Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
=Japanese Developments.= The Japanese invented little in psychological
warfare. They made excellent and judicious use of news to the American
audience. They actually got much more official Japanese news into the
American press during the war years than they had succeeded in placing
during peacetime, when they had offices in American cities. They did so
by maintaining the regular Domei news service in English-language Morse
wireless for the American press, ready-edited for the newspaper offices.
They put by-lines on the stories and it is said they sometimes even told
the American newspapers: "Please hold until nine AM Eastern War Time.
Thank You. Domei." In dealing with Asiatic audiences, special Japanese
_butai_ did a great deal of black propaganda along with subversive
operations, but they displayed little initiative as to the use of basic
techniques. Their chief merits were industry, patience, and the delivery
of a first-class news service.
=Chinese Uses.= The Chinese Communist forces broke all records for
certain specialized aspects of combat propaganda. Japanese prisoners
were given cordial welcome, better food than they had in the Army, the
company of maidens, rich gifts, and political indoctrination about the
freedom of Japan. These soldiers then went with the Chinese Communists
back to the front lines and talked Japanese sentries out of their
strong-points. The Yenan forces went to great pains with this
propaganda, and even "elected" a Japanese prisoner to the City Council
of Yenan. The author talked with the Political Director of the Chinese
Communist authority at Yenan, and with some of the Japanese in Communist
China. There was evidence of a real understanding of the problems of the
Japanese common soldier, and of real sympathy with him, which the
Japanese enlisted men were quick to feel. The Communists went so far as
to throw gift packages into the Japanese lines--not booby-traps, just
nice gifts with the polite request for a reply. They learned the names
of Japanese field telephone operators, and then spliced into the line
and argued politics with them in a rough and jolly way. When they had
enough prisoners they kept the most promising converts for political
training. They fed the ordinary prisoners well, entertained them
royally, and sent them back to their own lines with the suggestion that
the Chinese Communists would appreciate it if their good Japanese
brethren would in combat please shoot their rifles in the air, thus
making sure of not hitting Communists while at the same time avoiding
unnecessary trouble with the Japanese officers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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