During World War II, the US government and media widely used propaganda to portray the Japanese as subhuman and encourage support for the war effort. Propaganda took the form of posters, films, magazines and newspapers that dehumanized Japanese people by depicting them as monsters or apes. The propaganda relied on racist notions of biological differences between races and fueled anti-Japanese sentiment. The Office of War Information oversaw propaganda production across media to promote the war.

1. World War II
Racism & Propaganda

2. Propaganda
1.Information, especially of a biased
or misleading nature, used to
promote or publicize a particular
political cause or point of view.
2.The dissemination of such
information as a political strategy.

3. Posters, Songs, & Rallies
•Office of War Information 1942-1945
•Encouraged Americans to support the
war in many ways

4. Anti-Japanese Propaganda
• Newspapers, magazines, posters, and films portrayed the
Japanese as evil monsters and monkeys—the Japanese were
dehumanized as America’s enemy.

7. History
• Anti-Japanese sentiment existed
during the yellow-peril of the late
19th Century, rose to new heights
during WWII, and during the
1980s.
• Magazines, newspapers, and
government agencies, fueled the
anti-Japanese sentiment during
the Second World War.
• Life Magazine, May 1944

9. Racist anti-Japanese propaganda during World War II relied on the notion that race
was a biological construction, and that there were biological differences between
the Japanese and Chinese races, even down to the amount of facial hair they’re
able to grow (see Life Magazine above)..

10. Time Magazine
“How to Tell Your Friends From
the Japs”
“Japanese—except for wrestlers—
are seldom fat; they often dry up
and grow lean as they age.”
“Japanese are hesitant, nervous in
conversation, laugh loudly at the
wrong time.”
December 22, 1941

11. Conflicting images

12. Government & Hollywood
• President Roosevelt set up the Office of War Information
(1942-1945)
• Bureau of Motion Pictures
• Frank Capra, director, worked directly under George
Marshall to promote the war

13. Movie clips
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNI4LBnMuzk
• Why We Fight
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMTLMPcyprg
• (Donald duck)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4UPQ9-jw6M
• (Bugs Bunny)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn-YxDB2FOc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au8Ynh-AREQ
• Purple Heart (1944)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKqDD30s3co
• Gung Ho (1943)

14. Movie Clips
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-lQ3BrzQO4
• Government film 1945