Posted on 10/19/2020 10:04:12 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Operation Fantasia was the brainchild of OSS psychological warfare strategist Ed Salinger... “The foundation for the proposal,” Salinger wrote in a memo outlining his idea, “rests upon the fact that the modern Japanese is subject to superstitions, beliefs in evil spirits and unnatural manifestations which can be provoked and stimulated.”
Salinger’s plan: Catch live foxes in China and Australia, spray-paint them with glowing paint, and release them throughout Japanese villages.
This scheme presented a number of logistical hurdles. First, what kind of paint should be used? The United States Radium Corporation provided an answer in the form of its glow-in-the-dark paint, which contained radium.
To find out whether the faux-supernatural foxes would actually frighten the Japanese, the OSS decided to release 30 glowing foxes in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park to gauge the reactions of the locals. If the foxes spooked Americans, the logic went, certainly they would scare the Japanese even more.
On a summer night in 1945, OSS personnel released the foxes in the park, and the creatures scampered along the trails with promising results. The sight of the ghostly apparitions at first confused and then terrified passersby on their evening strolls. One citizen was so concerned that he notified the National Park Police...
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
What about radioactive monsters?
Foxes. He must be a wild and crazy guy.
Oh sure....it sounds crazy NOW
With frikkin’ lasers on their heads!
Honey Badger don’t need no paint.
...and to think the US taxpayers actually paid this guy for his lunacy. Probably he was paid a lot. What a nitwit. Yet another stereotypical government “worker”.
Samson beat them by about 3500 years. :-)
Only he didn’t have radioactive paint. He just used foxes and fire.
Lol. Apparently the hiring of lunatics in spy organizations didn’t start with the CIA.
“Yet another stereotypical government “worker”
They’re not all pos slugs my friend....your right, it is a stereotype to think so.
Having said that, the fed gov does have its share of ‘em.
They did Bats too................
You place a radioactive appearing fox in the Chinese backwoods and they would worship it. You’re not dealing with a group of intelligent people here. And besides, if they were that smart, as they proved with Covid, they’d just capture it and send it to the US and then try to deny it.
Besides, radioactive things do not glow in the dark. The human eye can’t see the actual radioactive materials. They’d just see a fox. That is unless they have any idea that it was placed there and someone put flyers out to tell them. Then their IQ would catch up to the perceived threat as explained. Have kill a number of trees to get that one done.
rwood
that would distract me from the war effort!!
she looked so hot but you’re right
blech
I agree...not all. But there is a reality behind stereotypes.
What does the fox say?
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