Luck Sign
I just came across this fantastic story from a US Navy Surveillance Ship that was captured by North Korea in 1968. The North Koreans forced the American POWs to create propaganda films that would “prove” that they were being treated humanely (which, according to the rest of the accounts I’ve read, was obviously untrue). However, the Americans had a secret message to pass along through these photos…
This was further demonstrated in the second film in which a US Navy Officer flipped off the cameraman. They left it in. We now had a weapon! Back in our rooms we were elated, this was one more thing we could use to discredit the propaganda we were being forced to grind out. Several crew members expressed caution, but the general attitude was use it. We had been captured, but we never surrendered. Damn the Koreans, full fingers ahead!
The finger became an integral part of our anti-propaganda campaign. Any time a camera appeared, so did the fingers. A concern grew among us that sooner or later the Koreans would notice this and ask questions. It was decided that if the question was raised, the answer was to be that the finger was a gesture known as the Hawaiian Good Luck sign, a variation of the Hang Loose gesture. In late August one of the duty officers asked about the finger and seemed to be accepting of the explanation, but most of us realized that our zeal to ruin their propaganda would come back to haunt us.
It did come back to haunt them, but it’s still a great story.