1 August 1945 leaflet. From CIA website.

70 years ago today, August 1, 1945, five days before the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped millions of copies of this leaflet on 35 Japanese cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Japanese text on the reverse read as follows:

Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America’s humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately.

This warning had been preceded, starting on July 26, of transmission by by 50,000 watt KSAI Radio in Saipan the contents of the Potsdam declaration, warning the Japanese people of the “prompt and utter destruction” of Japan if the Japanese government failed to surrender.   KSAI’s medium wave signal (1010 on the standard broadcast dial) was as strong as any Japanese domestic station, and could be heard by millions of Japanese.

After the bombing of Hiroshima, an updated leaflet was prepared, stressing the special nature of the Hiroshima bomb, and warning of the same fate to other cities.  Similar warnings were transmitted by KSAI and repeated every fifteen minutes.

For more information on leafleting and other allied propaganda operations, see my earlier post.

References

• Hellegers, We, the Japanese People: World War II and the Origins of the Japanese Constitution.
• The Information War in the Pacific, 1945 at CIA website.

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