World Pictorial (Sekai Gaho): Deputy Governor's Annual Inspection Trip to Amami Oshima, 1952 US poster: Side one

World Pictorial (Sekai Gaho): Deputy Governor's Annual Inspection Trip to Amami Oshima (Japanese-language poster distributed in the Ryukyu Islands)

Side one of a Japanese-language photo sheet headed 'World Pictorial'. Six captioned photographs show the U.S. Ryukyu deputy governor and his wife on an annual visit to Amami Oshima: inspecting a pottery works, shaking hands with residents, children dancing and in costume beneath a 'Welcome General Beightler' banner, a dinner, and a group of local women. The intro says villagers gave an enthusiastic welcome. The tell is bandwagon, with plain-folks scenes.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Bandwagon Plain folks

Date: July 21, 1952
Period: Cold War
Made by: U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Truman Administration
Leader: Harry S. Truman
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Empire and colonialism, War and the military
Event: Cold War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, , retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, July 21, 1952. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5729928, 306-PPA-29A).

Text on the object

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

世界画報

副長官奄美大島に例年の視察旅行を行う
琉球軍司令官ロバート.エス.ビートラー少将は琉球列島副長官として列島最北端の奄美大島群島に例年の視察旅行を行ったが、同島では村民が熱狂的な大歓迎をしたのである。

大島紬工場を視察するビートラー少将、この紬もガリオア資金の援助のもとに復興して来たものであるのだ。
名瀬に着いて住民に迎えられるビートラー少将及び夫人。
琉球民政府の保健計画は実施され、幼稚園では園児達が楽しそうに踊っているのが見られるのである。
三才のナンシー・ミルズちゃん(右上)は奄美でたった一人のアメリカ人子供である。友達は幼稚園の同級生。
楽しく晩餐を倶にするアメリカ人と琉球の人々
名瀬市婦人連合会に迎えられるビートラー夫人及び米婦人。

[banners in photographs] 歓迎 Welcome GENERAL Beightler 奄美群島政府 名瀬市役所 Amami Government Naze City
(J)

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

World Pictorial

Deputy Governor makes his annual inspection trip to Amami Oshima
Major General Robert S. Beightler, Commander of the Ryukyus and Deputy Governor of the Ryukyu Islands, made his annual inspection trip to the Amami Oshima island group at the northern tip of the islands, where the villagers gave him an enthusiastic, grand welcome.

Major General Beightler inspecting the Oshima pongee (tsumugi) workshop; this cloth too has been revived with the help of GARIOA funds.
Major General Beightler and his wife, on arriving at Naze, greeted by residents.
The Ryukyu civil government's health programme has been put into effect, and at the kindergarten the children can be seen dancing happily.
Three-year-old Nancy Mills (upper right) is the only American child in Amami. Her friends are her kindergarten classmates.
Americans and Ryukyuans happily dining together.
Mrs. Beightler and an American woman greeted by the Naze City Women's Federation.

[banners] Welcome / Welcome General Beightler / Amami Government, Naze City Office

Faint show-through of the reverse side is visible and is not transcribed. Some small captions are read with minor uncertainty.