Posted on 08/18/2007 9:27:41 PM PDT by ventanax5
"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."
(Excerpt) Read more at cia.gov ...
On August 1, 1945, five days before the bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. Army Air Force dropped one million leaflets over Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 33 other Japanese cities warning that those cities were going to be destroyed within a few days and advising the residents to leave to save their lives. One side of the leaflet had a photo of five U.S. bombers unloading bombs and a list of the targeted cities. The other side had the text. The English version of the leaflet is included in an article at the CIA website, “The Information War in the Pacific, 1945,” by Josette H. Williams. OWI stands for Office of War Information:
“the American Air Force”
You ask if this is true. I remember that we didn’t have an “air force” at that time I think. Didn’t they just call it the army? That could be a details that challenges the credibility of the document.
Some of you out there must know if I am right.
At that time it was called the U.S. Army Air Forces.
It was called the Army Air Force until 1947
The United States Army Air Corps
Also known as Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) from 1926 to 1941, which in turn was the forerunner of today’s United States Air Force (USAF). Although abolished as an organization in 1941, it existed as a branch subordinate to the USAAF from 1941 to 1947.
We had the Army Air Corps, which about 1941 became the Army Air Force which in 1947 was broken out of the Army to become the US Air Force.
This Japanese soldier stationed in Hiroshima says they were dropped the day before -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4741541.stm
Officially, it was the Army Air Corp before 1947.
“That could be a details that challenges the credibility of the document.”
Since this is a translation to English of the original Japanese on the card, I would expect that the term Air Force ( or perhaps Air Power ) would be a better translation then the somewhat strange term “ corps “
The U.S. Army Air Corps was re-designated as the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1941.
Are you asking if we warned the Japanese before we bombed them?
Ya, so why didn’t we do this in Iraq?
Wouldn’t this have translated from Japanese? Maybe the current translators just used the current name for whatever Japanese term that was used.
I believe there was about six months warning coming from us before we entered Iraq. Of course, Saddam didn’t think it would actually happen and we didn’t use as much force as we could have, but the rest of the world knew what was coming and the anti-war left was livid over all the talking and saber rattling, as they said.
I believe you're right. Immortalized in song:
' . . . we live in fame or go down in flame,
Nothing can stop the Army Air Corp.'
War is a Monster. I read, once upon a time, the people of Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were told by word of mouth and radio (those left alive), and the people of Japan were told via radio broadcast that he devastation of a new weapon had been visited upon the United States’ cities similar to the devastation after (I believe the names were) Fat Man and Little Boy had been dropped. Propaganda is / was a chief weapon, as in any War. Japan was realizing the devastation one plane could deliver. The moral of Japan’s people needed a boost, per the continue the War effort supporters. War is a Monster, but to Win a War, terrible things must be done. Thankfully, Japan opted to surrender, and the War supporters were not successful.
The song “The Army Air Corps” was written in 1939 and was a hit record for Alvino Rey & His Orchestra, with the King Sisters, in 1943.
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