Practices of War

PROPAGANDA AND RACIAL REPRESENTATION OF ENEMY COUNTRIES

Introduction
Propaganda had a huge impact on every participating

nation of world War II. It fueled the hatred within the

men and woman that kept the soldiers going back into combat, kept the factory workers motivated, and kept the citizens investing in the protection of their country. These posters, commercials, and advertisements went to extremes to get the messages across and to get as many supporters as they could. Often times, the best way to get support against the enemy was to portray them in stereotypical and racist forms. Americans were sometimes portrayed as frighteningly large monsters and the Japanese were depicted as rats. The dehumanization of the citizens of the enemy countries made sparked the hatred and somehow justified the mass killings of hundreds of thousands of people. This exhibit explores the racism and persuasion behind the WWII propaganda and examines how it was able to inspired the citizens and hurt the victims.

General Exhibit Blueprint

American Portrayal of Germany Doing your part on the Home Front Racism Japanese as Rats Racism Tokyo Kid AntiAmerican Propaganda

Racism Tokio Kid

During World War II, there was a series of American propaganda called Tokio Kid (or commonly referred to as Tokyo Kid) created by Jack Campbell and endorsed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. These posters portrayed the Japanese as bloodthirsty beings with stereotypical and racist features. The character had long sharp fangs and almost resembled a vampire. By having Tokio Kid mock the viewer, this line of posters convinced Americans that their excessive material waste was letting Japan win the war. Like much of the propaganda at the time, these posters dehumanized the Japanese and made it easier for the Americans to hate them. In addition, Tokio Kid had harmful effects on Japanese-Americans; they physically resembled the Japanese and many Americans began associating them with the characters on these posters. Discrimination as based on race and disregarded nationality.
Images and Information from: http://www.authentichistory.com/1939-1945/2homefront/3-anti-jap/index.html http://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2012/03/wwii-propaganda-the-influence-of-racism/ http://www.rotten.com/library/imagery/propaganda/racist-propaganda/

Racism Japanese as Rats

A common stereotype of the Japanese were animals. Throughout the duration of the war, propaganda posters continually compared them to snakes, sea monsters, skunks, and rats. Most commonly, they were compared to rats (Figures A and B), since it was something that a human usually wanted to squish or hunt. Rats tiny beady eyes matched those of the Japanese which is why it was easy to draw a comparison. Also the Japanese would burrow themselves into fox holes along mountainsides, much like that of rat holes which would tunnel throughout the mountain. A common theme in propaganda posters involving rats were rat traps which usually symbolized the American military. In these posters, the rat would be biting a piece of scrap piece of metal, since they were to be depicted as cheap, thus being lured in by the military. In Figure B, one sees a rat with an enlarged ear. This is due to the common thought that the Japanese are sneaky and are attempting to intercept American plans in order to counter attack them. While the American and Japanese would fight of forest covered islands, the Japanese had the advantage of sneaking around and spying on the American troop, thus depicting their small size and large ears.
Sources: The Color of War (Documentary)http://mason.gmu.edu/~jboggs/op enseason/animals.html

Doing Your Part on the Home front

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s06_l6V-0MQ This short video was created by Walt Disney, intended to persuade housewives and families at home to do there part by collecting household resources to send to the soldiers.
Propaganda intended for the home front was much different from the propaganda for the soldiers. Its purpose was to make Americans excited and positive about the war. In turn, these posters and advertisements were meant to encourage citizens to work even harder in the factories and send as much scrap material as they could to the soldiers. Aside from the soldiers on the front, American labor was the most important contributor in the success of the war. The American economy was centered around weapon production so much so that Franklin D. Roosevelt called it the arsenal of Democracy. Propaganda was a source of constant inspiration that reminded the citizens on the home front how important they were to the war effort. Encouraged Americans were the beginning of a domino effect that lead to weapon production which resulted in better prepared men on the front.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/worldwar-ii/essays/world-war-ii-home-front

http://www.flickr.com/photos/headovmetal/ 1759842302/

In this poster (above), the purpose is to persuade American citizens to work hard in the factories in order to help the war effort. Here, it is suggested that American labor and production will be what wins the war.

The purpose of this poster is to persuade Americans to buy war bonds. The use of American children is affective because it shows the buyers what their soldiers are fighting for.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0 111500/ww2/american/amerpro p.htm

Anti-American Propaganda
The purpose of almost every piece of propaganda was to boost morale, whether that was done by glorifying the Japanese, Koreans, or Chinese or by showing a negative portrayal of the United States. The Japan, along with its neighbors, always depicted itself as the civilized ones in their propaganda while their opponent was drawn as some sort of beast or hideous monster. A common tactic for the Japanese, as well as the Chinese and the Koreans, was to depict Americans as an imperial power who wanted to conquer Japan based off of racial reasoning. In their propaganda they would portray Americans as ruthless and heartless monsters. In one poster, the Americans are depicted as a sort of blue Frankenstein character (Figure B). However, drawing the Americans as looking physically like beasts wasnt the only way the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese used their propaganda. They also created pictures of Americans dressed and looking normally, but performing ruthless, violent and graphic actions towards innocent citizens. An example of propaganda along these lines is a poster showing a bloody and dying Korean with rope wrapped all around his body (Figure C), ready to be clubbed at and sawed by the American soldiers. The Korean man is innocent and helpless while the Americans are seen as cruel.
Figure A: Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt are illustrated as the devil and a beast, sitting together eating the bones of their victims. The caption under this poster says: Their True Character is that of Devils and Beasts

B A Korean Anti-American Propaganda Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLGKqwRB4Ik&pl aynext=1&list=PLD904E36925EBCFB2&feature=result s_main

Figure A: http://www.psywarrior.com/JapanPSYOPWW2.html Figure C: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/the-real-reason-america-is-drifting-towards-fascism.html Figure B: https://sites.google.com/site/digitalpostercollection/propaganda/1939-1945-world-war-ii/japan

American Portrayal of Germany

Propaganda posters were used to increase moral or the soldiers and encourage nationalism and help on the home front. A common theme in US propaganda posters is they attempted to stay away from battle scenes and and encourage people to enlist and give positive reinforcement or help to those fighting. Throughout American propaganda posters relating to Germany, Hitler and the German people were depicted as cartoons with captions alluding to defeat or that their intelligence was not up to par. B Follow this link, watch the second clip: http://blogs.baylor.edu/propagan daovertime/wwii-disneypropaganda/
In a cartoon made by Walt Disney, Donald Duck is dreaming about being in Nazi Germany, he is oppressed and constantly saluting to Hitler while working at a conveyer belt. At the end of the video, he wakes up and is ecstatic to be an American citizen, depicting the absurdity of Hitlers rule. Although this does not depict defeat of the German army, it raises nationalism and make us proud to be an American citizen.
http://www.teacheroz.com/WWIIpropaganda .htm

Figure A: http://chivethebrigade.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/wwii-propaganda-posters500-68.jpg Figure B: http://www.umt.edu/montanamuseum/imx/permanentcollection/WWII%20Propoganda%20Poster72.jpg

Figures A and B: The posters, encourage fighting for one's country, both in some form are persuading citizens to fight for their homeland, a common theme in propaganda. The first poster shows an American fist destroying a swastika, while the second encourages people to fight.

Historiography
During a time of war, especially a war as big and impacting as World War Two, propaganda posters were seen as motivation to join the war in any way possible. No matter what country one lived in, the sole purpose of propaganda posters and videos was to boost the communities moral by not only glorifying their country, but also by depicting the enemy as someone frightening, perhaps threatening, and definitely someone whom you would want to defeat and defend your country for. Using racism in their propaganda, for example, depicting the Japanese as sneaky rats or depicting Americans as ruthless beasts gave the people on the home front incentive to do their part in the war. Their enemy was dirty and conniving or monstrous and had to be beat and the fact that these pieces of propaganda were racist might not have even been so

apparent.
Today, the negatively racist aspects of the posters and videos are more blatant than before as we do not have the war going on to cloud our judgment. The propaganda used during WWII should be viewed as racist and wrong and of course it is obvious how biased and untruthful these propaganda were, although that was the whole point. In America, or anywhere, the fact that Americans were extremely racist could be something that the public wouldnt want to hear or see because it looks bad on the United States. This could also be the case in the Asian countries as well. However, whether people like it or not, these propaganda posters and videos were filled with racism and it is an important aspect of World War Two.