The Nome nugget., 1942-06-24
Photographic Censorship Explained
 By Lieut.. P.J. Ashlock. Ladd Field


 The Why" behind military censorship harm less civilian photography fans uncovered recent ly before members of the Arctic Camera Club by Lieut. Paul J. AShlock Ladd Field post censor Lieut. enant Ashlock addressed the club members at their regular meeting in the Fairbanks High School, His discussion of photographic censorship follows:
 Intention of Authorities
 Tt IS not the intention of the military authorities 10 stop the taking of pictures restrict 1t than necessary With the military is easy to control With civilians 1t is problem Civilians as whole do not realize the seriousness of this war.
 This war, like the last one is being fought some one elses soil Until of cities is bombed the people will reason to give up the little plea they think necessary to live. The taking ot pictures is of those little pleasures. Why do peo pie take pictures? Because pictures give you last ing record of an event Because of this pictures of great military importance
 Detailed Record
 "A picture gives detailed record of what the era sees-Something verbal written report will not do. That is of the reasons why we have cen sOrship-to keep of these detailed reports from falling into the hands of the enemy
 Military intelligence has found that it is much easier to keep the end9y from getting normation@ m than to prevent him fr6n using it, he has it. The military intelligence works the theory that in formation in any form might fall into the hands of the enemy Then comes natural questionable en- emy was free to get all the information about the
 
 Uncertain of Changes
 Because what he doesn't know is what changes have been made both in construction and arming of the posts So long the enemy isn't of what you have then you have him worried and when he is WOr- rled he makes mistakes. And when he is in doubt he takes chances, stabs in the dark It is these moves the small amount of information he has-that get hm into trouble.
 We will take an example: Fort Blank is a well known air base The Jap fleet comes within striking of ahOut mile he and about 75 miles off shore Their bombers with fight CT escort take off 10 bomb blank They have flown about half way back after the bombing when out of the blue comes our fighters.
 Double Surprise
 These fighters are a surprise to them. They had taken blank by surprise, caught all their planes on the ground and their fighter planes had taken care of any planes that did manage to get off the ground. Several of the bombers shot down before their fighters drive off engage the attacking planes. The of their bOmberS fly back to their carrier but there isn't any carrier. The fighter planes join them and fly in circles, trying to locate the carrier Finally they out of fuel and have to make fore ed landing in the BOmberS and fighters are lost, because the enemy didn't know what changes had been made
 Military Secret
 This k what had happened Air bases had been built along the coast and their whereabouts kept a secret by military censorship. While the enemy was bombing blank our bombers had taken off from these secret ar bases and bombed their fleet sinking or damaging some of it and causing the rest 10 run to save themselves. The returning planes had no place to land and were lost That's why have military censorship to keep information from the enemy If the military and civilian personnel that knew about the building of these bases had talked taken pictures of them. the enemy would never have brought his fleet in close 10 of them. He know about blank but he didn't know that others had been built near blank
 Dangerous Belief
 The average civilian will be the first to say, the picture l take will never fall into enemy hands And