Compare and contrast the Japanese and American propaganda posters of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

World War II was one of the most monumental events in history and certainly one of the most significant events in the 20th century.  The catalyst for drawing the United States fully into the war was the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  The series of confrontational events that led up to Pearl Harbor and the events that followed up until the Japanese surrender in 1945, were waged on the political, economic, and military fronts, but one aspect of the war which is sometimes overlooked is the war waged on the social front.  What makes the social aspect of war so significant is that it involves a dynamic within the human person.  In time of war, there is killing, violence, and hate, all stirred up from within.  Thoughts and emotions come into play.  Ideologies and philosophies, ways of life, and cultures clash.

   A common technique used by propagandists was to liken the Japanese to animals like snakes and rats.  But the most common animal used to portray the Japanese was the monkey.  In several posters and editorial cartoons, the Japanese were drawn up as monkeys hanging from trees or lumbering around like big gorillas.  The image of a subhuman primate was key to undercutting the humanity of the enemy.  The enemy was less than human, thus much easier to kill.  Figures 2 and 3 are editorial cartoons that show the use of the simian image in two different ways.  The first is the Japanese as a peculiar object of curiosity.  The second is the Japanese as a savage, untamable beast that should be eradicated by any means.  Figure 2 shows scientists and scholars baffled by their monkey-like Japanese specimen.  One of the scholars holds a document reading “International problem: What goes on in the Japanese mind,” as if the Japanese were a specimen whose behavior was tested and observed like a lab rat. .  Here, a g*n labeled “civilization” is pointed at the head of Japan again portrayed as a monkey about to be blown away.  On the chest of the monkey is written “murderers of American fliers.”  This was in reference to the execution of American airmen who crash landed in Japan during the first American bombing raid over Tokyo in 1943.  Notice the face of the monkey.  It neither grovels nor fears the gun that is brandished in its face. Posters also sounded a call to war for the American people.  The message was that America had been maliciously attacked and would not sit idly by and do nothing.  Not only must America defend herself from her enemies, but the enemy must also be destroyed completely.  Constant references to the December 7th bombing of Pearl Harbor reminded the American people why she was at war and why they should take up arms to help the fight.  Figures 4 and 5 show dark images yet send fiery messages to “Avenge December 7” as printed in Figure 4 in bold, red lettering.  A battleship is blown out of the water in the foreground, and the midshipman, partially hidden in the grimness of the shadows, raises his fist in vengeful defiance.  Figure 5 uses the symbol of America itself, the American flag.  It has been defaced and defiled.  It flies low, tattered and torn amidst the rubble of bombed out ships.  The thick black smoke rising from the disaster invade the peaceful blue sky.  Once again, the words, “Remember Dec. 7th!” are accentuated with a fiery red.  The harrowing superscript solemnly recalls the dead, and that America must take action against the perpetrating Japanese so that these dead “shall not have died in vain” as the poster says.

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