Fear in Stereotypes
- Bri Schellin
- Jul 3, 2018
- 6 min read
World War II was a time of great turmoil that lasted for several years from 1939 to 1945. It wasn’t until the end of 1941 that the United States joined the fight due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In an effort to gain recruiting soldiers, boost citizen morale, and even to promote fire safety, various posters were created and released to the public. During World War II, these propaganda posters were used to unite a country and gain support for a common cause.
American posters often played on and exaggerated typical German and Japanese stereotypes to depict monstrous or animalistic people and figures to garner aid for the war. Arthur Schlesinger once wrote “Nobody should be surprised at the eagerness for personal humiliation. The whole thrust of totalitarian indoctrination, as we have seen, is to destroy the boundaries of individual personality. The moral balance of power is always with the Party as against the person.”[1] While Schlesinger was talking about communist influences in art, what he says still holds true. The American government used humiliation tactics to paint their enemies as a bigger evil.
The Japanese were the ones who led the attack on Pearl Harbor and because of that, many Propaganda posters focused on them more than the Germans or the Italians. In her thesis on political propaganda, Wilcott talks about how the posters called “for revenge preyed upon Americans’ hatred” and “fear of mainland attacks”.[2] Often times a Japanese soldier was drawn featuring stereotypical yellow skin, squinted eyes, a monkey like appearance, and with sharp claw-like hands. In one poster promoting forest fire safety, Careless Matches Aid the Axis, you can see the use of all these elements. The soldier is drawn with big ears, sharp nails, large teeth. It gives off a primitive sense, portraying the Japanese as animals but it can also question their intelligence. The character also looks as if lit from below, reminiscent of horror movie lighting.
In the background, more destruction ensues with a forest on fire. The streaks of color and scraggly, broken trees show a loss, or something that could be taken if we don’t do our part. An article, “WWII Propaganda: The Influence of Racism", for an academic journal written by Hannah Miles talks about using these stereotypes as fear tactics to brutally portray the Japanese.[3] By using these stereotypes in these posters, the American government was using fear and anger to paint an entire country as the enemy to focus on during the war.
While the Japanese were depicted as animals, Germans were dehumanized, and Nazi brutality was exploited. Wilcott examines posters by Ben Shahn and how they mentioned atrocities committed overseas. The posters featured cloaked figures and swastika’s. Unlike Japanese stereotypes, German stereotypes were less obvious and exaggerated. The notion that all German’s were Nazi’s is one such stereotype as well as how cruel and vicious those people were. In Help Britain Defend America only the shoes of the soldier are drawn with a swastika at the bottom of one foot. Many posters attacking Nazis only display some body parts, and hardly ever the face. The face is synonymous with a person’s identity in many cultures and taking that away then takes the identity, the individuality, away.
In the poster the color red is very prominent and contrasts with the blue put over the New York city skyline. The use of the red creates a sense of urgency, a sense of violence. The white streaks in the red remind me of a flame. It looks as if the city is on fire, destruction and chaos reign over the land in the upper half of the poster. One of the boots looks ready to step on the American city, enhancing a sense of fear. It’s almost reminiscent of monster movies like Godzilla where creatures run around destroying cities. Intended or not, it only adds another element of horror to the poster. Germany was handled differently in posters compared to Japan, but they were shown as monstrous in their own way.
In 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 and gave the go ahead for western concentration camps for Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans to be held on suspicion of spying for their home lands. It was a trying time for Japanese, Germans or Italians living in America and even if they were innocent, the unease led to every group scrutinized and forced into these concentration camps.
Alexander Blok once wrote: “…the flag of culture can always be lowered whenever the distant thunder of approaching storm is heard.”[4] In other words, fear made people do terrible things. Lives were uprooted, and a new trend began in political posters.[5] House of Seagram ca. is one of many posters that use rats to display the enemy. Set against a striped blue and white background, three rat characters are drawn. The one at the top is meant to be Mussolini, the middle is Hitler, the bottom- with the same stereotypes still being used- is Hideki Todo. All three were leader of the axis powers during World War II. The characters are paired with the words “Look Who’s Listening”.
This all goes back to the idea that spies were hidden in America relaying information back to their homeland and posters such as this one promoted caution and weariness of what you talk about and to who you talk about it with. All three characters, while they have the heads of the leaders, have the body of a rat: tails, fur, and the hands and feet of a rat. Why a rat? These animals are often classified as vermin[6]; they’re unlikeable, untrustworthy, and people don’t want them in their house. They’re something to be exterminated. It is a frightening notion to think about, applying that thinking to influence the way people see a culture or cultures. Ben Shahn states “…the force of reaction, that has always opposed reform or progress, and that will always oppose reform or progress with whatever weapons it can lay its hands upon, including slander and calumny.”[7] American posters were using fear in any way they could to turn the public against the Axis powers.
Unlike World War I, World War II propaganda posters were more graphic and violent in nature.[8] It could be due to the escalated violence, the more advanced weaponry, the greater death toll, or even the awful atrocities that were being committed worldwide. America was not the only nation to twist the view of a country and its people using political posters. Both sides were using tactics to influence the public. During the war, American propaganda posters were used to attempt to unite a country and gain support.
The posters used German and Japanese stereotypes to create monstrous and animalistic people or figures. Despite these rather questionable methods, the posters were still effective. It is the most prominent with Executive Order 9066. Innocent citizens were forced into camps, so they wouldn’t be able to relay information back home even if there was proof they were not spying. The posters added to the fear, hurt, and anger that was already festering among the United States. Japan was attacked more ruthlessly than any other in the design of their soldiers and people because of their attack on Pearl Harbor. The anger and resentment left behind from the attack obviously made its way into the marketing side of the war and was carried over into the posters. Beyond posters warning against spies, the rat continued to be used to represent Japan.
The stereotypes used varied from animals to dehumanizing devices depending on the nation. Despite that, the idea of taking away a person’s individuality remains the same. The posters colored entire people from countries under one light. Everyone was considered the enemy. We are individual creatures though and not every German was a Nazi. Not every Japanese citizen was for the war. Propaganda posters and their artists chose to ignore this. Instead they focused on how to best manipulate fear, terror, and hatred to support a war from all fronts.
[1]Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, “Arthur M. Schlesinger from The Politics of Freedom.” Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 668-670.
[2]Jenifer Wilcott, Wartime Art: A Study of Political Propaganda and Individual Expression in American Commercial and Combat Art during World War ll. Master’s thesis, State University of New York College at Buffalo, 2013. 26-47.
[3] Hannah Miles, "WWII Propaganda: The Influence of Racism." March 2012. Accessed April 21, 2018.
[4] Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, “Alexander Blok ‘Nature and Culture’.” Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 144-146.
[5] Karen Robertson, "When Art Meets Army: The Dangerous Propaganda of World War II." Ohio History Collection (blog), June 08, 2017.
[6] “”Jap Trap,” World War ll Propaganda Poster”. HISTORY MATTERS- The U.S. Survey Course on the Web.
[7] Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, “Ben Shahn ‘The Artist and the politician’. “Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 674-677.
[8] David Pollack, World war II posters. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
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