The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-11


 future. Operated jointly by Office of War Information, Army and Navy Psychological Warfare divisions, this Japanese-language Voice of America is one of the really unique sidelines of the war.
 There have been short wave broadcasts to Japan from San Fran cisco since the early days of the war Later relay station was es- tablished at Honolulu for re-broad- casts, but the audience of these two stations has been restricted since short wave receivers are closely lic- ensed by the Jap government
 At best the short wave programs probably got no farther than few desks in the Japanese War, Navy and Foreign offices, but they were known to be monitorized, as Jap propagandistS sometimes replied to them.
 REACHES FIVE MILLION
 Establishment of radio Saipan, however, gives the psychological warfare units a chance to go on the air with medium wave broadcasts capable of reaching the five million sets known to be in existence on Japanese islands, and that is an audience worth cultivating. That U. s. broadcasts get through is demon- strated by Jap efforts to jam the wave. Whenever that happens, radio Saipan immediately shifts to an- other frequency and keeps going. It's great game. But atmospheric conditions are such that the radio Saipan signal is stronger than the Japanese home stations, and there fore hard to blanket.
 Voice of America as broadcast from Saipan is entirely a transcript tion program from records whose scripts are written in New York, Washington, San Francisco or Hon. olulu, translated into Japanese, then put on platters for shipment to Saipan. Nisei voices are used for many recordings, but their second generation accents aren't too we'll thought of in Japan, so native-born Japanese who have become Amer icanized are preferred.
 The first big objective has been to build up the credibility of Voice of America. Straight news and a little commentary has proved to be the best vehicle. Giving the Japan ese people the news which they have good reason to know about or suspect, but which has been with held from them or distorted by the Jap government has proved pretty effective. That helps build up the reputation of radio Saipan, and when the Japs hear it on the Voice of America programs, they can know it's so.
 NO LABS AT EMPEROR
 There is no direct attack on the Japanese emperor as an individual All the blame for what is happen ing to the Japanese people is heap cd on the Jap war lords who have so grossly deceived and misled the Jap people into a losing war. The thought is put over that the Jap people shouldn't continue to be suckers for this betrayal by their own rulers. The contrast between
  what the war lords said they were going to do and what they have failed to do is emphasized where ever possible.
 Jap propagandists have tried to make something out of the uncon- ditional surrender demand by play ing up the idea that all Americans are beasts, and that unconditional surrender means only that all Jap males will be mutiliated while all Jap women will be raped. Jap mili- tarists have hammered this idea in- to the heads of their troops, too, and this fear of mutilation is the real reason Jap soldiers won't sur render. It is being countered with broadcasts and leaflets building up the idea that surrender isn't dis graceful and proving it by accounts of good treatment of Jap soldiers and civilians who have surrendered on the liberated islands.