Transcript Propaganda and the Pacific

Propaganda and the Pacific
Danice Toyias, MCHCE
Biographies of A Nation
June 17-20, 2013
For this presentation, I will be
beginning at the end…..
• My conclusions are what will drive this
presentation.
• This is based on the historical analysis I
conducted.
• We have moved beyond how to look at and
gather information from primary sources to
using our historical analysis skills to gain a
deeper understanding.
Conclusion
• America did not have a deeply ingrained
mythological or deified history for which to draw
upon in creating WWII propaganda.
• Instead, America’s history included an acceptance
of racism and struggle with immigrant exclusion.
• The cultural myths and symbols continued the
legacy of racism and exclusion because it was a
language commonly understood by all Americans.
Racism and Propaganda
• Racial superiority and inferiority a common
language used in America.
• The language and visual depictions were easily
understood by Americans in the age of Jim
Crow.
Anti-American
Nazi Propaganda
even recognized
America’s racist
schizophrenia.
Racism in Japan
• The Japanese people held their own racism
towards the other races of Asia. Part of this
racism came out of the belief in the superiority of
the Yamato race. The Japanese people believed
that they were from a deified lineage. They also
believed in the purity of Japan, and “disparaged”
the other races of Asia as they had been
influenced by outsiders.
•
Tamura Yoshio, “Unit 731,” Japan at War; An Oral History, eds. Haruko Taya
Cook and Theodore F. Cook (New York: The New Press, 1992) 164.
American Propaganda
•
•
•
•
Fueled by American Industry
Corporate Capitalism
Effects of war involvement=prosperity
Philco Corporation one of the first to utilize
racism in their campaigns.
• American propaganda was not state
controlled.
Propaganda Before and After
Pearl Harbor
Japanese as bully……..to…….
backstabbing “Jap” monster
After Pearl Harbor
• Friends became enemies overnight.
• Education of Americans on how to tell the
difference between Japanese and Chinese.
• Over the course of the war, Anti-Japanese
propaganda morphed and became more
bestial.
• In the last two years of the war, more photos
were published of dehumanizing depictions.
TIME Magazine, 1941.
LIFE Magazine, December 22, 1941
After Pearl Harbor
• Executive Order 9066—removal of Japanese
as enemies of the state.
• Over 100,000 forcibly removed from their
homes.
• “Living reminders” were removed, so there
was no counter narrative.
Historical Analysis Steps
• Source: Title, Author, Date, Published or Created,
Sponsorship, Location of Publication.
• Contextualize: Timeline
• Interrogate: Question, Examine colors, symbols,
stereotypes, feeling, tone, mood, language, and
subject matter.
• Corroborate: Seek outside sources to help fill in
the “holes.”
• Conclude: Your interpretation and understanding
Corroboration and the Internet
• Propaganda is most interesting to study when
placed in the context it was originally presented.
• If you can, go directly to the primary source from
where it came.
• The Internet will give you bad information 9 times
out of 10. Don’t assume something is what it
seems at first glance……
• All of the pictures you will analyze are ones I took directly from their
source (okay, some of my copies were bad so I had to go to the internet for
higher resolutions).
Corroboration and Contextualizing Examples
You may find an interesting piece of propaganda, and it will be tagged “World War II
photograph.” Unfortunately, it won’t have any other information for you to Source or
Contextualize it. You’ll want to use it as a visual aid on Japanese treatment after Pearl
Harbor. However, once you do a little digging, you may discover it isn’t quite what it
seems.
Instead, you discover that the above picture is from the 1920s. It is from
Hollywood, CA, where deed restrictions kept Japanese from buying homes
in certain neighborhoods.
However, it is also part of an exhibit at Manzanar’s Interpretive Center,
which led a lot of people who posted it on the internet to tag it as being
from WWII.
A Sourcing and Contextualization Example
• At first glance, you
may think this is a
picture of a
storefront in which
the JapaneseAmerican owner was
protesting his
removal and forced
sale of his property.
Once you find the Source Information, you
will be in for a surprise:
• Grocery store front:
“SOLD” and “I AM AN
AMERICAN” taken in
1942 by Dorothea Lange.
• Oakland, CA. Following
evacuation orders, this
store was closed. The
owner, a UC graduate of
Japanese descent, placed
the I AM AN AMERICAN
sign in the window on
Dec. 8, 1941.
As the war
progresses….
Nearly half of American
soldiers agreed with the
statement:
“I’d really like to kill a Jap
soldier.”
Only 1 in 10 agreed with
the statement:
“I’d really like to kill a
German soldier.”
From Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F.
Cook, Japan at War; An Oral History (New
York: The New Press, 1992) 87.
“By His Deeds…Measure Yours,” New
Yorker (27, March 1943) 9.
Interrogation: Examine propaganda
for symbols and language.
Remember, it is purposely crafted to
stir emotion and influence its
viewer.
War Atrocities
Fueled Hatred
Popular magazines published
pictures and news reports that
horrified Americans.
• Using Chinese for
bayonet practice, 1930s
• The Rape of Nanking,
1937
• The Rape at St. Stephens
College in Hong Kong,
December 25, 1941
• Bataan Death March,
1942
Contextualization: Know your
timeline! Many propaganda pictures
drew on events that happened to
accomplish their goals.
Dehumanization of enemy
• Tokyo newspapers ran pictures showing American
children playing with toys made from the bones
of Japanese.
• Japanese propaganda—Americans morally
wrong. “Death is far more preferable to falling
into the hands of monsters.”*
*Edwin P. Hoyt, Japan’s War; The Great Pacific
Conflict (McGraw Hill: New York, 1989) 277 and
391.
Dehumanization
• Towards the end of the war, less caricaturetype propaganda was published,
• Instead, more photographs were published
depicting the atrocities of war.
• These photographs sought to dehumanize the
enemy and desensitize the viewer.
May 22, 1944 LIFE
• LIFE magazine published a
picture of a Japanese skull
that a Navy Lieutenant sent
as a present to his girlfriend
in Arizona.
• Representative Francis
Walter (PA) gave FDR a
letter opener from the
forearm of a Japanese
soldier.
• An American tank unit used
a Japanese skull as a hood
ornament.
The End of the War: Desperation
• Tokyo Firebombings of March 9th and 10th, 1945
– Under General LeMay
– Over 100,000 people killed in this one bombing
(more than the number killed directly by the
bomb dropped on Hiroshima)
– Over 1 million people made homeless
– 16 square miles of the city leveled
– Primarily civilian targets
Tokyo, 3-101945
How does Propaganda operate?
• Propaganda operates by taking
“cultural myths and symbols and
reworking them in the service of
nationally conceived aims.”*
•
Holly Cowan Shulman, The Voice of America; Propaganda and Democracy, 1941-1945
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990) 6.
WWII Propaganda Timeline
Quick-look
Before we delve into the analysis, let
us take a look at some other
propaganda pieces from the period:
“He Never Knew What Hit
Him,” by Dr. Seuss
Newsweek
(15, November 1941) 22.
These caricatures were featured in the 22, December 1941 edition of LIFE Magazine.
“Japs Bomb U.S.A!” LIFE (12,
January 1942) 88.
By Dr. Seuss, 1942.
By Dr. Seuss, (5, March 1942).
“Waiting for the Signal From Home” by Dr. Seuss (1942).
Collier’s Magazine Cover,
December 12, 1942.
“This is the Enemy,” LIFE (21,
December 1942) 55.
STAY ON THE JOB UNTIL
EVERY MURDERING JAP IS
WIPED OUT!, 1941 - 1945
ARC Identifier 515483 /
Local Identifier 44-PA-1804
(March, 1943).
How Tough Are the Japanese? New York Times, 1943
TIME Magazine Cover featuring Admiral William Halsey, Jr.: “Kill Japs, kill Japs, and then
kill more Japs” (23, July 1945)
“J. Samual Walker, “Land of the
Rising Sons,” Prompt and Utter
Destruction; Truman and the use
of Atomic Bombs Against Japan
(Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1997) 99.
(Cartoon from 8-8-1945)