March 16, 1942 – News From Radio Tokyo – English Service – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
As propaganda goes, every side paints a picture much different than the other side paints. In this case, Radio Tokyo portrayed the natives in newly captured Rangoon, Batavia and Manila as happy, relieved and borderline giddy over the prospects of being governed by the Emperor and receiving direction from Tokyo. The reporter portrays the moments after the allied signing of the surrender documents with crowds of natives milling outside the Governor General’s residence, threatening to assault the British, Dutch and American officials as they were being taken into custody after the surrender proceedings.
Aside from news of large-scale Allied losses as well as continuing assaults on Port Moresby, an editorial goes to great pains in painting FDR as the culprit in this entire war and ponders how much better off America would be with Hoover in the White House.
The newscast goes on to report the sinking of an oil tanker by Japanese submarines off the California coast near San Francisco as well as reports that a cargo ship was torpedoed near Mendocino. The reports indicate the attacks took place several days earlier, but are treated as bulletins of a sort.
Bomber raids on Port Moresby were continuing, as well as reports indicating the possibility that an invasion of Australia could materialize and suffer the same fate as the Dutch East Indies did.
Without question, the news was reported differently from Allied sources – but this was how Radio Tokyo was seeing it on this March 16, 1942.
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