Oroville Mercury Register
December 13,
1950
Marine Receiving Amphibious Training
Pfc. Mervin A. Moak, 20 of Richvale, who enlisted
in the Marine Corps last July is training aboard landing craft at
Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Calif. Moak spent Thanksgiving
in Richvale, where he made his home with his grandmother, Mrs. Emily
Comstock. He is the son of Harris Moak of Chester. Moak
attended Richvale elementary school and was graduated from Biggs
high school in 1948.
Oroville Mercury Register
April 28, 1944
Japanese Leaflets, Dropped Behind New Guinea
Lines, Arrive Here
Pvt. Pigg Sends Propaganda Used By Japanese In
Effort To Break Allied Men’s Morale. A new Japanese
propaganda technique intended to weaken the morale of Americans
who are driving the Nipponese from New Guinea has been revealed
here by Pvt. Frank Pigg of Oroville, participating in the New Guinea
campaigns. A letter received from Pigg Tuesday by his sister,
Mrs. Parks Totman of Bridge Street, contained cartoons Pigg said
were dropped on the American lines. Most of the leaflets,
some of which Pigg described as too obscene to get by the censor,
pictured the American’s wives and sweethearts as unfaithful to them
while they were fighting. One throw-away shows photographs
of men and women movie stars in love scenes, with intimations that
the fighting men’s wives or girl friends aren’t wasting their time
while the men are overseas.
Worst Suggestions Made
In the center is a caricature of a shell-shattered
soldier, with the caption: “You have been fooled into believing
yourself a hero. Pause and think about the men at home- those
big sissies who are running around with your women folks- while
you, not knowing what you’re fighting for, face ugly death to become
another unknown soldier” One of the cartoons pictures President
Roosevelt pushing a soldier into a grave above which is a cross
marked “The Unknown,” and a third shows the body of a soldier chained
to New Guinea, with the words, “Killed in Action,” and “Died that
the Jungles of New Guinea might again rest in peace,”
Attack Allied Morale
Coincident with receipt of the pictures here,
the Office of War Information in Washington announced that the Japanese
propagandists had launched a “thought warfare” offensive against
American and Australian troops. The office said the Japanese
were using “political and Pornographic cartoons” in an effort to
split the Allies and undermine soldier morale. One of the
cartoons mentioned by the OWI, which depicts Roosevelt as American’s
No. 1 playboy pushing soldiers in front of Japanese cannons, was
enclosed in Pigg’s letter. Pigg is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
George W. Pigg of B Street.
Oroville Mercury Register
September
5, 1944
In The Fight Nichols Boys Serve In Pacific,
France
Serving America on two widely separated war fronts
are Seaman 1/c Ernest Hugh Nichols, U.S.N., and Cpl. Billy G. Nichols,
U. S. Field Artillery. They are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. J.
V. Nichols of Thermalito. Ernest, who was home on leave recently,
is now somewhere in the Pacific and serving as member of an armed
guard until aboard a ship. He has been over and back four
times in the Pacific. He entered the Navy on July 13, 1943,
after having been employed previously at various jobs in Oroville
for five years. Billy has been in the army for 18 months and
overseas since April. He is now with American forces in France
and believed to have been in the vanguard of the invasion army.
Stu’s Notes: I’ve written about Pvt. Frank Pigg before
(see: our website April 14 2006) when he met Kenneth Richter on
New Guinea. My friend Bernie Richter many times told me to get a
story from his brother Kenny but when I talked to Kenny about it
he just said, “No.” I’m sure he saw some awful things.
Last week I wrote about PFC David L Nichols
wounded in Korea this week I find a story of his two brothers fighting
in WWII. I grew up with the younger two Nichols boys and never heard
their older brothers were heroes. I hope to contact their
brother Carl soon for, “the rest of the story.”