U.S. espionage efforts in the Pacific theater during World War II included painting foxes with glow-in-the-dark paint and releasing them into territories occupied by the Japanese. Imagined as a form of psychological warfare, Operation Fantasia intended to leverage Japanese folklore about kitsune, supernatural fox creatures considered harbingers of doom. Believing Japanese soldiers vulnerable to cultural superstition, U.S. spies hoped the sight of glowing foxes would demoralize enemy troops.
When fox-shaped balloons proved impractical, the OSS painted live foxes with luminescent – and radioactive – paint and released them in Rock Creek Park, near Washington, DC. Operatives figured that if American citizens were frightened by the foxes, the Japanese people would be terrified into submission. While this test run proved successful on park visitors, the OSS never figured out how to release the foxes near the shores of Japan without the paint washing off in the ocean.
When this plan didn’t take off, the OSS returned to the rejected idea of mechanical devices and balloons before the whole operation was eventually scrapped.
There’s a great story in there somewhere. If you aren’t grabbed by the WWII setting, consider how someone might use an adversary’s superstitions against them in another conflict or era. What if the OSS had access to actual kitsune or accidentally summoned them? What happens next?
