Hatred of the Enemy: The Use of Propaganda during WWII

During times of warfare, countries such as Japan and the United States devoted much effort to designing material that shaped the opinion of their citizens perception of the enemy. The production of propaganda led to othering, which is a negative view of others who differ from you in some way, resulting in inferior treatment. This includes but is not limited to gender, race, and ethnicity. Through propaganda and othering, the depiction of the enemy is created. Propaganda is used to unite the public against a common enemy. 

    During World War II, patriotism became the central theme of advertising in the United States. Using various mediums, the U.S. government actively worked to instill in  American citizens a focused hatred for Japan. To aid in the assistance of production and distribution of propaganda, President Roosevelt founded the Office of War Information (OWI) in 1942, approximately six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The goal of the government in creating this office was to broadcast a single line of communication regarding the war to the American population. This office controlled all of the information citizens received about the war efforts. To reach the general public, the OWI utilized short feature films, commercials, catchy songs, and posters, aimed at the general population, to achieve their goals.

The use of printed and widely distributed posters were the most common form of propaganda produced by the United States used in World War II. Approximately 200,000 designs were printed during 1939-1945. Posters used compelling themes to convey their messages. The posters focused on patriotism and coming together, unlike other forms of propaganda that fueled negative feelings towards the enemy. Patriotic figures such as Uncle Sam were commonly used, to unite the country and recruit soldiers for the war efforts. Students in grade school were even encouraged to save towards war bonds and war stamps passed out by their teachers.

   

Animated cartoons allowed the U.S. government to spread their propaganda in a entertainable way that all the citizenry could also understand. World War II changed the idea of animation. Prior to the war, animation was just viewed as childish viewing material. The government relayed their message to the masses by using familiar characters such as Popeye and Donald Duck. Two famous cartoons include Scrap the Japs and You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap. You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap has a catchy tune, which was created intentionally to get the tune ingrained into the minds of viewers, especially children. For example, in the chorus of one of the songs, the line, “You’re a sap, Mr. Jap, who makes a Yankee cranky” is constantly repeated. These cartoons focus on racist stereotypes (more to be discussed later). The Japanese were dehumanized by these representations, but it appeared as a form of entertainment to the people of the United States. 

Documentary films produced by the United States at the time also pushed their anti-Japanese agenda. These documentaries were conglomerations of blatantly racist clichés. An example of one of these films is Know Your Enemy-Japan. These documentary films focus on the inner-workings of the Japanese mind. Dower comments, “...which was portrayed as being imprisoned in an ideological cage built of two unique elements: the Shinto religion (as perverted by the modern state) and belief in a divine emperor whose role was both scared and secular.” The United States even tapped into the religious beliefs of the Japanese to antagonize them.  To the people directly impacted and fighting the war, the main purpose of knowing and dehumanizing the enemy was to be able to control them better in order to ultimately kill them off and win the war. 

    Know Your Enemy-Japan served as a way to remind the public, especially in the present, how beliefs were shaped by disjointed images and impressions. Dower puts it simply, “ ...stereotyping could be summed up in this statement: you are the opposite of what you say you are and the opposite of us, not peaceful but warlike, not good but bad...In the second form of stereotyping, the formula ran more like this: you are what you say you are, but that itself is reprehensible. On the part of the Japanese, this involved singling out the emphasis placed on individualism and profit making in the Western tradition.” 

Propaganda produced by the United States against Japan had many tropes present throughout their representation of the enemy. First of all, the term jap is a racial slur that is considered rude and offensive, but rose to popularity during the Pacific War. Various stereotypes were used to dehumanize the Japanese so that the Americans would be able to view them not as people, making them easier to hate and kill. John Dower, a former MIT historian, details these racist tropes in his 1986 book War Without Mercy. A characteristic of this anti-Japanese sentiment was the use of non-human representation in which the Japanese were perceived as animals, including apes, insects, and mice. In the cartoon Scrap the Japs, the Japanese soldiers are seen locked in a cage like rodents. Dower quotes, “At the simplest level, they dehumanized the Japanese and enlarged the chasm between “us” and “them” to the point where it was perceived to be virtually unbridgeable. The Japanese were not, and in good part, they were not because they were denied even the ordinary vocabularies of being human.” The representation of the Japanese as apes was a common motif during this time. In 1942, the word “Japes” was created, merging the well-known term jap and ape. The U.S. Navy prepared a booklet during the final months of the Pacific War portraying the Japanese as these wild animals. When this image made it around the U.S., citizens were told it was an accurate representation of the average Japanese-half man and half monkey. These are examples of fanaticism on the part of the United States.

Published in the New York Times, 1943


The language of the Japanese was also mocked through the  propaganda. In cartoons, the Japanese are heard speaking in a feminine, high pitched tone, with an overdramatic accent that some argue sounds more Chinese than Japanese. In cartoons such as You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap the Japanese characters can be heard saying “I sorry” and using other forms of broken English. Various propaganda videos also portray the Japanese as having poor vision, squinting constantly. This feeds into the common racist stereotype of having small eyes. They were also often  seen wearing glasses, which are perfectly circular.  The Japanese were characterized as having poor teeth-crooked, pointy, and non-white. 

    In another book by Dower titled, Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays, he writes, “Dehumanization of the enemy is desirable among men in combat. It eliminates scruple and doubt from killing, the reasoning goes, and this contributes to self preservation; the enemy after all is simultaneously dehumanizing you and trying to kill you… Killing them (the Japanese) was compared to shooting down a running quail, picking off rabbits, bringing a rabid beast to bay and finishing it off.” Another theme common in American propaganda, especially in cartoons, was the trope of something being ‘made in Japan.’ This is meant to emphasize and instill the idea that Japan produced products that are cheap and weak. Every time the Japanese were stereotyped or ridiculed, there was almost always some counter activity of American pride happening simultaneously. 

        The women of the time also participated in the war effort and had a major role in holding down the fort at the homefront. During the years of the war when men were stationed overseas, approximately 19 million women left domestic duties and filed into the workforce. Women took on a variety of jobs, ranging from factory employees to aircraft manufacturers and mechanics. The most well-known women at this time was Rosie the Riveter, which was an advertisement that became a cultural icon. Even today, Rosie is a figure that represents feminism and a ‘can-do’ attitude among women everywhere.

As with other forms of U.S. propaganda, a catchy song featuring Rosie the Riveter was created. This song ultimately led to the “We Can Do It” war campaign, which glamourized war work. Additionally, this campaign led to female empowerment. In an article by Maria Santana from the University of Central Florida, Santana comments, “Women appropriated, transformed and challenged the stereotype and the competing voices on the domestic stereotype constructed after WWII. The war effort to bring women to work produced a change in home dynamics that would forever change women.” This temporary empowerment gave birth not only to a massive war effort, but the present day careers of women. More than ever, female labor force participation rates are at an all time high.   

    Similar to the United States, the Japanese government had their own forms of propaganda they used to represent their enemy. One of the most common and well-known was animated cartoons. These cartoons used cute and sweet animals to portray its message, and was less blatantly racist regarding the enemy when compared to propaganda of the United States.  An example of this is Momotaro’s Scared Sailors. Here, four cute animals-a rabbit, a monkey, a bear cub, and a pheasant are under the command of a little boy dressed as a general, named Momotaro. These animals can be seen learning to write Japanese and conduct an invasion of British land. The viewers can see and acknowledge how cheerful animals are lined up in a military formation. All Japanese children would be familiar with the character of Momotaro.

The Japanese also used notable characters that could easily antagonize the Americans. In another short animated film titled Evil Mickey Attacks Japan, the iconic American Mickey Mouse character was appropriated to represent implications of further U.S. attacks on Japan.   

    Tropes can be seen throughout these mediums. At the end of Momotaro’s Scared Sailors a British soldier can be seen. The soldier’s caricature was made to look evil, as he had a large nose and a head that appeared similar to that of a bobble-head. This was done to instill fear and hatred of westerners into Japanese citizens. The theme of all-hands-on-deck is also present. Momotaro and his animal friends are young, demonstrating that even young individuals can contribute to the war effort, and are actually encouraged to do so. Japan used the idea of selfing and othering frequently to portray the enemy.  In War Without Mercy, author John Dower writes, “The common human quality shared by the archetypical Momotaro and the demons was highlighted in a great deal of cartoon work by Japanese artists, and points to an important alternative to the sense of Self and Other as polar opposites. This amounted to the humanizations or naturalization of the Momotaro paradigm-involving, on one hand, the depiction of Japan and the Japanese as youthful and vigorous, but not necessarily the innately superior, figure; and, on the other hand, the portrayal of the Americans and English as demons with a human face.”

  Posters used to show how the Americans were viewed in the eyes of the Japanese-like monsters. For example, the poster below is meant to emphasize President Roosevelt’s ‘true form-a monster who sees no issue in taking the lives of the Japanese. Propaganda is a powerful tool that can evoke strong feelings of hatred, jealousy, and annoyance. Propaganda can paint an image of the perceived enemy and influence the thinking of the enemy. Large scale propaganda campaigns were used by both the American and Japanese governments to  keep their respective populations engaged in the war effort.  Looking back at these racist stereotypes, we can only hope that as a population we are less impressionable and less willing to let ourselves be influenced by messages of hate.
Works Cited

“Defining the Enemy.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/defining-the-enemy.

Dower, John W. Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays. New Press, 1998.

Dower, John W. War without Mercy Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon Books, 2014

From Empowerment to Domesticity: The Case of Rosie the Riveter and the WWII Campaign María Cristina Santana* Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

History.com Editors. “American Women in World War II.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 5 Mar. 2010, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/american-women-in-world-war-ii-1.

Horne, Madison. “These World War II Propaganda Posters Rallied the Home Front.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Oct. 2018, https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-propaganda-posters-photos-united-states-home-front

MindofMarques. “CULTURE WAR AND PROPAGANDA IN JAPAN.” Booksie, 7 Jan. 2009, https://www.booksie.com/posting/mindofmarques/culture-war-and-propaganda-in-japan-70624.