Far East Network - Late World War 2

Late World War 2

By late spring of 1944, the island-hopping campaigns of the war had made household words out of the names of previously little-known islands in the Central and South Pacific. The hard fought battles in each area as the Allies moved northward introduced many famous battlegrounds. AFRS stations were set up on most of them, including Bougainville and New Britain (Solomon Islands—March 1944), New Guinea, New Ireland, Kavieng, and the Admiralty Islands (April 1944) and Rabaul (May 1944). These were all under Gen. MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Command, and at various times were referred to as the "Jungle Network" or the "Mosquito Network."

AFRS team personnel received mixed receptions from the various island commanders. Drawn from whatever dominant branch of service on any particular island, some island commanders were very high on the broadcast idea, and gave support wherever they could. Others were less receptive, and there were times when the problems AFRS teams confronted had to be "bumped up" to the next higher echelon of command.

Though there were untold numbers and types of problems facing the generals and admirals in the war theater, the largest single problem was how to boost and keep up the morale of the hundreds of thousands of servicemen under their command. The delivery of mail from home was sporadic, at best, and often took several weeks or months to reach its destination.

Though it was not long after the establishment of AFRS, commanders began to realize that AFRS was probably the greatest morale booster ever devised, especially if the radio stations provided entertainment as well as news from home. So, even the threat of reporting AFRS problems to a higher headquarters often resulted in quick action by local commanders to do whatever they could to solve them.

Still, some AFRS teams experienced problems that could not be easily solved by local island commanders, and the teams resorted to other methods of getting the job done. Several Pacific Ocean Network stations acquired high-powered transmitters, up to 200 watts in strength, through requisitioning procedures. A few obtained theirs through what came to be known as "midnight requisitions," or simply absconding with them from various sources. There were times when pieces of captured equipment were modified and used.

During the summer and early autumn of 1944, the Pacific Ocean Network added several other stations to its chain, including those on Saipan and Guam (Mariana Islands in July and August 1944), and on Peleliu and Ulithi (Caroline Islands in September 1944). The station on Ulithi sometimes operated up to nineteen hours a day to serve the gigantic fleets anchored nearby.

As the island hopping toward Japan continued, AFRS became more and more popular among the troops. The term "island hopping" is often used to describe the way in which Allied forces advanced toward Japan, mainly because many Japanese-held islands were literally bypassed, or hopped over. Some were neither captured nor occupied by Allied forces until after the official Japanese surrender.

When the Allies eventually took control of the islands, there was little resistance at many of them, thanks to AFRS broadcasts. Several AFRS outlets, such as the station on Peleliu, beamed special broadcasts in Japanese to the Imperial troops remaining. Japanese-Americans made these broadcasts.

Leaflets, dropped by patrol planes flying over the islands, alerted the Japanese forces there as to when the special broadcasts would be made. Japanese music was sometimes included in the broadcasts to get their attention. It was only after the surrender of the islands months later that captured documents revealed the tremendous successes of the broadcasts in convincing the Japanese commanders that their war efforts were futile.