Introduction

Psychological warfare was used effectively by the Allies in the Pacific theatre, mainly by an Australian unit which came to be known as the Far Eastern Liaison Office or FELO for short. It was a secret unit, and most of its records were destroyed in the immediate post-war period. Ever wondered, when going through grandpa’s collection of his Pacific memorabilia, where those surrender leaflets came from ? FELO is the answer.

This section contains several interesting and rare aviation photos. Just click on the relevant highlighted words in the article to see them.

There is sufficient material in the Australian War Memorial to put together the FELO picture. In this regard Aerothentic particularly acknowledges the recollections of H. N. Walker, an Australian who served with this unit. Read on to discover interesting minutiae about this small but effective unit . . .

Why FELO ?

Shortly after the Japanese invasion of New Guinea in 1942, the Australians became both aware and concerned at the support the Japanese were receiving from much of the native population. In terms of color at least, the Japanese were more closely akin to the natives than the European colonialists who had controlled them from the time of the annexation of Papua by the Queensland Government in 1883, and the colonization of New Guinea by Germany.

So far as the natives were aware, the white men had deserted the place. The Europeans had got away by lugger, launch or aircraft. In some extreme cases they had `gone bush' to avoid massacre at the hands of the Japanese, as was proved time and again. Australian patrol officers who had been contacted in time had been recalled to Port Moresby, and the native constabulary had thrown away or buried their arms and uniforms. This example was quickly followed by the village chiefs, who had similarly disposed of their red‑banded uniform caps. In Moresby and other centers, numbers of planters and officials, many of them with years of experience among the natives, were awaiting direction to suitable posts, while from the hinterland came news of recurring instances of co‑operation by the natives with the invaders Much of this co‑operation was purchased by the Japanese by means of copious distributions of `trade goods'. In the period of peacetime administration almost every item of `trade' had assumed a standard value in terms of work or native produce. The Japanese cleverly brought a new market of attractive items such as mirrors, strings of beads, combs, and other items catching to the native eye. Such was the Japanese anxiety to obtain local support from the natives that they distributed these persuasive items lavishly. It was clear to the Australian authorities that such largesse would probably work.

It was equally clear that the side enjoying native support also held the bigger stick when it came to jungle warfare. As a corollary, it was evident that if the Allies lost this support and, perhaps more poignantly, if the support lost was transferred to the enemy, reoccupation of New Guinea meant a longer and more arduous battle. Of equal importance was the fact that the more native carriers and laborers obtained, the greater number of effective fighting troops could be spared for combat.

When all these obvious assessments had been laid on the table, it became evident that an Allied effort would have to be made to deny native assistance to the Japanese ‑ even though this would entail getting at the natives in their own villages and districts and, accordingly, would mean sending European patrol officers back into the areas occupied by the Japanese. When this concept was mooted to the displaced planters and officials, no difficulty was experienced in getting sufficient volunteers for the suggested patrols. In September 1942 a secret memorandum issued from Allied Headquarters ordained the formation of the Far Eastern Liaison Office (FELO) as a `top secret' unit with an over-riding priority on any transport, equipment, or personnel required.

On the authority of this memorandum, FELO was placed in the same category as AIB (Allied Intelligence Bureau), ATIS (Allied Translator and Interpreter Service), and SRD (Special Reconnaissance Detachment), and was also grouped with `Z' Special Force. An office was established in Port Moresby, and patrols, comprising European officers and native police, together with carriers, radio technicians, and medical orderlies, went into occupied territory. In doing so they trusted their knowledge of the natives and the loyalty of their police‑boy escorts to evade and avoid surrounding Japanese.

One of the earliest activities of FELO was the introduction of leaflet warfare in the Pacific. The value of these leaflets was especially appreciated by Allied Headquarters, and FELO was made responsible for the dissemination of written as well as verbal propaganda. The headquarters of the unit was moved to Brisbane, and its organization was expanded. As evidenced the collection of FELO leaflets in the library of the Australian War Memorial at Canberra, language was no problem to the organization. Linguists with a thorough working knowledge of several relevant languages were on the strength of the unit, either as members of one or other of the Allied services, or as civilians.

In addition FELO also trained Dutch, Free French, and Chinese forces in propaganda work, and it provided the director for the Psychological Warfare Bureau of Lord Mountbatten's Far Eastern Command. From the outset, FELO insisted that every leaflet and other propaganda weapon should give only those aspects which could be proved. Exaggeration, even in its mildest forms, was deemed unacceptable, the attitude being that, if once caught lying, FELO’s own currency would be debased. Accordingly, FELO propaganda was factual.

Where Japanese prisoners were portrayed on the leaflets, steps were taken to ensure that they were unidentifiable ‑ by the simple expedient of blanking‑out their eyes. The soldier wishing to surrender thus realized that, if he did give himself up, he would not be `given away' to his own people, and so would not `lose face'. Similarly, FELO leaflets deliberately refrained from mentioning the word `surrender'. Instead, the Japanese were advised to `cease resistance', in order that they would be able to take part in the `reawakening of the new Japan'. By `surrendering', he would lose face before ancestors, whereas by `ceasing resistance' they could justify the morality of their action.

FELO's leaflets

These took many forms. Perhaps the one with the widest distribution was that which was widely known as the `surrender' leaflet ‑ even though the word surrender did not appear on it. Diagonally across one corner it carried red, white and blue stripes, with the words, in English and Japanese,

The Japanese with this message has ceased resistance. He should be treated well in accordance with international law. Take him to the nearest Commanding Officer. C. in C. Allied Forces'.

On one side was printed a `standard' message of more‑or‑less universal application to the particular area, while on the other was a space in which the local FELO divisions printed their own `spot' message. Surrender leaflets were dropped in large numbers. Despite the fact that the Japanese Command issued dire threats concerning the fate of any of their troops found to be in possession of one of these surrender leaflets, many Japanese appear to have made a habit of preparing for the `best' by having one or two on them just in case. Be that as it may, it is of some significance that a check by FELO at one time elicited that, out of 1,000 Japanese bodies searched, more than 900 had at least one surrender leaflet, while many of them had a plurality amounting, in one case, to a bundle of twenty‑five.

Japanese surrendering with leaflets in their possession were required to remove the whole of their clothing before coming into Allied lines. This precaution was necessary, because in the early days of the leaflets, one or two cases had occurred where a Japanese had hidden a grenade in his armpit or groin and, after coming in and getting the more‑or‑less usual group of interested Diggers around him, had raised his arm or opened his knees and allowed the grenade to drop, killing himself and taking a few Australians with him. Thus, no chances were taken, and a Japanese coming in who omitted to remove the whole of his clothing was liable to receive a welcome out of keeping with his apparently peaceful intentions.

On one occasion, in Bougainville, a Japanese on his way in was seen to be displaying no less than six surrender leaflets ‑ one in each hand, one in each ear, one in his mouth, and one tucked in a grass band tied around his waist. A modified form of surrender leaflet combined the normal `ceased resistance' message in Japanese with one in pidgin asking the natives to report the whereabouts of any sick or wounded Japanese in their vicinity. The `news bulletin' leaflet was always popular with both the enemy and the native population. FELO's bulletins were issued every week, in a variety of languages and dialects, including Japanese, Pidgin, Chinese, Malay, Arabic and Portuguese. The `nostalgic' leaflet was yet another form of propaganda which was dropped in large numbers. These leaflets, designed to create a feeling of home‑sickness and self‑pity, normally consisted of pictures of Japanese home‑life, such, for instance, as a Japanese peasant farmer and his wife sitting down to the evening meal of fish and rice, or a group of Japanese `bobby‑soxers' standing in the doorway of their Tokyo University dormitory. It was calculated that these leaflets would cause homesickness.

In a similar vein were the leaflets which portrayed the treatment accorded to prisoners‑of‑war in Australian hands. The prisoners were shown lining up for meals, tending their gardens in the POW camps, playing cards, and engaging in handicrafts such as weaving and leatherwork. Others were shown in hospital beds, receiving treatment from Australian nursing sisters. Letters, written by Japanese on Red Cross notepaper, and expressing their gratitude for the treatment received in hospital, were also reproduced. These letters were in fact both entirely genuine and unsolicited.

A landmark yet unexpected change in Japanese national policy early in 1944 provided FELO with its most valuable propaganda item. After a studied and complete silence on the matter of Japanese prisoners-of‑war, the Japanese Government through Geneva sought permission to send a shipload of comforts to its prisoners and wounded held captive by the Allies in Australia. This was a complete reversal of policy, as it had long been accepted by the Japanese people that death was preferable to capture.

When the Japanese Government officially recognized that prisoners‑of‑war in Australia were still `living' Japanese, the propaganda value of this admission was not lost and FELO at once took steps to ensure that, if possible, every Japanese in the South‑West Pacific area would learn of it and be advised that the last obstacle to his cessation of resistance had now been removed. These fresh leaflets had a profound effect upon the Japanese troops and, although surrenders were rarely spectacular, they became steady and regular.

The truth is that by 1944 Allied forces were not interested in securing large numbers of Japanese prisoners, for there was then moral obligation to feed, guard, clothe and transport them. In the jungle they were self‑supporting prisoners. One spectacular surrender, however, took place at Wewak early in 1945, when eighty Japanese officers and men, including a Lieutenant-Colonel, gave themselves up en masse. Wind of this move reached FELO a few days beforehand, and, in an endeavor to contact them, two FELO officers went ahead of the forward company, which was ordered not to open fire unless its position was placed in jeopardy. The information given by the Japanese colonel, an artillery commander, proved to be of the utmost value.

Another valuable surrender took place on Bougainville in July 1945. For several weeks a Japanese 135‑mm battery had anchored the Australians at the Hongorai River ford and almost immobilized the attack in the south of the island. The guns were carefully hidden, and aerial reconnaissance failed to locate them. One evening about dusk a naked Japanese, waving a surrender leaflet, was seen heading towards the front‑line post of FELO's broadcast unit. He was escorted to the forward company, and then taken to battalion headquarters. There, questioned again, he disclosed that he was Commander of the 135 mm battery. A map was thereupon placed in front of him and on this he pinpointed the position of each of its six guns. The map references were signaled to the RNZAF, and at 0800 hours next morning twelve Corsairs, complete with 1,000 lb bombs, arrived overhead and laid them on the positions. Two hours later the Australians had crossed the Hongorai River; and before nightfall the crossing was complete.

Apart from those designed specifically for the Japanese, FELO also produced numerous leaflets directed to native populations in the various occupied territories. These took several distinct forms, the `news' leaflet being prominent, as were those in which the natives were continually admonished for co‑operating with the Japanese and advised to `get out or get hurt'. When a concerted attack was to be launched against any area in which there was a native population, strong efforts were made to get the natives out before the bombing or shelling began, even at the risk of forewarning the Japanese that something was in the wind.

Leaflets with the object of keeping the natives ever on the look‑out for Allied airmen were continually distributed. All airmen carried an `Airman's Card' on which was printed in the local language advice to the effect that the bearer was an Allied airman, that he should be assisted to the utmost and shown the way to the nearest position occupied by Allied forces. `Pointie‑talkie' books were also issued in which question and answer were printed in two or more languages; the question was asked ay pointing to the appropriate line and was similarly answered, each person reading in his own language. A distinctive feature of almost all the native leaflets issued by FELO was the printing of the Australian coat of arms and, on the reverse side, some device (or `totem', as it was called in FELO) well known to the native population of the particular area in which the leaflet was to be dropped. The reason for the addition of the totem and the coat of arms was a deeply thought out example of applied psychology. The underlying idea of the totem was that, as not all natives were able to read Pidgin, a mere collection of words was not always sufficient to carry the message.

The reality was that if the recipient native could not read, he would throw the leaflet away without knowing its contents. On the other hand, with a totem printed upon it in color ‑ especially the representation of a totem having some personal or local significance ‑ it was likely that the illiterate native would carry it round with him and show it to his fellow tribesmen until he found one able to read the printed message. Thus the message would be spread to literate and illiterate alike.

Similarly, the coat of arms served to indicate that the message was an official one from the Government, and as such, it held for the native an importance which no unofficial leaflet could have held. These `totems' introduced a delicate set of conditions into the production of the leaflets, because a totem which would give immense pleasure (say) to a New Britain native might prove to be intensely offensive if dropped over Bougainville. Accordingly, FELO's stocks of totem paper were always carefully labeled with the appropriate areas in which they might be dropped. One popular type of totem paper was that which bore a representation of a Tanget leaf. The Tanget is a vine‑like plant having leaves of cloth-like texture which are passed round, or carried, by the natives to convey messages ‑ the nature of the message being indicated by the manner in which the leaf is tied or knotted. In the FELO leaflet, the Tanget was knotted in the form which, to the natives, represented a safe conduct pass.

However, two other leaflets, carrying representations of either a male or female `duk-duk', and limited to New Britain and New Ireland, were unpopular with the missionaries who had remained in the islands. The `duk-duk' is the `high priest' of a secret native cult which is anathema to Christian missions, and it had been officially suppressed at every opportunity in pre‑war days.

However, as a cartoonist in The Yank Down Under remarked, “the duk‑duk `sort of represents our padre”. As the ultimate aim of all propaganda effort was to hasten the war’s end, their was temporary disregard for official proscribement of the duk‑duk cult.

Leaflet Dirstribution

Leaflets were distributed in numerous ways. The easiest way was to give them to the native patrols continuously at work behind the Japanese lines. One European FELO officer accompanied by three or four native police boys usually traveled with patrols of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, the co‑operation between the two organizations always being very close. In the earlier days of FELO some twenty to thirty FELO police boys were brought to Australia and taken on a tour of munitions works, aircraft factories, aerodromes, military camps, dockyards and other places likely to impress them with the strength of the Allied war machine. These tours afterwards became a regular feature; and when they returned to the islands, the boys were attached to patrols and encouraged to talk about what they had seen. Thus they became doubly useful on patrol ‑ useful for their bushcraft and their uncanny sense of the presence of Japanese in the vicinity, as well as great boosters of the power of the white master to beat the Japanese who had stolen their pigs and denuded their garden patches and coconuts. Another easy method of distributing the leaflets was to throw them out of aircraft. This, of course, was no new idea but FELO was the first to place leaflet‑dropping from the air on an organized basis.

Airmen were not at first very keen on going out with `paper bullets'. They could not see any future in the idea, which appeared to them to be far more appropriate for advertising sunburn cream over an Australian beach, while many of them felt that the leaflets might foul their controls and bring trouble in the air. However, this reluctance was gradually broken down, and posters bearing the words `Fly with FELO', began to appear in operations rooms. It soon became part of the average pilot's briefing for him to pick up a few bundles of leaflets on his way out of the operations room.

The most popular aircraft for this work was the Beaufort, the camera hatch of which was particularly well-suited for use as a chute for the bundles of leaflets. Over the target area the pilot would take his Beaufort down to low level, when the `dropper' would push the bundles down the chute as quickly as possible. The leaflets were in bundles of about three to four hundred, each bundle being tied with a slip knotted string which was held as it went down the chute, with the result that the leaflets were loose when they emerged from the aircraft. Where drops had to be made on heavily defended areas, flying at less than ten or twelve thousand feet would have been suicidal. Consequently, more-involved apparatus was required for effecting the drops, otherwise the leaflets would have drifted for many miles before reaching the ground. Various devices were used, including deloused 4.5 inch aircraft flare‑containers. The flare material having been withdrawn, and only sufficient explosive retained to force the end off the container an the leaflets from its interior, the fuse was set to fire at a predetermined height, and the containers were hung on the bomb racks. Although the pilot could have carried out the drop himself, the FELO man usually went along for the ride ‑ and the extra 2/6 an hour flying pay. The number of leaflets carried by the flare containers was limited. Where a heavy saturation of leaflets was required – such as places lke Rabaul, the Weigall device was used. This consisted of two scored strips of corrugated cardboard laid down in the form of a cross. The leaflets were piled upon the overlapping area of the crossed strips: these were then folded along the score marks to form a square box, which was tied together with string. Where the string crossed on the top of the package, it was passed over a wooden box like a pill‑box, which was filled with a slow‑burning powder.

A piece of normal safety fuse was led into the box and taped to the string, and the top of the box was closed by means of a disc of cardboard. The fuse was then cut to the appropriate length in relation to the flying height and the height at which the box was to be opened, and a fuse igniter was attached to the free end of the fuse. Over the target the box was thrown out, the free end of the fuse igniter being held. The weight of the load exploded the fuse igniter which thereupon fired the safety fuse; this burned down until it ignited the powder which, in turn, burned through the string and caused the cardboard container to come apart in the air and the leaflets to scatter.

Reference has already been made to `spot' leaflets ‑ that is, leaflets produced on the spot in the islands by the local FELO detachments. These were usually written or typed on wax sheets and run off on office duplicators, normally hand‑operated but occasionally electrically‑driven. The spot leaflets for the Japanese originally were drafted in English and then transposed by an American‑born Japanese attached to corps headquarters. In 1945 FELO was given a Japanese soldier who had surrendered and who, after being vetted by ATIS in Brisbane and paroled, was sent back to Bougainville to act as FELO's writer of Japanese. The last spot leaflet that was produced on Bougainville announced the news of Japan’s surrender. This leaflet was lino‑cut, carved into a piece of linoleum taken from the floor of an officer's tent while the officer was asleep some six feet away, and hacked out with an army jack‑knife in the light of a jeep headlamp. From this historic cut the 1st Australian Army Mobile Printing Unit, working three shifts, printed 500,000 copies. Other leaflets for general distribution were printed in Brisbane or Sydney in substantial quantity. No-one kept track of the total number of FELO leaflets printed, as all unit records were, by military orders, destroyed within a few days of the Japanese surrender.

All printing techniques were used; Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and similar abnormal scripts were first drawn or written, then photographed and printed by half‑tone or line blocks, lithography, or photogravure methods. The mainland division of FELO kept all its outer divisions supplied with huge reserve stocks, and on most leaflets was left a space upon which a spot message could be printed, if necessary. Each batch contained a number of translations of the script on the leaflet proper, so that all concerned could ascertain what was the text of the message they were dropping. Very often, these leaflets arrived well in advance of the date of the actual event to which they referred. For instance, FELO received at Bougainville, at least six weeks before it happened, a leaflet which headlined `Soviet declares war on Japan'. Accompanying it was the following instruction ‑ `Not to be dropped until official announcement of declaration'. Commensurately on 19 August 1945 FELO undertook the destruction of half a million copies of a leaflet, which the bomb on Hiroshima had made it unnecessary to drop, announcing `Allies invade Japanese homeland'.

FELO’s Other Activities

Although leaflets rapidly became the most important sphere of FELO's activities, they did not comprise the whole of the unit's work. For example, it also operated and controlled several small marine craft which were used for the dissemination of propaganda and also for landing patrols on isolated beaches within the Japanese lines. In this work, both FELO and AIB, interested as they were in the same areas, overlapped to some extent. Harmonious relations existed between the two units, for FELO was concerned with propaganda, whereas AIB was concerned with intelligence. The latter obtained by FELO was never ignored, and AIB was always ready to put out propaganda. It will therefore be seen that the two organizations were closely linked, a fact that was recognized towards the end of the war when, instead of being units of Z Special Force, they were designated M Special Force and formed their own native infantry unit.

Many soldiers who served in the theatre doubtless still curse the FLBU's (Front Line Broadcasting Units) which did fair to outlive the `shoot and scatter' mortar crews of the First World War for sheer unpopularity. An FLBU consisted of a European FELO officer, warrant officer or NCO, a radio technician, a Japanese linguist, and a guard of several native police boys. The unit's equipment comprised two I5‑inch loudspeakers in 6‑feet directional horns, a public address amplifier and microphone, wet‑cell batteries, and a rotary converter ‑ plus a `Chorehorse' battery charger. The effective range of the speakers was about eight hundred meters at night and about four hundred in the daytime. They were set up in a suitable banana clump, with the amplifier four hundred to the rear, and the microphone some distance from the amplifier. The propaganda broadcasts usually commenced, much to the disgust of all Allied soldiers within hearing range, with a selection of Japanese gramophone records, followed by a news broadcast in Japanese and suggestions that the Japanese should surrender ‑ and the rest of the propaganda theme. The reaction to this was usually a shower of shot and shell, and the FLBU often had to do a hurried move to another position. Even then, the loudspeakers suffered severe casualties, and at one time on Bougainville, out of some twenty‑four spare speakers, only one was serviceable, for the cones of all the others had been ruptured by shell blasts. FLBU equipment was also installed on a superfast marine craft which plied up and down the Labuan coast just prior to the Allied landing. Experiments were also made in the use of FLBU in aircraft, but these were not successful, the speed of the aircraft being such that broadcasts could not easily be kept within a reasonable area so that the same people could hear the complete message. In the closing days of the war, FELO was really getting into its stride, and an enormous organization was being built up.

Such was the increasing tempo of the war towards its end however, that a forward headquarters was established at Morotai, and the printing plant was again crated and shipped to the Halmahera Islands. Before it could be brought into use, however, the war had ended. A high‑powered radio transmitting station was built into several trucks and trailers and was ready to be shipped to the north, but the Japanese surrender again prevented it from being brought into operation.

The Japanese Surrender

With the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, it became evident that the Japanese war would soon close. FELO decided that they would have to work as never before to try to prevent unnecessary bloodshed once the war was officially over. A RAAF Beaufort squadron made four aircraft available for leaflet drops, and the Japanese characters for `Japan has surrendered' were hand-painted in white on their wing undersurfaces. These planes were kept in a bay on Bougainville’s Piva airstrip, and as soon the leaflets were printed and rolled they were loaded into the Beauforts. When at 1100 hours local, Winston Churchill announced Japan's capitulation, the Beauforts were loaded up all ready to go, and within twenty minutes they were airborne and on their way. The drop was completed by noon, and from that time not another shot was fired on Bougainville, although Japanese General Kanda was unable to contact his units to cease resistance until 0700 hours the following day. The finale more than proved, wherever it had been in doubt, that FELO propaganda was in fact sometimes effective.

Within a week of the surrender, all FELO stocks of blank paper on Bougainville had been handed over to the Army Education Service for cutting‑up and padding for use in the various schools that were established to keep the troops occupied until they could be returned to the mainland. Supplies of all leaflets were made available to the troops for one week so that, if desired, they could keep copies as souvenirs. At the end of this period the remaining leaflets were burned, the unit stores and vehicles were returned to Ordnance, and all vouchers and other local records destroyed.

Post-Script

The collection of leaflets in the Australian War Memorial, assembled by FELO officers by going through FELO’s files prior to the destruction of the records at Torokina, is now the only complete collection of FELO propaganda in existence.