Before we begin, a quick note.

This episode contains World War II error recordings of offensive language.

In his first fireside chat after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt

didn't try to put a positive spin on things.

The president vowed that he would always tell the truth about the war, regardless of

how troubling the reports turned out to be.

But he said that his fellow citizens would need to stick to the facts too.

These ugly little hints of complete disaster fly thick and fast in wartime.

FDR was worried that gossiping Americans might give up real valuable information to access

spies.

That loose slips might sink ships.

But the government also wanted to clamp down on phony rumors, made up stories that could

damage morale on the home front.

And in 1942, that kind of misinformation was everywhere.

There were conspiracy theories about the Japanese putting glass in people's food, about

a war worker punching holes in gas masks, and about barns getting painted to make them

easier targets for access bombers.

Some were mongering could destroy unity in thinking that maybe someone is not playing

their fair share doing their part, somehow aiding the enemy.

Tracy Campbell is the author of The Year of Peril, America in 1942.

Information is critical at all times, but particularly when you're facing a common enemy.

All these rumors, you can imagine, had a great deal of power.

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