2: Propaganda
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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.
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