Evening star., 1945-10-14

The combination of the new leafiet
and retrained troops produced results.
The trickle Of surrenders became a
stream.
Specialist in Psychology.
The man in charge Of psychological
warfare in Gen. MacArthur's area is
Brig. Gen. Bonner F. Fellers. Fellers,
well-built, compact man, Is a West
Pointer, graduated in 1918 just in time
to serve in the army of occupation in
Germany. He served in the Philippines
in the early '20s and, in 1936-1938 as a
member of Gen. MacArthur's staff.
Fellers travelled extensively and made
several visits to Japan.
Like most professional officers who
served in the Philippines, he foresaw
trouble between our country and Japan
and he become interested in the jap
anese Army. He became a specialist in
the japanese military psychology and
wrote THE Psychology of the japanese
Soldier" still regarded as an accurate
text.
The man who supervises the day-to-
day operations is 1t. Col. j. Woodall
Greene, who served as a captain in the
last war, in the Rainbow Division un-
der Gen. Macarthur. After the war he
returned to legal practice in Balti-
more, Md. When he came overseas in
September, I943, his first assignment
was in the Far East naison office, which
conducted psychological warfare for the
Australians. He became a student of
the subject, believing it could be used
effectively in our attack on the Philip
pines. When the time came he was
prepared.
Nisei Japs Helped.
No statement of the men behind psy-
Geological warfare would be complete
without mention of the japanese Nisei-
second generation Japanese born in the
United States and citizens thereof un-
der the Constitution. Unfortunately,
during the war their story could not be
told. Many of them had relatives in
Japan and if their names were known,
retribution against the relatives would
have been swift and inevitable. Fur
thermore, our campaign was as faith
fully Japanese in tone as though pre-
pared by the staff of the Emperor and
to reveal that it was often written and
spoken by Nisei would have impaired
some of the psychological effect created
by mystery.
Typical of these Nisei is 1t. Taro
Tsukahara of San Francisco. AS an en-
listed man, Tsukahara fought in Qua
dalcanal, Rendova, New Georgia and
Bougainville. He landed in PWB when
1t was formed. He wrote leaflets and
speeches. He helped enlist prisoners of
war to assist us, and was later commits
stoned.
Finally, there were in PWB a con-
siderable number of men from owl, all
specialists in Japanese customs, history
and traditions.
Two types of offensive psychological
strategy were developed-tactical and
strategic thought warfare. Tactical
psychological warfare is used to achieve
limited specific objectives revealed by a
particular situation.
A good example is the leafiet on the
japanese .38 rifle. Combat intelligence
revealed that a large group of Japanese
on Luzon were equipped with an out
moded rifle. Against the American
Garand, they could not get within effec-
tive range and they were on the receiv-
ing end of more rounds from one Amer
ican than whole Japanese squad could
fire in the same time. So psychological
warfare prepared special leaflet stat
ing:
'As you know, the type .38 rifle you
are using succeeded the Murata rifle and
first appeared on the battle front as a
new weapon for use in the then occur
ring Russo-Japanese War.
"But that was 40 years ago. Every
one knows that since that time the va
rious countries, vying with one another,
have been absorbed in scientific studies,
and that great advances have been
made in the development of military
equipment.
''Why, then, do you have to fight
against automatic rifles with rifles Of
the bolt-action type?
IF you had fought with new weapons
like the Americans, perhaps, tragedies
like Leyte might have been avoided"
Accurate News Given.
The results of tactical mind warfare
have been excellent in many cases. For
example, in the taking Of Manila, 500
Japs were holed up in the Finance
Building. For three days and three
nights the japanese were bombarded
with talk. They were continually re-
minded that they could do one of three
things wait to be killed by the Ameri-
cans, commit hara-kiri or live to rejoice
with their families and help to rebuild
japan. After the first night 40 sur