This Japanese-language leaflet, dated 1944 in the archive, announces an air-raid in advance and tells residents that their city is the next target of the American air force. It is held in the Library of Congress, LOT 8093.
What the leaflet prints
The front is small and plain. A black band at the top carries the title in large pale characters. Below it, a starburst on a red field holds a single sentence. There is no picture of a bomber, a fire, or a person.
空襲豫告
この都市が
米空軍の
次の攻撃
目標です
In English, the title reads "Air-raid advance notice," and the sentence "This city is the next target of the American air force's attack." That rendering follows the archive's English gloss, which the archive labels a machine translation not verified by a fluent reader.
Who issued it
The archive names the maker as U.S. psychological warfare staff in the Pacific and notes that the issuing unit is not stated on the item. The Library of Congress holds it in its lot of wartime leaflets. The archive's audience field reads "enemy civilians," and its purpose field reads "warn or inform." According to the archive, the Library of Congress summary says the leaflet urged residents to evacuate before the bombing.
How to read it
A warning leaflet is two things at once. It is a threat, meant to frighten a city and to show that its defenders cannot protect it. It is also a notice that gives the people under the bombs a chance to leave. The archive tags it fear appeal, which is accurate for the first. The second is real too, and it is on the face of the paper.
This page does not name which city received the leaflet, how many copies fell, or what happened afterward. The record gives none of that. The archive's 1944 date is the date this page uses; the sheet itself prints no date.
A citizen reading it today can hold both points without strain. A government at war that tells civilians where it will strike is doing something better than one that does not. It is still announcing the bombing of a city. The leaflet does not ask the reader to admire either fact.
Other American leaflets from the Pacific war on this site are "Yesterday's enemy is today's friend" and the Germany-to-Japan globe sheet. For the domestic side of the same war, see anti-Japanese propaganda in the United States.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Air-raid notice: 'This city is the next target' (US leaflet to Japanese civilians), 1944. U.S. psychological warfare staff, Pacific (issuing unit not stated on the item). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LOT 8093, LC-DIG-ppmsca-13367, loc.gov/item/2007675055, retrieved by the archive 29 September 2026. Rights as recorded: US wartime military leaflet; LOC: no known restrictions on publication.
