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1. From “Quotations from Chairman Maozedong,” originally from “The Situation and Our Policy After the Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan,” August 13, 1945. Return to text.
2. A prewar automobile manufactured in the People’s Republic. Return to text.
3. The Institute of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases of the First Affiliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University.
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4. Guokia Anquan Bu: The prewar Ministry of State Security. Return to text.
1. Shetou: A “snake head,” the smuggler of “renshe” or “human snake” of refugees. Return to text.
2. Liudong renkou: China’s “floating population” of homeless labor. Return to text.
3. Bao: The debt many refugees incurred during their exodus. Return to text.
1. Bad Brown: A nickname for the type of opium grown in the Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan.
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2. PTSD: Post-traumatic stress disorder.
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1. It has been alleged that, before the war, the sexual organs of Sudanese men convicted of adultery were severed and sold on the world black market. Return to text.
1. Children of Yassin: A youth-based terrorist organization named for the late Sheikh Yassin. Under strict recruitment codes, all martyrs could be no older than eighteen. Return to text.
2. “Sure the vilest of beasts in Allah’s sight are those who disbelieve, then they would not believe.” From the Holy Koran, part 8, Section 55.
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3. By this point, the Israeli government had completed operation “Moses II,” which transported the last of the Ethiopian “Falasha” into Israel.
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4. At the time, it was unsure whether the virus could survive in solid waste outside of the human body.
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5. Unlike most country’s main battle tanks, the Israeli “Merkava” contains rear hatches for troop deployment.
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1. The CIA, originally the OSS, was not created until June 1942, six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
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1. Before the war, an online “shooter game” known as “America’s Army” was made available, free of charge, by the U.S. government to the general public, some have alleged, to entice new recruits.
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1. Myth; although red M&Ms were removed from 1976 to 1985, they did not use Red Dye No. 2. Return to text.
1. The BMP is an armored personnel carrier invented and used by Soviet, and now Russian, military forces.
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2. Semnadstat was a Russian magazine aimed at teenage girls. It’s title, 17, was illegally copied from an American publication of the same name.
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1. Although this is an exaggeration, prewar records have shown Yonkers to have the largest press-to-military ratio than any other battlefield in history. Return to text.
2. The standard, prewar 40-mm canister cartridge held 115 flechettes. Return to text.
3. SAW: A light machine gun, short for Squad Automatic Weapon. Return to text.
4. JSF: Joint Strike Fighters.
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5. JSOW: Joint Standoff Weapon.
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1. Germany’s version of the Redeker Plan.
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1. BRO: The Border Roads Organization.
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1. “The Bear” was the Gulf War I nickname for the commandant of the NST program. Return to text.
2. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonsson Quisling: The Nazi-installed president of Norway during World War II.
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1. California’s Inland Empire was one of the last zones to be declared secure. Return to text.
2. Malcolm Van Ryzin: One of the most successful cinematographers in Hollywood. Return to text.
3. DP: Director of Photography.
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1. Joint Standoff Weapons were used in concert with a variety of other air-launched ordnance at Yonkers.
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2. A slight exaggeration. The amount of combat aircraft “grounded” during World War Z does not equal those lost during World War II.
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3. AMARC: Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center outside of Tucson, Arizona. Return to text.
4. Meg: The pilot’s nickname for their standard issue .22 automatic pistol. It is suspected that the appearance of the weapon, its extended suppressor, folding stock, and telescopic sight, give it the appearance of the old Hasbro Transformers toy “Megatron.” This fact has yet to be confirmed. Return to text.
5. At this point in the war, the new battle dress uniforms (BDUs) were not in mass production. Return to text.
6. “Baby-Ls”: Officially a pain reliever but used by many military personnel as a sleep aid.
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1. Although Machu Picchu was quiet throughout the war, the survivors at Vilcabamba did see a minor, internal outbreak.
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2. The main British line of defense was fixed along the site of the old Roman Antonine Wall. Return to text.
1. Ubunye: a word of Zulu origin for Unity.
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2. Although opinion is divided on the subject, many prewar scientific studies have proven that the high oxygenation retention of the Ganges has been the source of its long-revered “miracle” cures. Return to text.
1. The Chang Doctrine: South Korea’s version of the Redeker Plan. Return to text.
2. There have been reports of alleged cannibalism during the famine of 1992 and that some of the victims were children.
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1. Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada were Japan’s most successful prewar improvisational comedians.
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2. “Siafu” is the nickname for the African driver ant. The term was first used by Doctor Komatsu Yukio in his address to the Diet.
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3. It has been established that Japan suffered the largest percentage of suicides during the Great Panic.
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4. Bosozoku: Japanese youth-oriented motorcycle gangs that reached their popular peak in the 1980s and 1990s.
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1. Onsen: A natural hot spring often used as a communal bath. Return to text.
2. Ikupasuy: The technical term for a small, Ainu prayer stick. When later questioned about this discrepancy, Mister Tomonaga answered that the name was given to him by his teacher, Mister Ota. Whether Ota intended to bestow some spiritual connection to this gardening implement or was simply so out of touch with his own culture (as many Ainu of his generation were), we will never know.
