While history is rife with racism of every stripe, the American outpouring of hate toward the Japanese after the Pearl Harbor is unique for its sudden onset and its official sanction
Racist propaganda: a thread
Racist propaganda: a thread
During World War II, the U.S. government printed a massive run of propaganda posters occupying a unique place in American history
The War Production Board was established in 1942 with a mandate to take over the U.S. economy & convert it into a production machine for war material
The War Production Board was established in 1942 with a mandate to take over the U.S. economy & convert it into a production machine for war material
As part of its mission, the WPD encouraged American workers to spend every waking moment on war-related efforts
Some of the posters were commissioned and produced in-house, while others were submitted by Americans who wanted to help the war effort
Some of the posters were commissioned and produced in-house, while others were submitted by Americans who wanted to help the war effort
Shoutouts to the Japanese for their tastefully lurid take on things, the Italians warning their country black guys are gonna fuck everyone's mom, the Poles presenting the Soviet Rapist army as Rapists, and Germany with this all time classic
After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. arrested thousands of ethnic Japanese, seized their property and placed them in internment camps
It also happened in Canada, but we don't talk about that either
It also happened in Canada, but we don't talk about that either
By the 1940s, America was in the midst of a communications revolution, thanks to movies, radio and perhaps most importantly, the invention of offset printing, which exponentially boosted capacity in the U.S. to produce newspapers, pamphlets and color posters
The WPD exploited the latter capability to its fullest. It produced thousands of posters within just two years time, littering American factories with endless exhortations to home front workers to remember the soldiers, avoid absenteeism and recycle scrap for the war effort
All for the purpose of defeating America's unspeakably evil enemies.
A significant number of these posters aimed to demonize America's enemies - the Axis nations of Germany, Italy and Japan. Anti-German sentiment was predictably embodied by Hitler, but Mussolini spoke for the guineas, dagos and wops
The Japanese were treated differently. Although many posters caricatured Tojo, the supreme commander of Japan's army, many more simply caricatured a demonized racial stereotype of the Japanese
To such extremes that the racial identity of the characters are frankly unrecognizable to someone familiar with Japanese people but not with the stereotype itself.
There is a certain, difficult to define quality to racial caricature that causes them to drip with hate. American's WWII anti-Japanese propaganda posters are obscenely successful as a government-endorsed vehicle for that quality
Japanese are presented as yellow drooling, well-fanged, sometimes blackfaced, blood-sucking, chong-fonging, rong-donging demons who menace everything America holds dear, sometimes with a spooky dagger in hand
Many of the pictures feature evil "Jap" soldiers threatening the women of America's homeland, a pastoral theme which was also transposed for the Nazis
Many WPD posters parodied Tojo, at least in principle. In practice, however, the generic racial caricatures often overwhelmed anything specific to Tojo, with the exception of his glasses, uniform and mustache
The extremely broad range of depictions runs from simply recreating Tojo with an air of menace to gross exaggerations of his (largely nonexistent) racial characteristics (the teeth, the eyes, etc.) to being depicted as a rat
A particularly attractive series of posters is distinguished by the above-average artistic skill with which they were executed and an excruciating parody of the broken English which Americans imagined the Japanese spoke
As a rule, racism doesn't need to be terribly imaginative, which may explain why Tojo's caricature occasionally takes on the characteristics of black racial caricature instead of looking even remotely Japanese.
But if you invoke imagination, get the art right and go for broke
"Tokio Kid" series represents a vicious nadir of racial stereotyping in the WPD posters, which probably explains their success. The Tokio Kid depicts the Japanese (embodied by another character presumably inspired by Tojo) as mythic monsters, resembling vampires more than humans
The Tokio Kid mocked American workers for their sloth and careless waste, their failure to save scrap and their frequent absenteeism from factories which supported the war effort
The Tokio Kid was so successful that he inspired a cheap knockoff, Tokio Joe. Although Joe was equally hateful, the artwork was uninspired and his impact was far smaller
Many of the WPD posters mimicked other images associated with racial hatred and other forms of bigotry (Ironically, a handful of posters warned about the enemies' prejudices, telling Americans to report anyone overheard casting aspersions on Catholics, Protestants and Jews)
For instance, many posters presented images of Axis representatives being lynched. A favorite theme showed all three Axis leaders hanging from a noose
Others depict only Hitler. It's difficult to fully grok the vast difference in society from the modern age back to when these images were made
This thread was bought to you by Queens Trash, powered by the soul of Archie Bunker trapped in the Con Ed building
queenstrash.com
queenstrash.com
Loading suggestions...