Propaganda

The postwar perception of Japanese wartime propaganda was that it was a failure, falling short of reaching its major goal of unifying the battlefront with the home front. The question then becomes how the Japanese leadership found the popular support necessary to sustain a war that enveloped virtually half the globe and lasted fifteen years. Barak Kushner, in his study of The Thought War, reveals how a shooting war of enormous magnitude, ferocity, and breadth gained the participation of a civilian population that eagerly embraced its aims and supported its proponents.