US Use Of Air-Dropped Canned Salmon To Encourage By-Passed Japanese Forces To Surrender - 1944 & 1945

[Richard Stone]

The attached short article discusses how during 1944 and 1945 several US Marine air units dropped canned salmon to Japanese forces on by-passed islands to encourage their surrender.

The article was printed in the September 1945 edition of the USA professional military reference magazine ‘Military Review’.

Combat Notes - Mil Review Sept 1945 - Canned Salmon.png

[Carl Schwamberger]

Skilled translators might have been much more helpful. There was a lot less of a language barrier in Europe. My father had enough command of his fathers 19th Century Swabian dialect he could persuade German soldiers to surrender. In the Pacific trained translators were rare, and those who could communicate in the rural and working class dialects of the average Japanese soldier were extremely rare. This made it near impossible for US infantry in the battle to communicate anything positive to the Japanese soldier.

[OpanaPointer]

The best source for such translators were all herded together in Montana.