Airborne leaflet propaganda
Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to attempt to alter the behavior of combatants and non-combatants in enemy-controlled territory, sometimes in conjunction with air strikes.
Humanitarian air missions, in cooperation with leaflet propaganda, can turn the populace against their leadership while preparing them for the arrival of enemy combatants.
[3] In August 1918, the famous Italian nationalist writer, poet and fighter pilot Gabriele D'Annunzio, organized the Flight over Vienna: a famous propaganda operation during the war, leading 9 Ansaldo SVA planes in a 1,100-kilometre (700 mi) round trip to drop 50,000 propaganda leaflets on the Austro-Hungarian capital.
In 1915, the British began airdropping a regular leaflet newspaper Le Courrier de l'Air for civilians in German-occupied France and Belgium.
[6] During the Phoney War most of the Royal Air Force's operations consisted of airborne leaflet dropping, as the United Kingdom wanted Nazi Germany to be the first country to begin strategic bombing of civilian areas to avoid deterring neutral powers such as the United States from supporting the Allies.
[7] The first proposal to construct a special bomb with which to disperse airborne leaflets was put forward by British air force officers during World War II.
[10] Some of the V-1 flying bombs launched by the Germans against southern England carried leaflets in a cardboard tube at the tail of a missile.
[11] Allied airborne leaflets printed during WWII were "factual, in the main truthful, and served (or so it was claimed) to create a reputation for reliability both in supplying information and refuting German accounts which we said to be untruthful".
[6] Furthermore, there were various elements which made dropping leaflets on targets difficult, like slow airspeed, short range, and attack by enemy.
Together, you spent marvelous times ..., lounging on beaches ..., dancing, enjoying parties galore ..., listening to the tunes of your favorite band ...".
[14] In comparison, one Allied propaganda leaflet simply showed a picture of a large open field with thousands of German graves.
[15] James A.C. Brown, a Scottish psychiatrist, summed up the WW2 experience with the observation that "Propaganda is successful only when directed at those who are willing to listen, absorb the information, and if possible act on it, and this happens only when the other side is in a condition of lowered morale and is already losing the campaign.
"[12] Before the B-29's exclusive deployment to the Pacific Theater began, the United States Army Air Forces initiated a disinformation campaign through leaflets over the Third Reich early in 1944 that hinted at what sorts of American heavy bombers were likely to appear over Germany in the future.
Partly in conjunction with use of YB-29-BW 41-36393, the so-called Hobo Queen, one of the service test aircraft flown around several British airfields in early 1944, four-page German language Sternenbanner-headlined, American-published propaganda leaflets mentioning a "battle of annihilation against the Luftwaffe" (Vernichtungsschlacht gegen die Luftwaffe), dated to Leap Year Day in 1944, were dropped over the Reich,[16] with the intent to deceive the Germans into believing that the B-29 would be deployed to Europe.
The leaflets aimed to not criticize Japan overall but to make citizens and soldiers demoralized and hostile toward Japanese military commanders.
So, in accordance with America's well-known 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.
One of the famous leaflets is Kirihitoha (桐一葉) [One leaf of paulownia] which was suggested by Ayako Ishigaki a critic of the Japanese government who led a movement for military intervention against Japan in the United States.
However, according to W. H. de Roos, the head of Australia's propaganda to Japan in the Far East Liaison Bureau, due to an inappropriate choice of words and the design appearing to show tobacco rather than autumn leaves, Kirihitoha was not able to appeal to the Japanese people.
Another famous leaflet is Unga-naizō (運賀無蔵) [Unlucky man] which shows a story designed by Tato Yajima, a painter and a communist.
Gyoen-no-asa (御苑の朝) [Morning in the imperial garden], one of the leaflets, attempted to persuade Japanese people by their loyalty for the emperor.
During the Pacific War, the Japanese military sprinkled airborne leaflets to promote surrender and lose fighting spirit.
To attract the attention of people who find leaflets, manga artists were involved because it was guessed that only proclamation of a rigid military commander might not work well.
The US dropped the leaflet which clarified the fact that Japan is overwhelmed by the US, the present predicament such as food shortage, and a fear of air raids.
After a while, the Japanese government tried to spread fake information about the US strategy that the US military drops chocolate laced with poisons and pencils with explosives inside and they were willing to kill even children.
During the Korean War, Chinese forces alleged that the United States used leaflet bombs as a vehicle for dispersing biological warfare agents.
At a pre-determined time after release, the two halves of the bomb's outer shell are blown apart by detonating cord, dispersing the leaflet payload.
[31] In the late 1960s the African National Congress (ANC) used a version of the leaflet bomb in the internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa.
[32] This was one of the most important propaganda weapons of the ANC who devoted major resources to it and used it frequently during the 1960s and 1970s, spreading tens of thousands of leaflets.
[35] The "bombs" consisted of a cardboard box with a small, low-power explosive underneath a large number of propaganda leaflets.
[43] In 2002 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Ecuador set off a leaflet bomb in an Arcos Dorados restaurant in Guayaquil that injured three people and caused severe damage to the property.
