PROPAGANDA

PROPAGANDA
On the day after the Hiroshima strike, General Farrell received
instructions from the War Department to engage in
a propaganda campaign against the Japanese Empire in
connection with the new weapon and its use against
Hiroshima. The campaign was to include leaflets and any
other propaganda considered appropriate. With the fullest
cooperation from CINCPAC of the Navy and the United
States Strategic Air Forces, he initiated promptly a campaign
which included the preparation and distribution of
leaflets, broadcasting via short wave every 15 minutes over
radio Saipan and the printing at Saipan and distribution
over the Empire of a Japanese language newspaper which
included the description and photographs of the Hiroshima
strike.
The campaign proposed:
1. Dropping 16,000,000 leaflets in a period of 9 days on
47 Japanese cities with population of over 100,000. These
cities represented more than 40% of the total population.
2. Broadcast of propaganda at regular intervals over radio
Saipan.
3. Distribution of 500,000 Japanese language newspapers
containing stories and pictures of the atomic bomb attacks.
The campaign continued until the Japanese began their
surrender negotiations. At that time some 6,000,000 leaflets
and a large number of newspapers had been dropped.
The radio broadcasts in Japanese had been carried out at
regular 15 minute intervals.