GENERAL HEADQUARTERS
SUPREME COMMANDER FOR ALLIED POWERS
Civil Information and Education Section
3 March 1948
Proposed War Guilt Information Program (Third Phase)
I. PURPOSES
- 1. To counter current and/or suspected attitudes on the part of certain Japanese which indicate that they are construing the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as atrocities, and that American rehabilitation projects in Hiroshima should be undertaken in a spirit of atonement.
- 2. To interpret correctly the Tojo role and the fallacious thinking behind the growing feeling of justification for the Japanese nation's policy of aggression.
- 3. To help obviate the possible emergence of ultra-nationalist thinking which would, at the termination of the Occupation, negate democratic progress made during the Occupation.
II. CONSIDERATIONS BASIC TO PLANNING
- 1. Extreme caution is indicated on the grounds that a direct, frontal attack information program might act as a boomerang, and be the means of inciting and solidifying the majority of public opinion whereas present available documentation points to "ultra-nationalist" and "atrocity" thinking being confined to a minority.
- 2. The question of whether these is a conflict in policy also must be considered in relation to an all-out information program. Present policy indicates that Japan is to be re-built economically, and that a quick peace treaty is desirable. In instituting a "frontal-attack" program on these subjects, the Occupation tacitly admits to the American people that the Japanese are not to be trusted and that therefore, economic assistances is debatable, and a peace treaty is undesirable.
- 3. It is the consensus that the Tojo trials and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki "atrocities" properly should be considered as coming under the heading of a "war guilt" program. Treatment, however, may vary in specific methods as outlined in the following plan.
III. GENERAL METHODS TO BE EMPLOYED
- 1. Strong emphasis on political information and education as an antidote for ultra-nationalism. (This has and is being covered to a large extent, but an even more concentrated program as been evolved and is new awaiting approval).
- 2. Full coverage to be given in the expose of any concrete movements which show resurgence of ultra-nationalistic movements, the fallacious thinking in
