JAPANESE PSYOP DURING WWII

by SGM Herbert A. Friedman

A Japanese Samurai destroys the H.M.S. Repulse and the H.M.S. Prince of Wales
while a German, Italian and Japanese flag wave in the background
North of Singapore, the South China Sea - 10 December 1941

Note: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History requested and received permission to use images from this article in a lesson plan which will compare and contrast Allied and Japanese propaganda posters and be available to educators who wish to download the lesson. In addition,some images from this article were used with permission in the book "Japanese Invasion Money" by Gregory Hale. In 2014, Images from this article were used to produce posters for a re-enactment of the Japanese occupation of Singapore, and the Filipino website FilipiKnow used images from this article in a story entitled “9 Fascinating Facts You didn't Know About Christmas in the Philippines.” Author Adam Øster Posselt requested the use of images from this article for use in his 2116 book about the 100 days immediately after the end of WWII, entitled “End of Empire.” The Vibal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Vibal Group of Companies dedicated to preserving and promoting Philippine heritage and culture, requested the use of images from this article for the book “Arts of the Philippines: From Prehistory to Now.”  In 2019, Catherine Shin, a producer for a Travel Channel series that examines little-known stories behind historical objects wrote to ask about Japanese anti-US propaganda items produced in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor. Annette McCoy Oeser, a Clinical Translational Research Coordinator at Vanderbilt University Medical Center requested the use of images from this article for a presentation titled “Words Matter - Dehumanization in the Past…and Today?” Graham Shaw used this article as a reference in his article: A LITTLE-KNOWN DIMENSION OF INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT ICONOGRAPHY: Indian-language leaflets printed by the Japanese during the Second World War. Some material and leaflet images from this article were depicted in the YouTube film called PLAYING MIND GAMES, TACTICAL PSYOP IN WWII by Dr. Joseph Fischer, part of the Ft. Leavenworth Series: "Selected Topics on WWII." In January 2025, the University Press of First Asia, the editorial arm of Diwa Learning Systems Inc., a publisher of textbooks and other educational resources for Philippines schools said they were currently developing textbooks for Filipino Language and Literature and found the primary source documents on this website highly relevant for their lesson development. They would like to include several images from this article in their textbook, FILIPINO SA MODERNONG PANAHON GRADE 8 (“FILIPINO LANGUAGE IN MODERN TIMES”).

I must preface this article with the admission that I am not an expert on the internal civilian and military Japanese psychological operations (PSYOP) organizations and that I do not speak or read Japanese. The definitive study of Japanese PSYOP will be written by someone else. My expertise is the history of PSYOP, and I can tell and show the reader numerous examples of Japanese propaganda used against the Allied powers and the conquered civilians under Japanese rule. We usually attempt to translate the leaflets that are illustrated, or at least give their title. In this case, that will sometimes be impossible. I do invite those that read Japanese or any of the other languages of the occupied nations under “The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” and might wish to translate some parts of the leaflets depicted, to write to us at the address listed below. We are very grateful for any information sent to us, and will credit the correspondent if requested. We are lucky in that most of the Japanese leaflets are very visual and their message can be clearly defined even if we cannot read the text. This article is a work in progress. We will add new and important data as it becomes available. We have numerous more leaflet illustrations that have not been depicted due to the amount of memory required and to make the story load more quickly. In the future we might add more of these illustrations if there is a demand for them.

The Japanese approach to psychological operations was mentioned by Dr. Joseph Fisher in a lecture titled Playing Mind Games, Tactical PSYOP in WWII. He found the following quote in a Japanese military manual:

The main objects of an army’s propaganda are to destroy the will to fight of the enemy and of the inhabitants on the enemy’s side; To deceive the enemy concerning our movements; and to make the inhabitants of the battle area respond to ideological and ethical appeals. It is important that the enemy and the inhabitants on the enemy’s side should be made to revere us by skillful dissemination of propaganda relating to our military glory, and we should practice military virtues so that they will be glad to serve us.

Robert J. Bunker wrote about "Japanese Psychological Warfare" in World War II in the Pacific: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 2001.

Japanese psychological warfare operations were modeled on campaigns conducted by the British in World War I and the Germans in World War II. The Germans established a branch of their propaganda ministry in Japan, which resulted in close psychological warfare collaboration between these two Axis powers. As a result, their propaganda themes, such as both nations having divine or semidivine rulers and being populated by super races whose destiny was to rule the world, were strikingly parallel.

Psychological warfare served four general goals of the Japanese war effort: to weaken and destroy the morale of the Western powers, to encourage the resistance of friendly forces in territories occupied by the Western powers, to promote dissension between Western government military forces and their home fronts and allies, and to keep neutrals neutral or to procure their active cooperation against the West. The Japanese conducted three general forms of psychological warfare, which were primarily coordinated by the Cabinet Information Board. However, the headquarters of the Japanese army remained autonomous and conducted its own psychological operations.

Strategic propaganda was directed against the home fronts, political leadership, and status of the Western powers in Asia. The Japanese had defied these Western powers by invading the Chinese territory of Manchuria in 1931 and, as a result, gained a powerful psychological advantage over them. They capitalized upon it with the slogan "Asia for the Asiatics." Although most of the Japanese leadership, both political and military, seemed sincerely to believe in the slogan's sentiments, it was nonetheless used as a pretext for Japan's policy of military expansion. Japan's intent was to be viewed as the liberator of the Asiatic peoples and to show that the rule of the Western powers in Asia was now over.

Operational and tactical Japanese psychological warfare included the broadcasts made by Radio Tokyo, especially those of Tokyo Rose, and the dropping of propaganda leaflets. An example of the latter is the depiction of an Aussie soldier fighting in New Guinea while an American soldier takes liberties with an Australian girl back home. The iconography was usually Oriental, and the “English” text fractured. American troops eagerly gathered such efforts and traded them like baseball or bubble-gum cards, not for their “political” content but for their graphic pornography and hilarious texts. Surrender appeals (“You will be treated in accordance with the principles of Bushido”) were unlikely to have much appeal to troops who knew about the Bataan death march and the torture-murders of captured Americans on Guadalcanal.

In the decade preceding their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese preyed upon the split in American public opinion between isolationists and interventionists to further their policies. Ambiguity, threats, and promises of goodwill were elevated to an art form. These made possible the continued provision of strategic resources such as fuel oil and scrap iron to the Japanese economy, as well as the secret fortification of the islands mandated to Japan by the League of Nations.

I always thought it was interesting that the two Japanese envoys to the United States and Admiral Yamamoto were so vilified for their treachery. Looking through Japanese documents it is clear the envoys and the admiral were against the war. They were innocent victims of the war clique in Japan.

Jean Senat Fleury says in The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire: 

Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura wrote, on October 23, 1941: "I don’t want to be the bones of a dead horse. I don’t want to continue this hypocritical existence, deceiving other people…Please send me your permission to return to Japan."

To which Togo replied the same day: "I appreciate the efforts you are making…We express our hope that you will see fit to sacrifice all your own personal wishes and remain at your post."

In October 1940 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto with good sense warned that: "To fight the United States is like fighting the whole world…Doubtless I shall die aboard the Nagato [his flagship]. Meanwhile, Tokyo will be burnt to the ground three times."

Two months before Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto predicted: "It is obvious that a Japanese-American war will become a protracted one. If the tides of war are in our favor, the United States will never stop fighting. Consequently, the war will continue for several years, during which material will be exhausted, vessels and arms will be damaged, and they can be replaced only with great difficulties. Ultimately, we will not be able to contend with the United States. As a result of war, the people’s livelihood will become indigent… and it is hard not to imagine that the situation will become out of control. We must not start a war with so little chance of success."

Japanese leaflets directed at U.S. troops invariably depicted the Americans clad in World War I style uniforms, complete with "soup bowl" helmets, equipment not seen in that army since the fall of the Philippines. The iconography was usually Oriental, and the "English" text fractured. American troops eagerly gathered such efforts and traded them like baseball or bubble-gum cards, not for their “political” content but for their graphic pornography and hilarious texts. Surrender appeals ("You will be treated in accordance with the principles of Bushido") were unlikely to have much appeal to troops who knew about the Bataan death march and the torture-murders of captured Americans on Guadalcanal.

Sergeant Albert B. Gerber who clearly worked for General MacArthur's Psychological Warfare Branch wrote the story below that was distributed by the Associated Press, shortly after the end of the war:

The following story was written by a member of the Army public relations staff. It tells for the first time some of the psychological warfare aspects of our war against the Japanese and the part it played in bringing victory.

The "War of Thought" as the Japanese called it, was started in the Pacific by the Japanese themselves. As they pushed us out of the Philippines, Burma, and Singapore, they turned on the propaganda heat with leaflets, radio, and loudspeakers. But their propaganda was clumsy and primarily a source of amusement for the Allies. The themes employed were disunity, death, President Roosevelt, and some minor departures that probably represented individual brainstorms of Japanese officers. All of it was ineffective and in the case of the broadcasts, irritating because our boys listened to the Japanese station for the excellent American swing band recordings that were offered nightly and propaganda interruptions were not welcomed.  On the Allied side the Australians used some leaflet warfare in the early days of the war around New Guinea, but it was not until comparatively recently that a full-scale psychological attack was begun. 

The first weapon, the surrender leaflet turned out to be a dud. There were two reasons. First, our soldiers had lost all interest in taking prisoners because of Japanese treachery and torture. A Period of indoctrination began, and a simple truth was hammered home that even though we can kill Japanese at the ratio of 30 to 1, there was still one precious American life lost. Many did not believe that the ratio was indicative of true value and the troops soon agreed. In addition, soldiers were given bonuses for the capture. A typical divisional bonus was a case of beer and a three-day pass to Manila. The effectiveness of this campaign is evident from the fact that soon the bonus had to be called off. Manila would not hold all the soldiers who had captured enemy soldiers.

Second, our first surrender leaflets were not good. It was noticed that even when soldier surrendered, he did not carry a leaflet. Yet by all standards the leaflets seemed good. A typical one stated in Japanese that any soldier who surrendered was guaranteed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, cigarettes, and recreation in accordance with international law. The pictures on the leaflet were obviously genuine photographs of Japanese POWs eating, good chow, smoking, or engaging recreational activities, and there was no question of these being surrender leaflets, and large red Japanese characters they stated, "I surrender."  What then was wrong? Skilled scout observers were sent to the field to find out. Japanese soldiers were seeing examining one of the leaflets, and then throwing it into the ground and grinding it in with their heels they he muttered "Mujoken Kofuku," the most despised term a Japanese soldier can utter, "surrender." From the time of Japanese child can understand the meaning of simple words it is driven into his mind that the worst crime he can commit is to surrender. For this there is no forgiveness and one who surrenders sacrifices everything, his property, honor, rights, and life and afterlife, and the respect of his fellow man.

Our experts in psychological warfare held a huddle and came up with a new one. They replaced the, "I surrender" on the leaflet with a new one, "I Cease Resistance." It worked. The Japanese indoctrination was not based on logic or intelligent thought. The Japanese knows that he must not, "Mujoken Kofuku," and that is all. There is nothing in his learning the prohibits the cessation of resistance. There is even a good Japanese expression used in daily living that expresses the same idea, "shikata ga nai," freely translated, "The hell with it." The combination of the new leaflet and retrained troops produced results. A trickle became a stream.

Japanese War Bond Propaganda

This iconic image of a Japanese tank was used on postcards and posters to advertise and encourage the purchase of war bonds.It was also used on a matchbook with slightly changed text. The text is:

Home Front Defense – Serve the country by saving. The 3rd and 4th sale of saving bonds.

A Japanese 20 Yen War Bond

A reader wrote to me saying:

My dad served in the South Pacific during WW2, stationed in New Guinea with the 15th Weather Squadron. Going through a trunk today I found what appeared to be a Japanese bill of some kind. I thought it might be some sort of a facsimile used as a souvenir. On your site I didn’t see the same image as what I have. If you have the time, could you please tell me what this was? My dad (now deceased) left no information about how he came to have it. I wonder whether it was one of the “propaganda” notes described in your website.

The item is a Japanese war bond. As a child in the United States during WWII we were asked to bring in 25 cents every week to buy a bond stamp. That was placed in a booklet. When the stamps totaled $17.50 we were given a $25 U.S. War bond in exchange. That bond was to be saved and cashed in after the ultimate victory.

The Japanese also financed their war with bonds. These war bonds started with the invasion of China in 1937, and continued through World War Two. Commemorative bonds and overprints were issued to encourage further purchases. The Hypothec Bank was a government bank that issued war bonds. These bonds have a vignette of a battleship at the left, and a tank on the right. Bonds were issued in denominations of 10, 20, 30 and 50 Yen between 1942 and 1945. The bonds were sold at 70% of their face value and matured in 10 years and 2 months, yielding about 3.6% to maturity.

In 2022, Joe Boling wrote about these in an exhibit of his bonds at Washington University in St. Louis. He said:

The Japan Greater East Asia War Discounted Treasury bond issued June 22, 1942. This series of bonds was issued after the widening of the war in December 1941. Bonds sold for 70% of face value and could be redeemed ten years after issue. Bonds were issued in 10, 20, 30, and 50-yen denominations. The Kiku-mon (chrysanthemum crest) or Japanese Flag shows this is Treasury bond issued by the Japanese government. Japanese war bonds were widely purchased by the Japanese populace; indeed, after 1941, the balance of government bonds surpassed national income in Japan. All of these became worthless due to post-war inflation, in which the face value of a 10-yen bond fell from about $3.50 to $0.028, a loss of more than 99%.

Josei shingun poster of Japanese female war worker

In WWII as men went to fight at the front women had to replace them in industry. There is a famous "Rosie the Riveter" poster that encouraged women to leave their homes and take part in the war effort. The poster above was exhibited by the Newman Numismatic Portal located at Washington University in St. Louis and funded by the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society. The poster depicts a Japanese woman that is working a machine to help the Japanese war effort. The Newman Portal says about this poster from the Joseph Boling collection:

Josei shingun poster of Japanese female war worker. All citizens were encouraged to proactively contribute to war efforts. This female who works at factory with a description of "women advance," in the military sense of marching into battle, indicates wartime propaganda to promote female contribution on the Japanese home front.

Paul M. A. Linebarger depicts a PWB G-2 (Intelligence Section) chart of the Japanese Board of Information (Joho Kyoku) in Psychological Warfare, Washington Combat Forces Press, Washington D.C, 1948. The chart indicates that there were three divisions.

The First Division prepared war guidance and propaganda planning and public relations control.

The Second Division was responsible for government announcements, newspaper communications, expositions and exhibitions. In addition they watched radio broadcasts, motion pictures, drama, and music. They were also responsible for censorship and weekly newspapers and pictorial reviews.

The Third Division covered foreign developments such as overseas broadcasts, cultural affairs and propaganda.

Linebarger says about the Japanese system, “the Japanese developed a close-knit system that combined public relations of both army and navy, all domestic government publishing, complete control of book publishing, magazines, press, radio, and film, propaganda intelligence and over-all psychological warfare.”

I remember shortly after the war when I was stationed in the Pacific that Japanese were at risk when visiting the Philippines. We often read about a Japanese metal scavengers or salesman going missing. The Filipinos hated the Japanese after WWII, and it was a while before they got over their memories of the bestiality of the Japanese troops. Stephen C. Mercado mentions this treatment in the Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Japanese Army Elite Intelligence School. I have edited his comments for brevity.

The Japanese Army’s frequent brutality soon made the new overlords objects of hatred for many Filipinos. Many Japanese soldiers continued their army’s habit of slapping local men in the streets who failed to bow to them, raping women, and stealing what appealed to them. Spain had bequeathed Christianity in three hundred years of rule. The United States had given the island roads, cars, and Hollywood movies in 50 years of colonial administration. The Japanese, however, had only taken from the islands in their brief administration. As popular hatred of the Japanese grew, the Japanese army struggled to contain an insurgency

Rise of Asia

This 1943 Japanese leaflet proclaims her role as Asia’s leader, breaking the chains of European domination and occupation.

He credits the Japanese system of organizing “independent” governments in the former colonial territories that they "liberated." Some of the so-called independent governments are Manchuko, Inner Mongolia, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Indonesia, the Free Indian government-in-exile, and the independent Kingdom of Cambodia.

These puppet governments would have been wonderful PSYOP and made strong allies, except the Japanese were unwilling to give these new nations any true freedom. Although these governments were allegedly independent, the Japanese simply replaced the old colonial governors with their own people. Linebarger continues, depicting a situation that we would call “the loss of hearts and minds” today. “They bankrupted all non-Japanese business so that Japanese carpetbaggers could buy their way in cheap; businesses owned by white foreigners were expropriated out of hand.” He concludes, “Japanese psychological warfare failed because the real warfare behind it failed. The Japanese could not whip their over-docile troops into a fighting frenzy without allowing those troops to behave in a way which made deadly enemies for Japan among the people she came to ‘liberate.’ The Japanese did not have enough sense to be satisfied with 100% return per year on their money, but wrecked the conquered economic systems with inflation, poor management, and excess exploitation. Even the quislings became restless under the poor occupation policies of the Japanese, and before the war was over a considerable number of the Japanese quislings re-quislinged back to the United Nations side.”

John W. Dower mentions the puppets in War without Mercy – Race and Power in the Pacific War, Pantheon Books, NYC, 1986:

In China, the Japanese had persuaded Wang Ching-wei to head their puppet government. After Pearl Harbor, Indian and Burmese patriots formed independent nationalist armies in collaboration with the Japanese, while in Indonesia pro-Japanese sentiments were expressed by the rousing triple slogan of the AAA movement: Japan the leader of Asia; Japan the protector of Asia, and Japan the light of Asia. The Burmese Prime Minster spoke repeatedly of the solidarity of, “A thousand million Asians. President Roosevelt thought the same and told a confidant, “1,100,000,000 potential enemies are dangerous.”

Churchill and Roosevelt feast on bones

This poster depicts caricatures of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt feasting on the bones of their victims. The text is:

Their true character is that of devils and beasts

Anthony V. Navarro discusses Japanese propaganda in "A Critical Comparison Between Japanese and American Propaganda during World War II." He says:

Throughout the war and the years leading up to it, Japan maintained that its campaign through Asia was virtuous and that their Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere would, in the long run, do good for all of Asia under their guidance. Seeing what Western countries were doing to Asia—the French presence in Southeast Asia, the British in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the United States in the Philippines—Japan sought to "liberate East Asia from white invasion and oppression." In 1942, the Japanese government published a booklet entitled The Greater East Asia War and Ourselves (Dai Toa Senso to Warera) describing how the relationship between Asian countries would be like that of a "branch family."

Michal A. Piegzik says in The Japanese Plan to Dominate East Asia – The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere:

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a pan-Asian concept of the political and economic order in East Asia, implemented by the government of the Empire of Japan. The forerunner of the Japanese thought of the unification of East Asia under the Empire of Japan was Nobuhira Sato (1769–1850).

In 1823, he published "Kondo Hisaku" (Secret expansion plan), in which he argued that the whole world should be turned into 'provinces and districts' of Japan. The first blow was to be directed towards Manchuria, which was seemingly "easy to attack and maintain." Subsequently, Sato envisioned an invasion on China, creating a detailed plan for the conquest of the giant mainland empire. Taking advantage of its organizational superiority, the Japanese government was to take appropriate measures to colonize the islands of Taiwan and Hainan. Hereafter, Japanese were to carry out a landing operation on Luzon and invade Java and the rest of Indonesia after the unexpected occupation of the Philippines. General Sato ended with the general idea of "adopting an annexation policy" in order to "secure the national interest."

On 1 August 1940, the Japanese press published the Official Declaration of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Its author and an ideological advocate was the Minister of Foreign Affairs Yosuke Matsuoka. The declaration was based on the document adopted by the Konoe’s cabinet on 26 July, which was entitled, “The fundamental basis of national policy.”

A Japanese 1941 military booklet titled Read this Alone and the War can be Won said about the Japanese and the Americans: 

We Japanese have been born in a country of no mean blessings, and thanks to the august power and influence of His majesty the Emperor our land has never once, to this day, experienced invasion, and occupation by a foreign power. The other people of the Far East look with envy upon Japan; and honor and trust the Japanese; and deep in their heart hope that with the help of the Japanese people, they may themselves achieve national independence and happiness.

Our opponent [the Americans] are even more feeble than the Chinese army. They are very effeminate and very cowardly and have an intense dislike of fighting in the rain or the mist, and at night. 

Jack Wikoff said about the Japanese:

The Japanese portrayed the enemy as demons, cannibalistic ogres, gangsters, Napoleonic megalomaniacs, and even dandruff.

What is the New Order in Greater East Asia?

We find the Japanese talking about “Greater East Asia” in many leaflets. In this 4-page leaflet dropped on San Miguel on 15 December 1941, they first claim that Asians are spiritually and culturally superior to Europeans, but the Europeans were superior in aggression, exploitation and weaponry. The Japanese have an answer to this problem:

Japan will utilize her arms to destroy the wrongs and establish the right…The oppressed must be emancipated from the oppressor…To bring this end is the task and an honor given to Japan today…Drive out the White tyranny of England and America! Let us overthrow the old regime and establish a NEW ORDER in Asia!

Japan promoted the idea that under their leadership, East Asia would come to know greater economic prosperity free from Western influence and independent of Western economic bureaucracy. Japan’s "Outline of Economic Policies for the Southern Areas" describes Japan’s plans "to assist the economic expansion of the Japanese people in the southern areas on the bases of overall national planning, and to advance economic changes within the Co-Prosperity Sphere." However, underneath all the rhetoric of a "Greater East Asia" lay hidden agendas as well.

Rei Okamote wrote a paper entitled "Iconography of Japanese Propaganda leaflets During World War II" for Northeastern University where he discussed the purpose of the Japanese propaganda. He said:

During World War II, numerous propaganda leaflets were produced by the Japanese military and distributed from airplanes to the Asian populace and enemy troops. The purpose of the leaflets for the former was to evoke antagonism toward the Western powers, while for the latter, to discourage the morale of enemy soldiers. These leaflets, which often contained full color cartoons, were secretly produced by the drawing group under the eighth section of the army general staff.

Cartoon leaflets were a means by which the state’s propaganda efforts were achieved through the use of iconography. Japan’s use of full-color cartoons on the leaflets stood out among countries involved in the war, in terms of the quantity and quality of production. Those designed for Asian populations contained messages aiming to pacify the local populace and accusing the Allies of being invaders and oppressors of Asians. On the other hand, those targeting enemy troops, often containing pornographic images of their wives and sweethearts in infidel situations, meant to lower the morale of the soldiers.

Barak Kushner says in The Thought War – Japanese Imperial Propaganda, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2006:

For Japan, the entire process of convincing China that Japan’s mission was to liberate Asia hinged on the idea of the “thought war” or “Shisosen.” The Japanese consistently used the phrase “thought war” to describe the fight for ideological supremacy in Asia and later against the West…The Japanese people believed the propaganda because the image reflected a Japan that could guide Asia through the twentieth century.

The Japanese military dropped Chinese–language propaganda leaflets that cited Confucian principals on Chinese civilians. Basic Confucian ideology held that when leaders failed their people morally, the dynasty toppled, having lost the “mandate of Heaven,” and new leadership took over. The Imperial Japanese military also attempted to bolster its support among the Chinese by offering rewards to Chinese citizens who reported broken power lines or train lines…Japanese propaganda photos showed Chinese POWs having fun in Japanese-supervised POW camps…Picture leaflets showed women crying, worrying about their men…The Japanese military carpeted villages in China with handbills and leaflets…extolled the virtues of the peace Japan had brought to Asia.

A general word about Japanese propaganda. It is quite different from that of the Allies. During WWII the American and British propagandists told the Japanese that they were fighting for a small military clique, that their equipment was inferior, that they were outnumbered, cut off, and would surely lose the war. The Japanese claimed to be fighting a war of liberation, promised to free the colonial peoples from their masters, said that the Allies were fighting a war of profit for big business, and used a divide-and-conquer technique to split up the Australian, British, and American forces arrayed against them. They insulted their enemies, called them cowards, and prepared sexual leaflets very much like their German allies. In fact, the Japanese PSYOP is like the German in that both nations prepared a great number of leaflets and posters with messages that attempted to drive a wedge between or claim that profit was the true motive of their enemy.

The Japanese Practice "Military Virtue."
An Australian POW, Sergeant Leonard Siffleet,
captured in New Guinea, about to be beheaded by a Japanese officer with his gunto, 1943.

The Japanese explained their theory of combat propaganda in an October 1937 army artillery manual published in Tokyo:

The main objects of an Army’s propaganda are to destroy the will to fight of the enemy and of the inhabitants on the enemy’s side; to deceive the enemy concerning our movements; and to make the inhabitants of the battle area respond to ideological and ethical appeals. It is important that the enemy and the inhabitants on the enemy’s side should be made to revere us by skillful dissemination of propaganda relating to our military glory, and we should practice military virtues so that they will be glad to serve us.

Philip M. Taylor discusses Japanese propaganda in Munitions of the Mind: A history of Propaganda from the Ancient World to the Present Day, Manchester University Press, UK, 2003:

The rivalry that existed between the Japanese Army and Navy meant that, both armed forces had their own propaganda organizations. The military control of the government also meant that all national propaganda was subject to the same control, and consequently was a victim of the same rivalry. Japanese overseas propaganda was also hampered by the shortage of broadcasters with appropriate accents and understanding of western civilization and it was too quick to invent unlikely victories and atrocities that once exposed, critically devalued future propaganda efforts. The absence of any clear philosophy concerning a “strategy of truth” or “propaganda with facts” was to be a major weakness, as one Japanese writer subsequently realized:

Japan was hopelessly beaten in psychological warfare, not because of any particular adroitness on the part of the Allies, but because the Allies based their propaganda on truth – whereas Japan was unwilling to deal in truth, almost from the outset.

Dower points out that just as the Americans were shown propaganda documentaries like Capra’s Why we Fight; the Japanese were issued patriotic propaganda products to prepare them for warfare, including two well-known publications.

Read this and the War is Won

The first was Kore dake Yomeba Ware wa Kateru (Read this and the War is Won). It was a 70-page pamphlet written by Colonel Tsuji Masanobu and his intelligence unit.  It was a small book handed out to all the soldiers before being sent off to the war in South and Southeast Asia. It told the Japanese soldier why he was fighting the war. The white Westerners were rich, arrogant colonists who subjugated the native people while they reaped the riches and lived lavishly above the poor. It was Japan’s duty to free the poor Asians from the grip of colonialism. 

Shinmin no Michi (The Way of the Subject) was issued by the Ministry of Education and directed toward Japan’s population to teach them what they should aspire to be as a people, nation and race.  The Allied powers were depicted as evil greedy people evident from their colonization of Asian countries. American history was discussed and its record of atrocities when dealing with slavery to blacks and the mistreatment of minorities and immigrants in their own country including Asians. They read about racially motivated violence and the herding of tens of thousands of Japanese immigrants into internment camps. The objective was clear. It was Japan’s divine purpose to defeat the enemy.

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek – Time Magazine 1 June 1942

What seems very strange is that although the Japanese people were propagandized against the enemy almost every day of their lives they also propagandized themselves. When the Japanese military or civilian government agencies, volunteer organizations, clubs and fraternities produced pro-war propaganda they considered it honest enlightenment. They had no Propaganda Minister like Goebbels. When the enemy distributed their message that was purely propaganda. The Japanese believed they were a noble people, far too honest and pure to lie, so when the world turned on them after the Nanking Massacre in 1937 where they raped, looted and murdered an estimated 260,000 civilians, they believed that it was because the Chinese had better propaganda. The fact that Chiang Kai-shek or members of his family appeared on a half-dozen American Time Magazine covers indicated to the Japanese that Chinese propaganda must be superior to their own. It never occurred to them that the world might have turned on them simply because of the nature of their actions. They did not look to change their methods; they looked instead for a better way to explain the rightness of their cause. For instance, they bribed newspaper and magazine reporters around the world to write pro-Japanese articles. They were quite successful in this, but the photographs of dead women and babies on the streets of China overcame any flowery stories, no matter how well written.

The First Japanese Leaflet of WWII Aimed at the United States?

A U.S. Navy photograph of a dirty oil-stained Japanese propaganda leaflet was forwarded from Hawaii to San Francisco on 27 December 1941. The official U.S. Navy caption is:

Japanese flyers who bombed pearl harbor on December 7 came equipped with more than just high explosives. They carried crudely phrased propaganda leaflets and supplies of concentrated provisions for forced landings. Pictured here as it was reproduced by duplicating machines on rough foolscap, the propaganda leaflet advised in its English heading, “You Damned! Go to the devil!” Beneath this greeting were drawings of an aircraft carrier and battleship exploding, a fish spitting destruction and a caricature of President Roosevelt. In Japanese characters, a further admonition appeared, reading “Listen to the voice of doom. Open your eyes, blind fools.”

The photograph was distributed in January 1942 by the San Francisco Bureau of Wide World Photos who added their caption:

JAPS DROPPED THESE TOO

Honolulu T.H…Intended as awe inspiring warnings to the Hawaii population and armed forces, propaganda leaflets of a crude sort, as reproduced here, were dropped from Japanese bombers in the attack on Pearl harbor. In Japanese characters read “Listen to the voice of doom. Open your eyes, blind fools.” Accompanying are drawings of an aircraft and battleship exploding, a fish spitting destruction and a caricature of President Roosevelt.

The Manila Tribune said on 9 December 1941:

Japanese planes made a pamphlet raid on La Union…Army Headquarters revealed that Japanese planes flew over Ilocos Norte and dropped leaflets.

Crush Anglo-Americans

This 1943 Japanese poster shows a Japanese soldier over an encircled map of the Philippines and the text, “Build up the new Philippines.”

The Philippines 

The first concentrated use of Japanese PSYOP occurred just days later when the Japanese bombed the Philippine Islands on December 8 and invaded on December 10. The 25,000-man American and 100,000-man Philippine military were not reinforced and as a result were gradually pushed back over a period of weeks to the peninsula of Bataan and to Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. The defenders of Bataan were forced to surrender on 9 April, 1942. The troops on Corregidor, although encircled and isolated, held out until 6 May.

The Japanese used a great deal of PSYOP in the Philippines. This was discussed in a 25 February 1945 classified document entitled Japanese Propaganda in the Philippines prepared by the Civil Censorship Detachment of Headquarters, United States Army, Far East. The report notes that the Japanese organized a Propaganda Section along the following lines:

1. Headquarters – Planning and control of the affairs of the Army Propaganda Section.
2. Cultural Propaganda Department - Propaganda for the enlightenment and culture of the Philippine people.
3. Overseas Propaganda Department – Radio propaganda to foreign countries and areas,  especially India, Australia, Chungking and the Near East.
4. Intelligence Department – Collection of propaganda information by interception of radio and telegraph broadcasts from India, Australia, Great Britain, America, Chungking, Germany, and liaison between army organizations.
5. Materials Department – Collection of propaganda material and preparation of propaganda.

Japanese all-text Leaflets asking for Philippine Support

As mentioned below, the Japanese wanted the Philippine people to rally behind their empire in a new all-Asian empire in the Pacific. The two leaflets below were directed directly toward the Filipinos and asked for their loyalty. They are illustrated in the William J. Sebald Papers of the Nimitz Library Digital Collection. There are some grammatical errors and I quote the text as written:

Dear Filipinos!

Have no fear any more! Fighting is now over! American Forces who have been squeezing your land and people with honey words and threatening swords for a long time have now entirely been driven away, by Protecting God of Asia, the Japanese Forces. The only aim of the Imperial Japanese Forces is to free Filipinos from the oppression of white men and establish a paradise for Filipinos on this beautiful land of Philippines.

To the Citizens of the Philippines

Another leaflet says:

To the Citizens of the Philippines

The fighting is over. The tyrannical U.S. forces have been completely driven out of the Philippine Islands. Now comes establishing of the truly pleasant land of the Philippines where there is neither exploitation nor oppression of the white men. You, people of the Philippine Islands who are taking refuge, return to your homes promptly. Resume your former business, and work hard in confidence of the Japanese Forces. The Imperial Japanese Forces will swear to fully co-operate with you in reconstruction of the New Philippines.

America has abandoned the Philippines

Technical Sergeant T/3 Ferris B. Louks served with the 1st Army Portable Surgical Hospital beginning in August 1943 and took part in most of the major battles on New Guinea, Leyte, and Luzon from November 1944 to VJ Day. He found the above leaflet on one of the Philippine Islands. His son Paul was kind enough to send it to me.

 

To The American Soldiers!

Many of these early leaflets were very crude. Many were all text but a few had an image of sorts. This folded leaflet depicts what seems to be a pencil sketch of three American soldiers on the front, perhaps reading a Japanese leaflet. The leaflet is folded so there are three pages of text on the inside and back. Some of the text is:

My country ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty,

So sang your forefathers…..those great men who created a government of the people, for the people and by the people.

But:

What kind of government are you, Soldiers of the U.S., obeying and fighting for?

Roosevelt, no less a dictators than Hitler or Stalin has sent you to your death, while at home he is sending more to their death…at the point of a bayonet…

And don’t deceive yourselves by thinking the Filipinos are with you. These islands belong to them, and they are fed up by Roosevelt’s false slogans of peace, liberty and Democracy. They will stab you in the back (thousands are cooperating with us) and then what a pitiful sight you will be…..you, soldiers of Democracy who are made to believe that you are fighting for the freedom and welfare of the Filipinos.

It is interesting to see that the Japanese thought the Americans had been forced into the Army at the point of a bayonet, when the Japanese sneak attack on Pearly Harbor had thousands of American volunteers clamoring to get into the fight at recruiting centers all across the USA every day.

TO THE FILIPINO SOLDIERS:

This leaflet was dropped on American and Filipino soldiers as they were pushed down the Bataan Peninsula. It is all text with a message on the front. The back is blank. The message says in part:

TO THE FILIPINO SOLDIERS:

You are now having but one poor meal a day, aren’t you? And this daily ration will even be cut to no ration at all in a few days more, because the USAFFE’s provision, for lack of replacement, has almost dwindled to nothing.

Worse than that, you are trapped in one corner of Bataan with a steel-ring of heavily-armed Japanese soldiers surrounding you…

…Your only salvation lies in laying down your arms and surrendering without hesitation. If you do so, the Imperial Japanese forces will not only take a very good care of you but will also assure your full safety and protection.

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
IMPERIAL JAPANESE FORCES

[Note] The USAFFE was the “United States Armed Forces Far East.” The new command's headquarters was created on 26 July 1941, in Manila, Luzon, the Philippines, with General Douglas MacArthur as commander.

Those Who Come Over To Our Side Can Be Alive

This leaflet is more in the form of as safe conduct pass, but we can tell that it was dropped on Bataan by a handwritten note at the top that says in part:

Dropped from plane near KP -703 Bataan – turned over by 1^st Lt Winn – 7th Chemical Company……29/Jan/42…