Far East Network
Encyclopedia
The Far East Network was a network of American
military
radio
and television
stations, primarily serving U.S Forces in Japan
, Okinawa, the Philippines
, and U.S. Territory of Guam
.
-Japan (AFN-Japan), with the disestablishment in 1997 of the Far East Network, this network provides military members, Department of Defense
civilian employees, and State Department diplomatic personnel
and their families with news, information and entertainment by over-the-air radio and TV, and by base cable television.
In addition to its primary military and authorized U.S. civilian audience, AFN-Japan also has a "shadow audience" of an estimated 1.2 million non-military listeners; mostly Japanese
studying English
, and other English-speaking foreign nationals residing in Japan.
AFN-Japan is headquartered at Yokota Air Base
, a major U.S. Air Force installation on the outskirts of Tokyo, and is also known as "AFN-Tokyo".
The network has affiliates located at Misawa Air Base
(AFN-Misawa), Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni
(AFN-Iwakuni), and Fleet Activities Sasebo (AFN-Sasebo). While not operationally part of what was once FEN - US Air Force personnel assigned to the Army Network in Korea (AFKN) were under partial administrative control of the FEN Network Headquarters.
Also part of AFN-Japan is AFN-Okinawa, located in the Rycom Plaza Housing Area adjacent to Marine Corps Base Camp S.D. Butler.
AFN-Tokyo is also a Regional News Center, collecting news stories from all Pacific military public affairs offices and AFN affiliates, and packages them into the regional newscast, Pacific Report.
The Pacific Report can be seen every weekday throughout the Pacific and around the world on the AFN-Pacific digital satellite feed and on the Pentagon Channel
.
In the Philippines, FEN Philippines was broadcasted on UHF channel 17 in Pampanga
and Zambales
(as in Subic
and Clark bases), and channel 43 in Bulacan
and also in Metro Manila
. Its radio stations DWFE-AM
in Olongapo and DWFA-AM in Balanga, Bataan
, and Far East 95.1
on FM are as a part of their network's operations from 1946 to 1991, but the TV channel was forcibly shut downed due to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo
.
n island of Kodiak
. Radio broadcasts were used to provide information to members of the American armed forces serving off of the U.S. mainland.
Evolving from the Morale Services Division of the War Department, the new American Forces Radio Service
(AFRS) also included a combination of such activities as command troop information programs, local command news, information broadcasts and morale-building transmissions. By late 1942, the new AFRS had begun receiving direct support from both the Army and the Navy with the assignment of personnel tasked with producing special radio programs. In 1943, a complex of high-powered radio transmitters was organized to transmit programs to military men and women serving in Europe
, Alaska, and the South Pacific
.
When AFRS broadcasts were transmitted in the Pacific, they were done so under two different commands. Outlets in the Southwest Pacific were operated under Army General Douglas MacArthur
; those in the Central Pacific, under Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz
.
By July 1943, AFRS had set up two stations in the Southwest Pacific (SWP) Region, operating a small station in New Georgia
. The following month, a similar mobile station began broadcasting near Vella Lavella
.
The first AFRS stations established under the Central Pacific Command were set up on the Tarawa Atoll
and islet of Makin
, both located in the Gilbert Islands
, in November 1943. Three more stations, on Kwajalein
and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands
and one on Guadalcanal
in the Solomon Islands
, went on the air in February 1944.
Teams of military broadcast specialists were trained at AFRS' headquarters in Los Angeles
to operate radio stations. Later, they traveled to Hawaii
, where they picked up equipment and briefed on their assignment and local conditions, and then proceeded to their posts by whatever means they were able to travel. Some of the teams carried complete radio transmitting equipment: 50-watt transmitter
s, turntable
s, a tiny mixing console and several boxes of records. A few teams were provided with short-wave receivers so they could monitor AFRS newscasts from San Francisco.
Each team usually consisted of an officer
and five or six enlisted men. Upon reaching its destination, a team operated by whatever means they could. Electrical generator
s were often hard to acquire, and a station often had to provide its own independent power source.
In the Central Pacific, once a station had been set up and broadcasting, locally-based servicemen were trained to operate the outlet. Usually, after the team was sure that the station could be run by the local GIs, they returned to Honolulu for reassignment to another location. This connected conglomerate of military stations became known as the Pacific Ocean Network (PON).
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.
s. Some were brought to new sites by light planes, which landed on dirt strips, laboriously hacked out of rain forests.
Other hazards in the tropics were jungle swamps, unbridged rivers and streams, and patches of mud into which men sank to their waists. The climate was hot and humid and frequent rainstorms made the atmosphere oppressive. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes were everywhere.
On the larger, foliage-blanketed islands, from which outcrops of rocky mountains extended above the jungles, there was an ever-present, all-pervading scent of rotting vegetation that made breathing miserable. Except for the sounds of exploding bombs and artillery shells, the stillness was so profound that an occasional harsh cry from a startled bird seemed to be sinister and awe-inspiring.
Keeping equipment in operating order was difficult at best. Drifting clouds that wreathed the treetops in swirling mists fed the dense canopy of dripping foliage far above the ever-saturated and almost sunless floor of the primeval jungle.
Even though the transmitters were set up under tents, they often experienced problems with short-circuiting caused by the moisture that constantly surrounded them. Back-up units were not always available, which meant that often transmitters had to be "jury-rigged" in order to get anything out of them. The hot and humid air also warped the discs (records) containing the recorded programming.
, announcing the end of hostilities in Europe.
AFRS stations broadcast from the islands of New Guinea, Java
, and Borneo
in the Dutch East Indies
as the Allies moved into the Gilbert Islands
and Bismarck Archipelago
to the east. Coast watchers and scouts also listened to the AFRS stations for information about what was happening. Coded messages were sometimes included in daily broadcasts to give them special information as well.
As the Allies drew closer to Japan
, the fighting turned into a desperate island-by-island, hill-by-hill, and even inch-by-inch struggle. Command of the airwaves over areas changed hands as much as twice weekly, and in a few instances, twice daily. That made it even more difficult for those manning the AFRS radio stations, because, if they got too close to the battlefronts, aerial bombing could destroy the stations. On more than one occasion the operators did not have time to transport their equipment away from contested areas, and had to abandon the stations where they were.
As the war front drew closer to Japan's four main islands, another AFRS outlet was established, on the island of Okinawa, in July 1945.
in Tokyo Bay
, the first AFRS station in Japan went on the air, signing-on with the phrase,
"This is Armed Forces Radio Service, Station W-V-T-R in Tokyo." The date was September 12, 1945.
The Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) building in Tokyo was the home to station JOAK, and shared its facilities with WVTR from 1945 to 1952. With the consolidation of all the AFRS outlets under the newly established Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP), the fledgling Far East Network had eighteen stations in Japan broadcasting daily to troops ashore and afloat.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military
Military of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
stations, primarily serving U.S Forces in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Okinawa, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and U.S. Territory of Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
.
Overview
Now known as the American Forces NetworkAmerican Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...
-Japan (AFN-Japan), with the disestablishment in 1997 of the Far East Network, this network provides military members, Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
civilian employees, and State Department diplomatic personnel
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
and their families with news, information and entertainment by over-the-air radio and TV, and by base cable television.
In addition to its primary military and authorized U.S. civilian audience, AFN-Japan also has a "shadow audience" of an estimated 1.2 million non-military listeners; mostly Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
studying English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and other English-speaking foreign nationals residing in Japan.
AFN-Japan is headquartered at Yokota Air Base
Yokota Air Base
, is a United States Air Force base in the city of Fussa, one of 26 cities in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo.The base houses 14,000 personnel. The base occupies a total area of and has a runway...
, a major U.S. Air Force installation on the outskirts of Tokyo, and is also known as "AFN-Tokyo".
The network has affiliates located at Misawa Air Base
Misawa Air Base
right|thumb|A US Navy C-2 at Misawa is a United States military facility located northeast of the railway station in Misawa, west of the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Towada, northwest of Hachinohe, and north of Tokyo, in Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region in the northern part of the...
(AFN-Misawa), Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni
Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni
Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni or MCAS Iwakuni is a United States Marine Corps air station located in the Nishiki river delta, southeast of the Iwakuni Station in the city of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi in Japan.-Tenant commands:...
(AFN-Iwakuni), and Fleet Activities Sasebo (AFN-Sasebo). While not operationally part of what was once FEN - US Air Force personnel assigned to the Army Network in Korea (AFKN) were under partial administrative control of the FEN Network Headquarters.
Also part of AFN-Japan is AFN-Okinawa, located in the Rycom Plaza Housing Area adjacent to Marine Corps Base Camp S.D. Butler.
AFN-Tokyo is also a Regional News Center, collecting news stories from all Pacific military public affairs offices and AFN affiliates, and packages them into the regional newscast, Pacific Report.
The Pacific Report can be seen every weekday throughout the Pacific and around the world on the AFN-Pacific digital satellite feed and on the Pentagon Channel
Pentagon Channel
The Pentagon Channel is a TV channel broadcasting military news and information for the 2.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is widely available on US Public, educational, and government access cable tv channels, can be viewed FTA in most Central and Western European countries ,...
.
In the Philippines, FEN Philippines was broadcasted on UHF channel 17 in Pampanga
Pampanga
Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast...
and Zambales
Zambales
Zambales is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Iba. Zambales borders Pangasinan to the north, Tarlac and Pampanga to the east, and Bataan to the south. The province lies between the South China Sea and the Zambales Mountains. With a land area of...
(as in Subic
Subic
Subic can mean any of the following:*House of Šubić, a noble clan from Dalmatia.*Subic Bay, in the Philippines.*Subic, Zambales, a municipality in the Philippines.*Subic Bay Freeport Zone , an economic free trade area in the Philippines....
and Clark bases), and channel 43 in Bulacan
Bulacan
Bulacan , officially called the Province of Bulacan or simply Bulacan Province, is a first class province of the Republic of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Region in the island of Luzon, north of Manila , and part of the Metro...
and also in Metro Manila
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila , the National Capital Region , or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines...
. Its radio stations DWFE-AM
DWFE-AM
DWFE-AM is a music AM radio station of FEN Philippines in the Philippines. The station's studio and transmitter are located Rizal Ave., Olongapo, Zambales.-See also:*Far East 95.1...
in Olongapo and DWFA-AM in Balanga, Bataan
Bataan
Bataan is a province of the Philippines occupying the whole of the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon. The province is part of the Central Luzon region. The capital of Bataan is Balanga City and it is bordered by the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga to the north...
, and Far East 95.1
DWRQ
Radyo Natin 105.7 is a radio station of Manila Broadcasting Company that broadcasts from 3rd Flr. Primer Bldg., Palanginan, Iba, Zambales in the Philippines....
on FM are as a part of their network's operations from 1946 to 1991, but the TV channel was forcibly shut downed due to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Luzon, near the tripoint of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga. It is located in the Tri-Cabusilan Mountain range separating the west coast of Luzon from the central plains, and is west of the dormant and...
.
The birth of a Pacific network
In May 1942 the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), was established on the AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n island of Kodiak
Kodiak Island
Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the United States and the 80th largest island in the world, with an...
. Radio broadcasts were used to provide information to members of the American armed forces serving off of the U.S. mainland.
Evolving from the Morale Services Division of the War Department, the new American Forces Radio Service
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...
(AFRS) also included a combination of such activities as command troop information programs, local command news, information broadcasts and morale-building transmissions. By late 1942, the new AFRS had begun receiving direct support from both the Army and the Navy with the assignment of personnel tasked with producing special radio programs. In 1943, a complex of high-powered radio transmitters was organized to transmit programs to military men and women serving in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Alaska, and the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
.
When AFRS broadcasts were transmitted in the Pacific, they were done so under two different commands. Outlets in the Southwest Pacific were operated under Army General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
; those in the Central Pacific, under Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz
Chester Nimitz
Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, GCB, USN was a five-star admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet , for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas , for U.S...
.
By July 1943, AFRS had set up two stations in the Southwest Pacific (SWP) Region, operating a small station in New Georgia
New Georgia
New Georgia is the largest island of the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.-Geography:This island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most of the other larger islands in the province...
. The following month, a similar mobile station began broadcasting near Vella Lavella
Vella Lavella
Vella Lavella is an island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It lies to the west of New Georgia, but is considered one of the New Georgia Group...
.
The first AFRS stations established under the Central Pacific Command were set up on the Tarawa Atoll
Tarawa Atoll
Tarawa is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously the capital of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. It is the location of the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, South Tarawa...
and islet of Makin
Butaritari
Butaritari is an atoll located in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati.-Geography:...
, both located in the Gilbert Islands
Gilbert and Ellice Islands
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate from 1892 and colony from 1916 until 1 January 1976, when the islands were divided into two different colonies which became independent nations shortly after...
, in November 1943. Three more stations, on Kwajalein
Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...
and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
and one on Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
in the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, went on the air in February 1944.
Teams of military broadcast specialists were trained at AFRS' headquarters in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to operate radio stations. Later, they traveled to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where they picked up equipment and briefed on their assignment and local conditions, and then proceeded to their posts by whatever means they were able to travel. Some of the teams carried complete radio transmitting equipment: 50-watt transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
s, turntable
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
s, a tiny mixing console and several boxes of records. A few teams were provided with short-wave receivers so they could monitor AFRS newscasts from San Francisco.
Each team usually consisted of an officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
and five or six enlisted men. Upon reaching its destination, a team operated by whatever means they could. Electrical generator
Electrical generator
In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
s were often hard to acquire, and a station often had to provide its own independent power source.
In the Central Pacific, once a station had been set up and broadcasting, locally-based servicemen were trained to operate the outlet. Usually, after the team was sure that the station could be run by the local GIs, they returned to Honolulu for reassignment to another location. This connected conglomerate of military stations became known as the Pacific Ocean Network (PON).
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 BougainvilleBougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
and New Britain
New Britain
New Britain, or Niu Briten, is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel...
(Solomon Islands—March 1944), New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, New Ireland
New Ireland (island)
New Ireland is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 7,404 km² in area. It is the largest island of the New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named after Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by...
, Kavieng
Kavieng
Kavieng is the capital of the Papua New Guinean province of New Ireland and the largest town on the island of the same name. The town is located at Balgai Bay, on the northern tip of the island. As of 2000, it had a population of 10,600....
, and the Admiralty Islands
Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...
(April 1944) and Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...
(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
Saipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
and Guam (Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
in July and August 1944), and on Peleliu
Peleliu
Peleliu is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu forms, along with two small islands to its northeast, one of the sixteen states of Palau. It is located northeast of Angaur and southwest of Koror....
and Ulithi
Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...
(Caroline Islands
Caroline Islands
The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia in the eastern part of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end...
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
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
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
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
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.
Maintaining the signal
The broadcasters and maintenance men who set up and operated the mobile stations experienced extreme hardships. In some cases, personnel, equipment, food and weapons were dropped by parachutes or delivered by PT boatPT boat
PT Boats were a variety of motor torpedo boat , a small, fast vessel used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". The Japanese called them "Devil Boats".The original pre–World War I torpedo boats were...
s. Some were brought to new sites by light planes, which landed on dirt strips, laboriously hacked out of rain forests.
Other hazards in the tropics were jungle swamps, unbridged rivers and streams, and patches of mud into which men sank to their waists. The climate was hot and humid and frequent rainstorms made the atmosphere oppressive. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes were everywhere.
On the larger, foliage-blanketed islands, from which outcrops of rocky mountains extended above the jungles, there was an ever-present, all-pervading scent of rotting vegetation that made breathing miserable. Except for the sounds of exploding bombs and artillery shells, the stillness was so profound that an occasional harsh cry from a startled bird seemed to be sinister and awe-inspiring.
Keeping equipment in operating order was difficult at best. Drifting clouds that wreathed the treetops in swirling mists fed the dense canopy of dripping foliage far above the ever-saturated and almost sunless floor of the primeval jungle.
Even though the transmitters were set up under tents, they often experienced problems with short-circuiting caused by the moisture that constantly surrounded them. Back-up units were not always available, which meant that often transmitters had to be "jury-rigged" in order to get anything out of them. The hot and humid air also warped the discs (records) containing the recorded programming.
End of hostilities
On May 8, 1945, word was received via radio from DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, announcing the end of hostilities in Europe.
AFRS stations broadcast from the islands of New Guinea, Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, and Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
as the Allies moved into the Gilbert Islands
Gilbert Islands
The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands...
and Bismarck Archipelago
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea.-History:...
to the east. Coast watchers and scouts also listened to the AFRS stations for information about what was happening. Coded messages were sometimes included in daily broadcasts to give them special information as well.
As the Allies drew closer to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the fighting turned into a desperate island-by-island, hill-by-hill, and even inch-by-inch struggle. Command of the airwaves over areas changed hands as much as twice weekly, and in a few instances, twice daily. That made it even more difficult for those manning the AFRS radio stations, because, if they got too close to the battlefronts, aerial bombing could destroy the stations. On more than one occasion the operators did not have time to transport their equipment away from contested areas, and had to abandon the stations where they were.
As the war front drew closer to Japan's four main islands, another AFRS outlet was established, on the island of Okinawa, in July 1945.
A new network is born
Ten days after the formal surrender ceremonies aboard the battleship USS MissouriUSS Missouri (BB-63)
|USS Missouri is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship, and was the fourth ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri...
in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
, the first AFRS station in Japan went on the air, signing-on with the phrase,
"This is Armed Forces Radio Service, Station W-V-T-R in Tokyo." The date was September 12, 1945.
The Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) building in Tokyo was the home to station JOAK, and shared its facilities with WVTR from 1945 to 1952. With the consolidation of all the AFRS outlets under the newly established Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP), the fledgling Far East Network had eighteen stations in Japan broadcasting daily to troops ashore and afloat.