---
title: '''BUT if you continue to resist...'' (Japanese leaflet to Australian troops)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/but-leaflet-australian-troops-1942/
description: 'The opened inner face of a folded surrender leaflet. Above a moonlit battlefield and a bloodied, dismembered Allied soldier it reads: ''BUT if you…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Japanese leaflet showing a dead, dismembered soldier, with a sexual appeal in its text. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!['BUT if you continue to resist...' (Japanese leaflet to Australian troops)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/but-leaflet-australian-troops-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/but-leaflet-australian-troops-1942.jpg)

# 'BUT if you continue to resist...' (Japanese leaflet to Australian troops)

The opened inner face of a folded surrender leaflet. Above a moonlit battlefield and a bloodied, dismembered Allied soldier it reads: 'BUT if you continue to resist... Then, under the beautiful tropical moon, only DEATH awaits you. Bullet-holes in your guts---agonizing death! You have the two alternatives. Take your choice.' The small print recalls 'that unforgettable embrace' of a woman at home, available again 'if you'll throw down your arms, surrender'.

- **Date:** 1942
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** Imperial Japanese Army General Staff (as attributed on Wikimedia Commons)
- **Region:** [East Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=east-asia)
- **Country:** [Empire of Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=empire-of-japan)
- **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet)
- **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military)
- **Regime:** [Showa Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=showa-japan)
- **Leader:** [Hideki Tojo](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=hideki-tojo)
- **Audience:** [Enemy forces](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=enemy-forces)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Regime:** [Empire of Japan, 1937 to 1945](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/)
- **Leader:** [Hideki Tōjō](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/#hideki-tojo)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_War_Japanese_Propaganda_Leaflet_%22But%22(opened).jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (PD-Japan-organization; PD-1996 in the U.S.) Imperial Japanese Army (attributed), 1942; Gessler collection, Duke University, via Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
BUT if you continue to resist ............
Then, under the beautiful tropical moon, only DEATH awaits you.
Bullet-holes in your guts---agonizing death!
You have the two alternatives.
Take your choice.

That unforgettable embrace under the beautiful moon with the warmth of HER shapely body nested against yours; that blood-tingling kiss; that over-powering sense of passion that sweeps over you---these and many other pleasant memories you'll be able to relive again if you'll throw down your arms, surrender and prepare to get out of this hell-hole.
```

[← 'A Grã-Bretanha, Defensora da Liberdade' (British poster in Portuguese)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/britain-defender-of-liberty-portuguese-1942/) [Don't Let That Shadow Touch Them: Buy War Bonds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-let-that-shadow-touch-them-1942/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)
- [時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East / Map of the Present Situation), newer version with English labels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/situation-in-far-east-tse-tsan-tai-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)