BROOKLYN — Khajistan, a New York–based digital archive group, has opened an interactive exhibit titled Office of War Information at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. The exhibit was curated by Khajistan founder Saad Khan alongside Joey Chriqui and Amad Ansari.

The installation recreates a wood-paneled office of an earlier era, with all walls painted a bright Tom and Jerry yellow. Two genuine American propaganda posters supporting the mujahideen in Afghanistan hang on one wall, and an ancient television plays clips of Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond on loop. Propaganda leaflets that the United States dropped on Japan during the second world war hang on the corridor wall.

Thousands of replicas of genuine leaflets are strewn across the floor, with new ones printed every 10 minutes. Visitors can grab a leaflet and input the number printed on its corner into old computers in the exhibit to discover a translation and its details. A cabinet displays rare propaganda finds, including an edition of The Alphabet of Jihad, a USAID project from the early 1980s that taught children how to read in Pashto and Dari through anti-Soviet passages and illustrations of missiles, tanks and landmines. The project cost $51 million and ran from 1984 to 1994.

Khajistan started as an Instagram account in 2016. Since 2022, it has collected hundreds of propaganda leaflets from U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, along with a collection of leaflets dropped on Japan during the second world war. The name Khajistan comes from a city that once stood near Herat, Afghanistan.

For over a century, the U.S. military has been dropping propaganda leaflets in deliberate psychological operations to achieve success in war. In 1918, the U.S. released more than 3 million leaflets behind enemy lines by plane and hydrogen balloon. Between 1942 and 1945, much of the leaflet-dropping effort was coordinated through the Office of War Information, and the practice continued in every major war the U.S. has been involved in since.

Khan, who was born and raised in Pakistan, described his connection to the material. "I come from war," he said. "It's part of fucking life." He also said, "Even in war, life goes on."