=Japanese Developments.= The Japanese invented little in psychological warfare. They made excellent and judicious use of news to the American audience. They actually got much more official Japanese news into the American press during the war years than they had succeeded in placing during peacetime, when they had offices in American cities. They did so by maintaining the regular Domei news service in English-language Morse wireless for the American press, ready-edited for the newspaper offices. They put by-lines on the stories and it is said they sometimes even told the American newspapers: "Please hold until nine AM Eastern War Time. Thank You. Domei." In dealing with Asiatic audiences, special Japanese _butai_ did a great deal of black propaganda along with subversive operations, but they displayed little initiative as to the use of basic techniques. Their chief merits were industry, patience, and the delivery of a first-class news service.
=Chinese Uses.= The Chinese Communist forces broke all records for certain specialized aspects of combat propaganda. Japanese prisoners were given cordial welcome, better food than they had in the Army, the company of maidens, rich gifts, and political indoctrination about the freedom of Japan. These soldiers then went with the Chinese Communists back to the front lines and talked Japanese sentries out of their strong-points. The Yenan forces went to great pains with this propaganda, and even "elected" a Japanese prisoner to the City Council of Yenan. The author talked with the Political Director of the Chinese Communist authority at Yenan, and with some of the Japanese in Communist China. There was evidence of a real understanding of the problems of the Japanese common soldier, and of real sympathy with him, which the Japanese enlisted men were quick to feel. The Communists went so far as to throw gift packages into the Japanese lines--not booby-traps, just nice gifts with the polite request for a reply. They learned the names of Japanese field telephone operators, and then spliced into the line and argued politics with them in a rough and jolly way. When they had enough prisoners they kept the most promising converts for political training. They fed the ordinary prisoners well, entertained them royally, and sent them back to their own lines with the suggestion that the Chinese Communists would appreciate it if their good Japanese brethren would in combat please shoot their rifles in the air, thus making sure of not hitting Communists while at the same time avoiding unnecessary trouble with the Japanese officers.