page_title: American propaganda during World War II
section_title: Anti-Japanese
hierarchical_section_title: American propaganda during World War II / Themes / Anti-Japanese
caption_attribution_description: 'stay on the job until every murdering jap is wiped out!' World War II poster
context_page_description: During active American involvement in World War II, propaganda was used to increase support for the war and commitment to an Allied victory. Using a vast array of media, propagandists instigated hatred for the enemy and support for America's allies, urged greater public effort for war production and victory gardens, persuaded people to save some of their material so that more material could be used for the war effort, and sold war bonds. Patriotism became the central theme of advertising throughout the war, as large scale campaigns were launched to sell war bonds, promote efficiency in factories, reduce ugly rumors, and maintain civilian morale. The war consolidated the advertising industry's role in American society, deflecting earlier criticism.
context_section_description: Propaganda portrayed the Japanese more than any other Axis power as a foreign, grotesque and uncivilized enemy.  Drawing on Japanese samurai traditions, American propagandists portrayed the Japanese as blindly fanatic and ruthless, with a history of desiring overseas conquests.  Japanese propaganda, such as Shinmin no Michi or The Way of the Subjects, called for the Japanese people to become "one hundred million hearts beating as one"—which Allied propagandists used to portray the Japanese as a mindless, unified mass.  Atrocities were ascribed to the Japanese people as a whole.  Even Japanese-Americans would be portrayed as massively supporting Japan, only awaiting the signal to commit sabotage.  Japanese atrocities and their fanatical refusal to surrender supported the portrayal of otherwise racist elements in propaganda.
  Even prior to the Attack on Pearl Harbor, accounts of atrocities in China roused considerable antipathy for Japan.  This stemmed from as early as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, when accounts were received of Japanese forces of bombing civilians, or firing upon shell-shocked survivors.  Such books as Pearl Buck's The Good Earth and Freda Utley's China At War aroused sympathy for the Chinese.  As early as 1937, Roosevelt condemned the Japanese for their aggression in China.  The Rape of Nanking, due to the large number of Western witnesses, achieved particularly notoriety, with Chinese propagandists using it to cement Allied opinion.
  Propaganda based on the attack on Pearl Harbor was used with considerable effectiveness, because its outcome was enormous and impossible to counter.  Initial reports termed it a "sneak attack" and "infamous behavior".  "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became the watchword of the war.  Reports of the maltreatment of American prisoners of war also aroused fury, as did reports of atrocities against native populations, with babies being thrown in the air to be caught on bayonets receiving particular attention.  When three of the Doolittle Raiders were executed, it evoked a passion for revenge in America, and the image of the "Japanese ape" became common in film and cartoons.  The film The Purple Heart dramatized their story, with an airman giving a concluding speech that he now knew that he had understood the Japanese less than he had thought, and that they did not understand Americans if they thought this would frighten them.  The diary of a dead Japanese soldier, which contained an entry coolly recounting the execution of a downed airman, was given considerable play as a demonstration of the true nature of the enemy.
  The early overwhelming Japanese successes led to a pamphlet "Exploding the Japanese 'Superman' Myth" to counter the effect.  The limitations of Japanese troops it cited, although minor,  were actual flaws to counter the impression GIs had of Japanese military prowess.  The Doolittle Raid was staged after urging from Roosevelt for a counter-attack, if only for morale reasons.
  Japanese calls for devotion to death were used to present a war of extermination as the only possibility, without any question as to whether it was desirable.  One Marine unit was briefed:  "Every Japanese has been told that it is his duty to die for the emperor.  It is your duty to see that he does so."  The suicides at Saipan—of women, children, and the elderly as well as fighting men—only reinforced that belief.  A thorough defeat of the Japanese was argued for in magazines so as to prevent a resurgence, as happened in Germany after World War I, of Japanese military power or ambition.  This encouraged American forces to attack civilians, on the belief they would not surrender, which fed into Japanese propaganda about American atrocities.
  Hirohito and undifferentiated "Japs" were often portrayed in caricature.  Dr. Seuss's editorial cartoons, which often depicted Hitler and Mussolini, opted for a "Japan" figure rather than any given leader.
  One OWI suggestion for adapting "pulp" formulas was a sports story of a professional baseball team touring Japan, which would allow the writers to show the 
caption: Bataan Death March in propaganda
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