| Determined Japanese soldiers battled ferociously during the Pacific War and seemed invulnerable to psychological warfare. Initial Allied efforts to demoralize the Japanese soldiers failed to induce many surrenders, although attempts to encourage resistance among native populations in Japanese-occupied territories fared better. After some unsuccessful attempts at undermining Japanese morale, American psychological warfare agents adopted methods employed by Mao Tse Tung's Eighth Route Army, and thereby produced more convincing propaganda. The innovative Chinese Communist approach employed Japanese prisoners of war to devise propaganda appeals aimed at their former comrades. Even after embracing the Chinese Communist method, American psychological warfare agents never succeeded in convincing many Japanese to surrender, but they did learn more about various Far Eastern cultures through their efforts. A number of anthropologists, historians, and political scientists engaged in psychological warfare activities during the Pacific War compiled studies of both the enemy and the occupied peoples in order to better target their audience. Many of those engaged in psychological warfare became leading academics or government officials in the post-war period, including John K. Fairbank, Ruth Benedict, Clyde Kluckhohn, George Taylor, Alexander Leighton, John Maki, and John Emmerson.;The wartime experiences of those designated to psychological warfare agencies benefitted those involved by encouraging them to learn about various Asian cultures. The most successful psychological warfare efforts during the war materialized not in the form of leaflets and broadcast appeals produced by those psychological warfare agents, however, but in the form of strategic bombing. While strategic bombing did not succeed in demoralizing the German nation, it achieved a high level of success in Japan, according to the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Military might proved to be the most effective form of psychological warfare in the battle against Japan. |
