DELIVERED BY PARACHUTE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25915, 6 August 1945, Page 5

DELIVERED BY PARACHUTE

POTSDAM PROCLAMATION (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 4. It has been announced at headquarters of the Twentieth Air Force that 3,000,000 leaflets bearing the terms of the Potsdam ultimatum have been dropped over a wide area of Japan, including the cities which have been warned of * forthcoming raids. General Spaatz, by leaflet, has warned 12 more Japanese cities — Yawata. Akita, Hachinohe, Urawa, Tottori. Iwakuni, Takayama, Fukushima, Saga, Miyakonoso, Otaru, and Imbari that bombing raids were impending The Rakkasan Parachute News, which American airmen are now dropping over Japan every Monday morning, will increase its circulation from 1,000,000 weekly to 4,000,000 by August 15, and 8,000,000 by September 15. The newspaper, which is packed in bombs like incendiaries, is a miniature of a typical Japanese daily and contains an editorial, a cartoon, at least three pictures, and the equivalent of 1800 English words of news. War prisoners and former Japanese newspaper and Domei employees assist the publication, which is under the supervision of Major Michael Mitchell, who worked on Japanese newspapers for 14 years prior to 1941. The Press Association’s military correspondent says the question of Russian intervention in the Far East remains unanswered. The general opinion is that the British and Empire forces -.will concentrate on the southern sphere of operations with the object of liberating Singapore and other lost possessions, while the Americans will deal exclusively with areas further north. The establishment of a new British Command operating entirely separately from the South-east Asia Command is a possibility.