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During American involvement in World War II (1941–45),
eprints.lse.ac.uk
Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing A key participant in this campaign was the Writers' War Board, which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.
These posters used a number of themes to encourage support for the war, including conservation, production, recruiting, home efforts and secrecy. Posters were usually placed in areas without paid advertisements. The most common areas were post offices, railroad stations, schools, restaurants and retail stores. Smaller posters were printed for the windows of private homes and apartment buildings. These were places where other propaganda media couldn't be used.
The Office of War Information (OWI) Bureau of Graphics was the government agency in charge of producing and distributing propaganda posters. The main distinction between United States poster propaganda and that of British and other allied propaganda was that the U.S. posters stayed mostly positive in their messages. The United States posters focused on duty, patriotism and tradition, whereas those of other countries focused on fueling the people's hatred for the enemy. The positive messages on U.S. posters were used to increase production on the home front instead of insuring that the "money raised was not lost." U.S. Posters rarely used images of war casualties, and even battlefield scenes became less popular, and were replaced by commercial images to satisfy the "consumer" need for the war.
The war posters were not designed by the government, but by artists who received no compensation for their work. Government agencies held competitions for artists to submit their designs, allowing the government to increase the number of designs that it could choose from.
Just as is done today, editorial cartoonists sought to sway public opinion. For example,
During American involvement in World War II (1941–45), propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
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 garden
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I ...
s, persuaded people to save some of their material so that more material could be used for the war effort, and sold war bonds
War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are a ...
.
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. The axis leaders were portrayed as cartoon caricatures to make them appear foolish and idiotic.
Campaign
At first, the government was reluctant to engage in propaganda campaigns, but pressure from the media, the business sector and advertisers who wanted direction persuaded the government to take an active role. Even so, the government insisted that its actions were not propaganda, but a means of providing information. These efforts were slowly and haphazardly formed into a more unified propaganda effort, although never to the level of World War I. In 1942, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
created the Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
(OWI). This mid-level agency joined a host of other wartime agencies, including the War
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
and State
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
Departments, in the dissemination of war information and propaganda. Officials at OWI used numerous tools to communicate to the American public. These included Hollywood movie studios, radio stations and printing presses.
The Writers' War Board was privately organized for the purposes of propaganda and often acted as liaison between the government and the writers. Many of the writers involved regarded their efforts as superior to governmental propaganda,William L. O'Neill, ''A Democracy At War: America's Fight At Home and Abroad in World War II'', p 141 as they regarded their material as bolder and more responsive than governmental efforts. However, the writers both responded to official requests and initiated their own campaigns.
In 1944 (lasting until 1948), prominent U.S. policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to accept a harsh peace for the German people. One method used in this campaign was an attempt to remove the commonly held view that the German people and the Nazi party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
were separate entities.Steven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944 - 1948, nline London: LSE Research Online. (Available online aeprints.lse.ac.uk
Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing A key participant in this campaign was the Writers' War Board, which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.
Media
Posters
The United States used posters to advertise, and produced more propaganda posters than any other country fighting in World War II.Terrence H. Witkowski "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers." Journal of Advertising, Vol 32 No 1 Page 72 Almost 200,000 different designs were printed during the war.
These posters used a number of themes to encourage support for the war, including conservation, production, recruiting, home efforts and secrecy. Posters were usually placed in areas without paid advertisements. The most common areas were post offices, railroad stations, schools, restaurants and retail stores. Smaller posters were printed for the windows of private homes and apartment buildings. These were places where other propaganda media couldn't be used.
The Office of War Information (OWI) Bureau of Graphics was the government agency in charge of producing and distributing propaganda posters. The main distinction between United States poster propaganda and that of British and other allied propaganda was that the U.S. posters stayed mostly positive in their messages. The United States posters focused on duty, patriotism and tradition, whereas those of other countries focused on fueling the people's hatred for the enemy. The positive messages on U.S. posters were used to increase production on the home front instead of insuring that the "money raised was not lost." U.S. Posters rarely used images of war casualties, and even battlefield scenes became less popular, and were replaced by commercial images to satisfy the "consumer" need for the war.
The war posters were not designed by the government, but by artists who received no compensation for their work. Government agencies held competitions for artists to submit their designs, allowing the government to increase the number of designs that it could choose from.
Advertising
Companies ran advertising supporting the war. This helped keep their names before the public although they had no products to sell, and they were allowed to treat this advertising as a business expense. The War Advertising Council helped supervise such efforts. Car manufacturers and other producers that retooled for the war effort took out ads depicting their efforts. Other companies connected their products in some way with the war. For example,Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is an American brand of cigarettes owned by the British American Tobacco group. Individual cigarettes of the brand are often referred to colloquially as "Luckies." Throughout their 150 year history, Lucky Strike has had fluctuating ...
claimed the change from green to white in its packaging was to save bronze for weapons, and, as a result, saw its sales skyrocket.Robert Heide and John Gilman, ''Home Front America: Popular Culture of the World War II Era'' p 128-9 Coca-Cola, as did many other soft drink manufacturers, depicted its product being drunk by defense workers and members of the armed forces. Many commercial ads also urged the purchase of war bonds.Robert Heide and John Gilman, ''Home Front America: Popular Culture of the World War II Era'' p 130
Much of the war effort was defined by advertising, and the armed forces overseas preferred magazines with full ads rather than a slimmed down version without them.
Comic books and cartoons
Just as is done today, editorial cartoonists sought to sway public opinion. For example, Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' interventionism even before the
At the request of General
Films intended for the public were often meant to build morale. They allowed Americans to express their anger and frustration through ridicule and humor. Many films simply reflected the war culture and were pure entertainment. Others carried strong messages meant to arouse public involvement or set a public mood. Cartoons such as ''Bugs Bunny Bond Rally'' and ''Foney Fables'' pushed viewers to buy war bonds, while '' Scrap Happy Daffy'' encouraged the donation of scrap metal, and Disney's ''
Animation was increasingly used in political commentary against the Axis powers. ''
http://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/ww_reg_his/213
The task force assembled nearly 700 soldiers at Fort Meade in early 1942 to prepare. The tour began in Baltimore with a three-day exhibition on June 12, 1942, and finished on December 20 that year, after touring eighteen American cities. A great number of civilians with experience in professional exposition and public production were called on to support the six-month tour, including father-and-son outdoor show producing team Frank and John Duffield, NBC's
As in Britain, American propaganda depicted the war as an issue of
Hitler was often depicted in situations ridiculing him, and editorial cartoons usually depicted him in caricature. Hitler's dictatorship was often heavily satirized. To raise morale, even prior to the turning of the war in the Allies favor, Hitler often appeared in editorial cartoons as doomed. He and the German people were depicted as fools. For example, in an editorial cartoon by
Propaganda portrayed the Japanese more than any other Axis power as a foreign, grotesque and uncivilized enemy. Drawing on Japanese ''
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
'' interventionism even before the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
.
Comic strips, such as ''Little Orphan Annie
''Little Orphan Annie'' is a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on Aug ...
'' and ''Terry and the Pirates
''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...
'', introduced war themes into their stories. Even before the war, sabotage and subversion were common motifs in action-oriented strips.
Many superheroes were shown combating Axis spies or activities in America and elsewhere. A comic book depicting Superman
Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
attacking the German Westwall
The Siegfried Line, known in German as the ''Westwall'', was a German defensive line built during the 1930s (started 1936) opposite the French Maginot Line. It stretched more than ; from Kleve on the border with the Netherlands, along the wes ...
was attacked in an issue of ''Das Schwarze Korps
''Das Schwarze Korps'' (; German for "The Black Corps") was the official newspaper of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. All SS members were encouraged to read it. The chief edit ...
'', the SS weekly newspaper, with the Jewish origin of creator Jerry Siegel
Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...
given prominent attention.
In 1944, after being praised by Ernie Pyle
Ernest Taylor Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. Pyle is also notable for the ...
, Bill Mauldin's cartoons were syndicated in the United States. This effort was supported by the War Department due to Mauldin's grimmer depiction of everyday military life in his cartoons. Mauldin's cartoons not only publicized the efforts of the ground forces, but they made the war appear bitter and onerous, helping convince Americans that victory would not be easy. While his cartoons omitted carnage, they showed the difficulty of war through his depiction of the soldiers' disheveled appearance, and sad, vacant eyes. This helped produce continued support for the troops, by conveying the hardships of their daily experiences.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p150 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York
Leaflets
Leaflets could be dropped from aircraft to populations in locations unreachable by other means; for example, when the population was afraid or unable to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. As such, the United States extensively used leaflets to convey short informational tidbits. In fact, one squadron of B-17 bombers was entirely dedicated to this purpose. Leaflets were also used against enemy forces, providing "safe conduct passes" that enemy troops could use to surrender as well as counterfeit ration books, stamps and currency. The very scale of the leaflet operations had its effect on enemy morale, showing that the American armament industry was so productive that planes could be diverted for this purpose. The use of leaflets against Japanese troops was of little effect. Many civilians inOkinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
discounted pamphlets declaring that prisoners would not be harmed. By the time American B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...
bombers reached the Japanese home islands and intensely firebombed industrial and civilian centers with impunity, the leaflets had improved, providing "advance notice" of bombings ensured that the leaflets were read avidly despite prohibitions.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', pp. 262. 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York These pamphlets were dropped in many targeted Japanese cities, declaring they had no wish to harm civilians but rather only strategic targets such as military bases and defense industries, encouraging them to flee the cities to avoid the bombings, and that the bombings could be stopped by demanding new leaders who would end the war. After the atomic attacks, more pamphlets were dropped, warning that the Americans had an even more powerful explosive at their disposal equal to that of 2,000 B-29 bombers carrying thousands of conventional bombs. When the Japanese government subsequently offered to surrender, the U.S. continued to drop pamphlets, telling the Japanese people of their government's offer and that they had a right to know the terms.
The American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
's ''G.I. Roundtable Series'' of pamphlets was used to ease transition to the post-war world.
Radio
In the United States, radio was so widely used for propaganda that it greatly exceeded the use of other media that was typically used against other nations. President Roosevelt'sfireside chats
The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about recovery from the Great De ...
are an excellent example of this use of radio. In February 1942, Norman Corwin
Norman Lewis Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the ...
's ''This is War'' series was broadcast throughout the country and by shortwave throughout the world. Other significant uses of radio overseas includes messages to the Italian Navy, which persuaded it to surrender.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p. 150. 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
's counterpropaganda series ''Our Secret Weapon
''Our Secret Weapon'' (1942–1943) is a CBS radio series created to counter Axis shortwave radio propaganda broadcasts during World War II. Writer Rex Stout, chairman of the Writers' War Board and representative of Freedom House, would reb ...
'' (1942–43), featuring writer Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...
representing Freedom House
Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...
, monitored Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
* Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
shortwave radio
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
broadcasts and rebutted the most entertaining lies of the week.
In 1942–43 Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
created two CBS Radio series that are regarded as significant contributions to the war effort. '' Hello Americans'' was produced under the auspices of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, later known as the Office for Inter-American Affairs, was a United States agency promoting inter-American cooperation (Pan-Americanism) during the 1940s, especially in commercial and econ ...
to promote inter-American understanding and friendship during World War II. ''Ceiling Unlimited
''Ceiling Unlimited'' (later known as ''America — Ceiling Unlimited'') (1942–1944) is a CBS radio series created by Orson Welles and sponsored by the Lockheed-Vega Corporation. The program was conceived to glorify the aviation industry and dr ...
'', sponsored by the Lockheed-Vega
Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...
Corporation, was conceived to glorify the aviation industry and dramatize its role in World War II.
The CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
international radio network continued to support the cultural diplomacy
Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the "exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding". The purpose ...
initiatives of the State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
and the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, later known as the Office for Inter-American Affairs, was a United States agency promoting inter-American cooperation (Pan-Americanism) during the 1940s, especially in commercial and econ ...
throughout the 1940s. Included in this effort were live broadcasts to North and South America of the show ''Viva America
Viva may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator
* Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia
* Viva Air Dominicana
* VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company
* ...
'', featuring the journalistic expertise of Edmund A. Chester Edmund Albert Chester, Sr. - (June 22, 1897 – October 14, 1973) - was a senior Vice President and executive at the CBS radio and television networks during the 1940s. As Director of Latin American Relations he collaborated with the Department ...
and the artistic talents of Alfredo Antonini
Alfredo Antonini (May 31, 1901 – November 3, 1983) was a leading Italian-American symphony conductor and composer who was active on the international concert stage as well as on the CBS radio and television networks from the 1930s through the e ...
, Terig Tucci
Terig Tucci (June 23, 1897 – February 28, 1973) was an Argentine composer, violinist, pianist, and mandolinist.
Tucci was born in Buenos Aires, in 1897. His first composition, “Cariños de madre” was performed for a zarzuela at the ...
, Nestor Mesta Chayres
Néstor Mesta Cháyres (aka Nestor Chaires, Ciudad Lerdo, February 26, 1908 - Mexico City, June 29, 1971) was an acclaimed tenor in Mexico and a noted interpreter of Spanish songs, boleros and Mexican romantic music on the international concert ...
and John Serry Sr.
John Serry Sr. (born John Serrapica; January 29, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voic ...
Since radio was often a "live' media, there were restrictions. Broadcasters were warned not to cut to a commercial with the line, "and now for some good news," and reporters were instructed not to describe bombings precisely enough so that the enemy could tell what they hit, for example, they were to state "the building next to the one I am standing on," not "the First National Bank." While audience participation and man-on-the-street programs were immensely popular, broadcasters realized there was no way to prevent enemy agents from being selected, and these were discontinued. Many broadcasters worked war themes into their programming to such an extent that they confused the targeted audiences. As a result, the '' Radio War Guide'' urged broadcasters to focus on selected themes.
At first the Japanese population could not receive propaganda by radio because short-wave receivers were prohibited in Japan. However, the capture of Saipan
Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...
not only shocked the Japanese because it was considered invincible, but allowed Americans to use medium-wave radio to reach the Japanese islands.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p259 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York
Books
Books were more often used in the post-combat consolidation phases than in combat, particularly because their intent was indirect, to mold the thinkers who would be molding public opinion in the post-war period, and therefore books had more of a long-range influence rather than an immediate effect. And some topics were considered off limits. Books on submarines were suppressed, even ones drawing on public knowledge and made with naval assistance. In fact, attempts were made to suppress even fictional stories involving submarines. As fiction grew less popular, bookstores promoted non-fiction war books. A few weeks after D-Day, crates of books were landed in Normandy to be distributed to French booksellers. An equal number of American and British efforts were included in these shipments. Books had been stockpiled for this purpose, and some books were specifically published for it.Movies
Hollywood movie studios, obviously sympathetic to the Allied cause, soon adapted standard plots and serials to feature Nazis in place of the usual gangster villains while the Japanese were depicted as being bestial, incapable of reason or human qualities. Although Hollywood lost access to most foreign markets during the war, it was now able to use Germans, Italians and Japanese as villains without diplomatic protests or boycotts. Many actors such asPeter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
, Conrad Veidt
Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (; 22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German film actor who attracted early attention for his roles in the films ''Different from the Others'' (1919), '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), and '' The Man Who Laug ...
, Martin Kosleck
Martin Kosleck (born Nicolaie Yoshkin, March 24, 1904 – January 15, 1994) was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, Kosleck made ...
, Philip Ahn
Philip Ahn (born Pillip Ahn (), March 29, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was an American actor and activist of Korean descent. With over 180 film and television credits between 1935 and 1978, he was one of the most recognizable and prolific Asi ...
and Sen Yung specialized in playing Axis spies, traitors and soldiers. Irreplaceable film workers received draft deferments to allow them to continue producing pro-Allied films.
In the early '40s, as war was starting to gain importance in Europe, the goal of Hollywood studios was still to entertain. Many productions were musicals, comedies, melodramas or westerns. Major studios kept their neutrality and showed on screen the same isolationist sentiment as their audience. After noticing President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's concern about US foreign policy
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
, fascism began to be reported on screen by Hollywood. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the studios were fully supportive of the Allied cause and its demands. Patriotic propaganda was seen as profitable by Hollywood, and it helped to transform the social and political stances of the country, while serving as an instrument of national policy.
Most of movies produced had a background of war, even if their story was a complete invention. However, there were pictures that were made especially in tie with a past event, or even a current event of that period of time that made the release of the film synchronized with the happening in real life. For example, the Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
winner for Best Picture Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
, was a movie released in the context of American attitudes toward Vichy
Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...
and Free French Forces
__NOTOC__
The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...
. This picture was considered as anti-Vichy, but there was a strong debate about the fact that this position was representative or not of the American government policy. This movie was one of the most important productions of Hollywood during wartime, and also very representative of the studio's role and position during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
The war happened in the moment of an important national conflict: racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
. White America was united in its cause, but in black America there was opposition. While Roosevelt was describing the Allied War goals as democratic, Walter Francis White
Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955) was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, 1929–1955, after joining the organi ...
, the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP), said that colored people had to "fight for the right to fight". Many blacks were weighing their loyalty to the country against loyalty to their race. To address the identity problem, the Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
(that had control and influence on the contents and subjects of American motion pictures.) decided to collaborate with black leaders to try to improve Hollywood's portrayal of colored people and obtain their support to the Allied cause, but it was a failure.
The earliest Hollywood production to satirize any of the Axis governments was ''You Nazty Spy!
''You Nazty Spy!'' is a 1940 comedy film directed by Jules White and starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard). It is the 44th short film released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedi ...
'', a Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
short released on January 19, 1940, satirizing Hitler (Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...
as "Moe Hailstone"), Goering (Curly Howard
Jerome Lester Horwitz (; October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), known professionally as Curly Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of the American comedy team the Three Stooges, which also featured his elder ...
as "Field Marshal Gallstone") and Goebbels (Larry Fine
Louis Feinberg (October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975), known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges.
Early life
Fine was born to a Russian Je ...
as "Larry Pebble"), nearly two years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The 1941 Nazi attack on the Soviet Union resulted in pro-Russian movies.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p152 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York The war also produced an interest in newsreels and documentaries, which had been unable to compete against entertainment films prior to the war. America's allies were no longer allowed to be depicted negatively in any way.
At the request of General George C. Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...
, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...
created a documentary series that was used as orientation films for new recruits. Capra designed the series to illustrate the enormous danger of Axis conquest and the corresponding justness of the Allies. This ''Why We Fight
''Why We Fight'' is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in the ...
'' series documented the war in seven segments:
*''Prelude to War'', the rise of Fascism;
*''The Nazi Strike'', from Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
to the invasion of Poland;
*''Divide and Conquer'', the conquest of continental Europe;
*''The Battle of Britain'',
*''The Battle of Russia'',
*''The Battle of China'', and
*''War Comes to America'', covering subsequent events.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p158 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York
At President Roosevelt's urging, ''Why We Fight'' was also released to the theaters for the general public. In Britain, Churchill ordered the entire sequence to be shown to the public.
Movies were also useful in that propaganda messages could be incorporated into entertainment films. The 1942 film ''Mrs. Miniver
''Mrs. Miniver'' is a 1942 American romantic war drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Inspired by the 1940 novel '' Mrs. Miniver'' by Jan Struther, it shows how the life of an unassuming British h ...
'' portrayed the experiences of an English housewife during the Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
and urged the support of both men and women for the war effort. It was rushed to the theaters on Roosevelt's orders.
Furthermore, the 1943 film "The Negro Soldier
''The Negro Soldier'' is a 1944 documentary film created by the United States Army during World War II. It was produced by Frank Capra as a follow up to his successful film series ''Why We Fight''. The army used the film as propaganda to conv ...
", a government produced documentary also directed by Frank Capra, challenged racial stereotypes in the ranks. Its popularity allowed it to pass over into mainstream distribution.
The 1944 film ''The Purple Heart
''The Purple Heart'' is a 1944 American black-and-white war film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley ...
'' was used to dramatize Japanese atrocities
The Empire of Japan committed war crimes in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust". Some w ...
and the heroics of American flyers.
In 1933 William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley (March 12, 1890 – June 30, 1965) was an American fascist leader, occultist, spiritualist and writer.
Pelley came to prominence as a writer, winning two O. Henry Awards and penning screenplays for Hollywood films. His ...
took a dissenting course. He founded the Silver Shirts
The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American fascist and Nazi sympathizer organization founded by William Dudley Pelley and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.
History
Pelley was a form ...
, a paramilitary wing of his Christian Party sympathetic to the German Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
. He called himself the "American Hitler". Harold Lasswell
Harold Dwight Lasswell (February 13, 1902December 18, 1978) was an American political scientist and communications theorist. He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy and economics and was a PhD student at the University of Chicago. He was ...
, an expert in communications and wartime propaganda, testified at his trial in 1944 that 1,195 statements of Nazi Party ideology were found in the Silver Shirts' ''Galilean'' newsletter. Pelley was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Animation
World War II transformed the possibilities for animation. Prior to the war, animation was seen as a form of childish entertainment, but that perception changed after Pearl Harbor was attacked. On 8 December 1941, the U.S. Army immediately moved 500 troops into Walt Disney Studios and began working withWalt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
. Army personnel were stationed at his studio and lived there for the duration of the war. A military officer was actually based in Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's office. The U.S. Army and Disney set about making various types of films for several different audiences. Most films meant for the public included some type of propaganda, while films for the troops included training and education about a given topic.
Films intended for the public were often meant to build morale. They allowed Americans to express their anger and frustration through ridicule and humor. Many films simply reflected the war culture and were pure entertainment. Others carried strong messages meant to arouse public involvement or set a public mood. Cartoons such as ''Bugs Bunny Bond Rally'' and ''Foney Fables'' pushed viewers to buy war bonds, while '' Scrap Happy Daffy'' encouraged the donation of scrap metal, and Disney's ''The Spirit of '43
''The Spirit of '43'' is an American animated World War II propaganda film created by Walt Disney Studios and released in January 1943. The film stars Donald Duck and features writer /designer Carl Barks' prototype for the character Scrooge McDu ...
'' implored viewers to pay their taxes.
The U.S. and Canadian governments also used animation for training and instructional purposes. The most elaborate training film produced, '' Stop That Tank!'', was commissioned by the Canadian Directorate of Military Training and created by Walt Disney Studios. Troops became familiar with Private Snafu and Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli. These fictional characters were used to give soldiers safety briefs and instructions on expected behavior, while often portraying behavior that which was not recommended. The short ''Spies'' depicts an intoxicated Private Snafu giving secrets to a beautiful woman who is really a Nazi spy. Through the information he gives her, the Germans are able to bomb the ship Private Snafu is traveling on, sending him to hell.
Animation was increasingly used in political commentary against the Axis powers. ''Der Fuehrer's Face
''Der Fuehrer's Face'' (originally titled ''A Nightmare in Nutziland'' or ''Donald Duck in Nutziland'' ) is a 1943 American animated anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions, created in 1942 and released on January 1, ...
'' was one of Walt Disney's most popular propaganda cartoons. It poked fun at Hitler's Germany by depicting Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
dreaming that he is a German war worker, eating breakfast by only spraying the scent of bacon and eggs onto his breath, dipping a single coffee bean into his cup of water, and eating bread so stale or having wood in it, he had to saw a piece off. Disney and the U.S. Army wanted to depict Germans as living in a land that was a facade of the wonderful promises made by Hitler. Producers of the cartoon also wished to show that the working conditions in German factories were not as glorious as Hitler made them sound in his speeches. In the film, Donald works continuously with very little compensation and no time off, making him go crazy. At the end, Donald awakes from his nightmare and is forever thankful he is a citizen of the United States of America. ''Education for Death
''Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi'' is an animated propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on January 15, 1943, by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Milt Kahl, W ...
'' was a very serious film based on the bestselling book of the same name by Gregor Ziemer
Gregor Athalwin Ziemer (May 24, 1899 – August 1982) was an American educator, writer, and correspondent. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1922 with an English degree. Ziemer lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, ...
. The film shows how a young boy in Nazi Germany is indoctrinated and brainwashed at an early age and learns to believe all that the German government tells him. While this short is educational, it also provides comic relief by mocking Hitler. However, the film is both shocking in its content and despairing in its ending, depicting the death of numerous such boys who are now German soldiers.
Magazines
Magazines were a favored propaganda dissemination tool, as they were widely circulated. The government issued a ''Magazine War Guide'' which included tips for supporting the war effort.Emily Yellin, ''Our Mothers' War'', p 23 Women's magazines were the favored venue for propaganda aimed at housewives, particularly the '' Ladies' Home Journal''. Magazine editors were asked to depict women as coping heroically with the sacrifices of wartime. Fiction was a particularly favored venue, and was used to subtly shape attitudes. ''Ladies' Home Journal'' and other magazine also promoted the activities of women in the armed services. Thepulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
industry was especially supportive, if only to prevent their being perceived as unessential to the war effort and discontinued for the duration of the war. The Office of War Information distributed guides to writers for Western, adventure, detective and other pulp genres with possible story lines and themes that would help the war effort. Among the suggestions were a detective who was "cheerful" about following a suspect without using an automobile, a woman working in a traditionally male job, the importance of the 35 miles per hour speed limit and carpooling
Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves.
By having more people usi ...
, and good Chinese and British characters.
Newspapers
Newspapers were told that government press releases would be true, and to give no aid and comfort to the enemy—but this latter was not to be considered a prohibition on releasing bad news. However, partially through the cooperation of supportive journalists, theOffice of Censorship
The Office of Censorship was an emergency wartime agency set up by the United States federal government on December 19, 1941 to aid in the censorship of all communications coming into and going out of the United States, including its territories ...
(OOC) managed to remove negative news and other items useful to the enemy—such as weather forecasts—although neither the OOC nor any other agency managed to completely slant the news in a positive, morale-boosting manner. Indeed, some government officials found that both newspapers and radio were using uncorroborated news from Vichy France and Tokyo.
Army War Show
In 1942, the army's Bureau of Public Relations decided to produce a tour of the country to demonstrate to the public the army's capabilities. To this end they created the Provisional Task Force of the Army War Show, commanded by Colonel Wilson T. Bals. A national citizens committee was created to sponsor the show. Stewart McDonald was its president, Henry Steeger its vice president, and former Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey administrators William P. Dunn and John Reddy Jr. its secretary and treasurer. The committee consisted of 54 people, including political, industry, and entertainment luminaries such asIrving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russi ...
, Katherine Cornell, Marshall Field
Marshall Field (August 18, 1834January 16, 1906) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores. His business was renowned for its then-exceptional level of quality and customer ...
, Edsel Ford
Edsel Bryant Ford (November 6, 1893 – May 26, 1943) was an American business executive and philanthropist who was the son of pioneering industrialist Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Jane Bryant Ford. He was the president of Ford Motor Company f ...
, Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
, Henry Luce, Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...
, David Sarnoff, Spyros Skouras
Spyros Panagiotis Skouras (; gr, Σπύρος Σκούρας; March 28, 1893 – August 16, 1971) was a Greek-American motion picture pioneer and film executive who was the president of 20th Century-Fox from 1942 to 1962. He resigned June 27, 19 ...
, and Thomas J. Watson
Thomas John Watson Sr. (February 17, 1874 – June 19, 1956) was an American businessman who served as the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's manageme ...
. A non-profit corporation War Shows, Inc. was created to oversee the business aspects; the ticket revenue was turned over to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. War Shows, Inc's officers were New York World's Fair director Joseph M. Upchurch, Richard F. Flood, and Don J. Campbell.United States Army, "United States Army War Show: Provisional Task Force, 1942" (1942). World War Regimental Histories. 213. Blevins Davis
Charles Blevins Davis (1903-July 16, 1971) was an American playwright and theatrical producer.
Early life
Charles Blevins Davis, the only son of Charles A. Davis and his wife, grew up in Independence, Missouri. Davis grew up next to the Harry S. ...
, and Ringling Brothers transportation expert George Smith. By the November shows in Houston, the show had grown to 2,000 people and over 400 pieces of equipment and a cavalry troupe.
A typical show, titled "Here's Your Army", lasted four hours, and included brief demonstrations of infantry, cavalry, and mechanized infantry drills, demonstrations of flame throwers, tanks, and tank destroyers, performances by the band, and fireworks. Nearly 4 million tickets were sold.
Themes
As in Britain, American propaganda depicted the war as an issue of good versus evil
In religion, ethics, philosophy, and psychology "good and evil" is a very common dichotomy. In cultures with Manichaeism, Manichaean and Abrahamic religious influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic cosmology, dualistic antagonistic oppos ...
, which allowed the government to encourage its population to fight a "just war," and used themes of resistance in and liberation to the occupied countries. In 1940, even prior to being drawn into World War II, President Roosevelt urged every American to consider the effect if the dictatorships won in Europe and Asia. Precision bombing
Precision bombing refers to the attempted aerial bombing of a target with some degree of accuracy, with the aim of maximising target damage or limiting collateral damage. An example would be destroying a single building in a built up area causing ...
was praised, exaggerating its accuracy, to convince people of the difference between good and bad bombing. Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
, Tojo, Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
and their followers were the villains in American film, even in cartoons where characters, such as Bugs Bunny, would defeat them—a practice that began before Pearl Harbor. Cartoons depicted Axis leaders as not being human.
Roosevelt proclaimed that the war against the dictatorships had to take precedence over the New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
.
Artists and writers were strongly divided on whether to encourage hatred for the enemy, which occasioned debates. The government rarely intervened in such debates, only occasionally suggesting lines for art to take. However, the OWI suggested plot lines using Axis agents in place of traditional villainous roles, such as the rustler in Westerns.
In one speech, Henry Wallace called for post-war efforts to psychologically disarm the effect of the Axis powers, requiring schools to undo, as far as possible, the poisoning of children's minds by Hitler and the Japanese "warlords."Richard H. Minear, ''Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartons of Theodor Seuss Geisel'' p 25 Two days later, a Dr. Seuss's editorial cartoon showed Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...
using bellows to drive germ out of the mind of the child "Germany," while holding the child "Japan" ready for the next treatment.
Anti-German
Hitler was often depicted in situations ridiculing him, and editorial cartoons usually depicted him in caricature. Hitler's dictatorship was often heavily satirized. To raise morale, even prior to the turning of the war in the Allies favor, Hitler often appeared in editorial cartoons as doomed. He and the German people were depicted as fools. For example, in an editorial cartoon by Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
was treated as the worst evil within the Axis, a greater threat than Japan and Italy. To counter the much greater desire in the United States to attack Japan, operations in the North African theater were implemented, despite military counterindications, to increase support for attacking Germany. Without such involvement, public pressure to more heavily support the war in the Pacific might have proven irresistible to American leaders.
Germans were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters, although many atrocities were specifically ascribed to Nazis and Hitler specifically, rather than to the undifferentiated German people.John W. Dower, ''War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War'' p34
'' Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
Alternate history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...
novels depicted Nazi invasions of America to arouse support for interventionism.
The Writers' War Board compiled lists of books banned or burned in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and distributed them for propaganda purposes, and thousands of commemorations of the book burnings were staged.
Anti-Italian
Mussolini also appeared in situations ridiculing him. Editorial cartoons depicted him as a two-bit dictator. Italians were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters. Italy, often mocked as the "soft underbelly of the Axis" early in the war, was the first of the major Axis powers to see war approaching its home territory due to nearby defeats in North Africa. Propagandistic treatment of Italy changed as Sicily became the first part of Europe to be stripped by the British and Americans from Axis rule. American treatment of the Italian people, especially anti-fascist partisans, became much more sympathetic. American media made much of demonstrations of anti-fascist sentiment as evidence that the Italian people were not the enemy. The puppet regime of Benito Mussolini remained an object of derision and hatred, and German troops were seen as agents of oppression of the Italian people. One part or another of Italy would be a war zone until the final weeks of the European war. Thedeath of Mussolini
The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by an Italian partisan in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in ...
and his closest cronies would be presented as a fitting end to a tyrant.
Anti-Japanese
Propaganda portrayed the Japanese more than any other Axis power as a foreign, grotesque and uncivilized enemy. Drawing on Japanese ''samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
'' 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
The was an ideological manifesto issued by the Ministry of Education of Japan during World War II aimed at Japan's domestic audience to explain in clear terms what was expected of them "as a people, nation and race".
Origins
During the summ ...
'' (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 (e.g. in the Niihau incident), 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
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
, accounts of atrocities in China roused considerable antipathy for Japan. This stemmed from as early as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until the ...
, when accounts were received of Japanese forces of bombing civilians, or firing upon shell-shocked survivors. Such books as Pearl Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buc ...
's ''The Good Earth
''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932) ...
'' and Freda Utley
Winifred Utley (23 January 1898 – 21 January 1978), commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist P ...
's ''China At War'' aroused sympathy for the Chinese.William L. O'Neill, ''A Democracy At War: America's Fight At Home and Abroad in World War II'', p 57 As early as 1937, Roosevelt condemned the Japanese for their aggression in China. The Rape of Nanking
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
, due to the large number of Western witnesses, achieved particular 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
''Remember Pearl Harbor'' is a 1942 American propaganda film directed by Joseph Santley and written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan and Isabel Dawn. The film stars Don "Red" Barry, Alan Curtis, Fay McKenzie, Sig Ruman, Ian Keith and Rhys Williams. '' ...
!" 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 Raid
The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japan ...
ers 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
''The Purple Heart'' is a 1944 American black-and-white war film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley ...
'' 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.John W. Dower, ''War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War'' p50 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
In Japan, like in most other countries, propaganda has been a significant phenomenon during the 20th century.
Propaganda activities in Japan have been discussed as far back as the Russo-Japanese War of the first decade of the 20th century. Propaga ...
about American atrocities.
Hirohito, Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...
and undifferentiated "Japs" were often portrayed in caricature. Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' We're Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap," "Taps for the Japs," "We’ll Nip the Nipponese," "We’re going to play Yankee Doodle in Tokyo," and " You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap."Sheppard, W. A: ''An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood'',University of California Press, 2001, Vol. 54, N. 2, p 306 Wartime filmmakers embellished characteristics of Japanese culture that the American people would find scandalously foreign. At the beginning of the war artists portrayed the Japanese as nearsighted, bucktoothed, harmless children. Indeed, many Americans believed that Germany had convinced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. As the war progressed, Japanese soldiers and civilians would be portrayed in films as evil, rat faced enemies that desired global domination.Palmer, M. and Legg, S: ''The Mask of Nippon'', Black and White film, NFB/ONF, 1942, National Film Board of Canada In countries occupied by Japan and forced to join its would-be
Many posters ridiculed and shamed careless talk as providing information to the enemy, resulting in Allied deaths. His effort presented to the public as a device to prevent people with sensitive information from talking about it where spies or saboteurs could listen in."War Aims Through Art: The U.S. Office of War Information"
/ref> However, that was not the real purpose, for the propaganda continued long after the enemy fleet had been sunk and their spy networks destroyed. The problem was with negative rumors, that spread much faster than good news, and threaten to weaken homefront morale or make American groups fear or hate each other. Historian D'Ann Campbell argues that the purpose of the wartime posters, propaganda, and censorship of soldiers' letters was not to foil spies but, "to clamp as tight a lid as possible on rumors that might lead to discouragement, frustration, strikes, or anything that would cut back military production." This was a major topic endorsed by the Office of War Information. Some of these posters contained the most well known slogans of the war and many were depicted by propaganda artist Cyril Kenneth Bird. Other slogans used for this type of poster were “loose talk costs lives”, "
'' We're Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap," "Taps for the Japs," "We’ll Nip the Nipponese," "We’re going to play Yankee Doodle in Tokyo," and " You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap."Sheppard, W. A: ''An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood'',University of California Press, 2001, Vol. 54, N. 2, p 306 Wartime filmmakers embellished characteristics of Japanese culture that the American people would find scandalously foreign. At the beginning of the war artists portrayed the Japanese as nearsighted, bucktoothed, harmless children. Indeed, many Americans believed that Germany had convinced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. As the war progressed, Japanese soldiers and civilians would be portrayed in films as evil, rat faced enemies that desired global domination.Palmer, M. and Legg, S: ''The Mask of Nippon'', Black and White film, NFB/ONF, 1942, National Film Board of Canada In countries occupied by Japan and forced to join its would-be
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The , also known as the GEACPS, was a concept that was developed in the Empire of Japan and propagated to Asian populations which were occupied by it from 1931 to 1945, and which officially aimed at creating a self-sufficient bloc of Asian peo ...
, the failure to sustain the economic level prior to the war, particularly in the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, was quickly used in propaganda about the "Co-Poverty Sphere."
Leaflets air-dropped to the Japanese people informed them of the Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
, which brought to bear the extent of Allied victory, and of the Japanese government's peace negotiations, undermining the ability of the Japanese hard-liners to insist on continued war.
Careless talk
Many posters ridiculed and shamed careless talk as providing information to the enemy, resulting in Allied deaths. His effort presented to the public as a device to prevent people with sensitive information from talking about it where spies or saboteurs could listen in."War Aims Through Art: The U.S. Office of War Information"/ref> However, that was not the real purpose, for the propaganda continued long after the enemy fleet had been sunk and their spy networks destroyed. The problem was with negative rumors, that spread much faster than good news, and threaten to weaken homefront morale or make American groups fear or hate each other. Historian D'Ann Campbell argues that the purpose of the wartime posters, propaganda, and censorship of soldiers' letters was not to foil spies but, "to clamp as tight a lid as possible on rumors that might lead to discouragement, frustration, strikes, or anything that would cut back military production." This was a major topic endorsed by the Office of War Information. Some of these posters contained the most well known slogans of the war and many were depicted by propaganda artist Cyril Kenneth Bird. Other slogans used for this type of poster were “loose talk costs lives”, "
loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships is an American English idiom meaning "beware of unguarded talk". The phrase originated on propaganda posters during World War II. The phrase was created by the War Advertising Council and used on posters by the United State ...
", “Another careless word, another wooden cross”, and “bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy”. Stories also emphasized an anti-rumor theme, as when one woman advised another not to talk with a man about her war job, because the woman he is dating is untrustworthy and might be an enemy agent.
Rumor mongering was discouraged on the grounds it fomented divisions in America and promoted defeatism and alarmism. Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
directed ''Have You Heard?'', a photographic dramatization of the dangers of rumors during wartime, for ''Life'' magazine.
Victories
Battle victories and heroism were promoted for morale purposes, while losses and defeats were underplayed. Despite his blunders in the first days of the war, GeneralDouglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
was presented as a war hero due to the dire need for one. The desperate situation on Bataan
Bataan (), officially the Province of Bataan ( fil, Lalawigan ng Bataan ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the enti ...
was played down, although its fall caused considerable demoralization. The Doolittle Raid
The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japan ...
was carried out solely to help morale rather than to cause damage, a purpose which it fulfilled. After the Battle of Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battl ...
, the Navy reported more Japanese damage than had actually been inflicted, and declared it a victory, which the Japanese also did. The decisive victory at the Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...
was emblazoned on newspaper headlines, but was reported with restraint and the U.S. Navy overstated the Japanese damage. ''Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' warned that Midway did not mean that Japan was no longer on the offensive.
In 1942, the survivors of the Battle of Savo Island
The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the , and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks, was a naval battle of the Solomon Islands ca ...
were removed from public circulation to prevent news from leaking, and the August 9th disaster did not reach the newspapers until mid-October.
Limiting the distribution of bad news caused difficulty with gasoline rationing, as Americans were kept unaware of numerous tanker sinkings.
Earlier, people complained that the government was covering up the extent of the damage at Pearl Harbor, although this was partly to keep it from the Japanese. The Japanese had a good idea of the damage they inflicted, so only Americans were kept ignorant.Lee Kennett, ''For the Duration. . . : The United States Goes To War'' p 141 One reporter reported, "Seven of the two ships sunk at Pearl Harbor have now rejoined the fleet." Although complaints of news suppression continued, both the newspapers and radio took favorable news and embellished it, a process not countered by the government.
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
countered this propaganda to prevent it from influencing Germany, downplaying the defense of Corrigidor and attacking Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
as a coward. This was not very successful, as the German people knew it understated the American defense and that MacArthur had left under orders.
The invasion of North Africa produced a morale boost when American forces were bogged down in New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
and the Guadalcanal Campaign
The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in th ...
.
After Guadalcanal, attention was focused on Europe, where Italy was taken, heavy bombing was hammering Germany, and the Red Army was steadily advancing west.
False optimism
Some propaganda was directed to counter people's hopes that it would not be a long, hard war. Despite air victories in Europe,Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Richard H. Minear, ''Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel'' p 75 The U.S. War Department supported the syndication of Bill Mauldin's cartoons because Mauldin was making the war appear bitter and onerous, showing that the victory would not be easy. His depiction of U.S. soldiers with disheveled appearances and sad, vacant eyes conveyed the difficulty of the war.
Until 1944, the mayhem of war (dead and wounded) was mostly toned down by American propagandists, who followed instructions allowing them to show a ''few'' wounded soldiers in a crowd. Later, more realistic presentations were allowed, partly owing to popular demand. The earlier attitude was supported by the media; for example,
Americans were called upon to support the war effort in many ways. Cartoons depicted those who talked about victory but clearly were sitting around waiting for others to ensure it or showed how
Women's magazines carried numerous tips for housewives on thrifty purchasing, dealing with rationing, and how to cope in a period of limited supplies. General Mills distributed a Betty Crocker "cookbooklet" with wartime recipes.Emily Yellin, ''Our Mothers' War'', p 22 A ''Victory Cookbook'' explained the principles of wartime cooking, starting with the need to share food with the fighting men. '' Ladies' Home Journal'' explained the principles behind sugar rationing, for example, sugarcane could be used to make explosives. The 
Conservation was the largest theme in poster propaganda, accounting for one of every seven posters during the war.Terrence H. Witkowski "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers" Journal of Advertising, Vol 32 No 1 Page 73 Conserving materials, in the kitchen and around the home, was one of five major topics in posters with conservation themes. Other topics included purchasing war bonds, planting victory gardens, the Office of Price Administration, and rationing. Women were encouraged to help with conservation in their cooking, saving fat and grease for explosives, and rationing sugar, meat, butter, and coffee to leave more for the soldiers.Terrence H. Witkowski "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers." Journal of Advertising, Vol 32 No 1 Page 71 Butcher shops and markets handed out bulletins that urged the conservation of waste fat, which could be brought back to the butcher. Due to these posters and other forms of propaganda the United States recycled of waste fats, of paper, and of tin.
People were told to conserve materials used in clothing, which resulted in clothing becoming smaller and shorter. Fiction often depicted a heroine who spent her high wages on fancy dress, but found that her soldier boyfriend disapproved until he learned she had a war job. Even then, he wanted her to change back to the clothes he knew her in before they went out.
Even prior to Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt called on the United States to be the
The government encouraged people to plant vegetable gardens to help prevent food shortages. Magazines such as '' Saturday Evening Post'' and ''
/ref> Originally termed "Defense Bonds", they were called "war bonds" after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Much of the nation's artistic talent and best advertising techniques were used to encourage people to buy the bonds so as to keep the program voluntary.
The War Advertising Board did its best to convince people that buying bonds was a patriotic act, giving buyers a stake in the war. Advertisements were initially used on radio and in newspapers, but later magazines were also used, with both government and private companies producing the advertisements. The Writers' War Board was founded for the purpose of writing copy for war bond ads.
War bond rallies and drives were common, and were staged at many social events. Teachers passed out booklets to children to allow them to save toward a bond by purchasing war bond stamps.
Major campaigns were launched to encourage women to enter the work force and convince their husbands that this was appropriate behavior. Government campaigns targeting women were addressed solely at housewives, perhaps because already employed women could move to the higher-paid "essential" jobs on their own, or perhaps in the belief that housewives would be the primary source of new workers. Propaganda was also directed at husbands, many of whom were unwilling to have their wives working. Fiction also addressed husbands' resistance to their wives working.
Key symbolic figures such as "
Most of the entertainment aimed at soldiers was heavy on sentiment and nostalgia, to help sustain morale. In most media, the
/ref> Typically, men were presented as ordinary but women as beautiful and glamorous.
Support for the Chinese people was urged in posters. Even prior to the United States' entry into the war, many Chinese figures appeared on the cover of ''
/ref> Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' series included ''The Battle of China''. It depicted the brutal attack on China by Japan as well as atrocities such as the
Posters were used to portray and support the Filipino resistance forces, which, while often listed as one of the greatest organized resistances in history, also exacted a terrible toll on the Filipino people.
excerpt and text search
*, summaries of thousands of polls in US, Canada, Europe * Fox, Frank W (1975), ''Madison Avenue Goes to War: The Strange Military Career of American Advertising, 1941–45,'' Brigham Young University Press. * Fyne, Robert (1994), ''The Hollywood Propaganda of World War II,'' Scarecrow Press. * Gregory, G.H. (1993), ''Posters of World War II,'' Gramercy Books. * Gallup, George H. (1972), ''The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935- 1971, Vol. 1, 1935–1948,'' short summary of every poll * Holsinger, M. Paul and Mary Anne Schofield; ''Visions of War: World War II in Popular Literature and Culture'' (1992
online edition
* Honey, Maureen. (1984) ''Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender and Propaganda during World War II'' * Laurie, Clayton. (1996) ''The Propaganda Warriors: America's Crusade Against Nazi Germany'' (University of Kansas Press
excerpt and text search
* Winkler, Allan. (1978) ''The Politics of Propaganda: Office of War Information, 1942-1945. (Yale University Press) * Witkowski, Terrence H. "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers" ''Journal of Advertising'', Vol. 32, 2003
WWII: Intense Propaganda Posters
- slideshow by ''
The Kitschified Mass Soul: American War Advertisements
Goebbels's analysis of American propaganda, for the German population *Th
Historical Society of Pennsylvania War Poster Collection
including over 500 original World War I and World War II posters, are available for research use at the
Finding Aid to American war posters from the Second World War, circa 1940-1945
'' Richard H. Minear, ''Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel'' p 75 The U.S. War Department supported the syndication of Bill Mauldin's cartoons because Mauldin was making the war appear bitter and onerous, showing that the victory would not be easy. His depiction of U.S. soldiers with disheveled appearances and sad, vacant eyes conveyed the difficulty of the war.
Death and injury
Until 1944, the mayhem of war (dead and wounded) was mostly toned down by American propagandists, who followed instructions allowing them to show a ''few'' wounded soldiers in a crowd. Later, more realistic presentations were allowed, partly owing to popular demand. The earlier attitude was supported by the media; for example, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
warned that broadcasts were not to be "unduly harrowing." However, the American public wanted more realism on the grounds that they could handle bad news. Roosevelt finally authorized photos of dead soldiers, to keep the public from growing complacent about the toll of war.
When ''The Battle of San Pietro
''The Battle of San Pietro'' is a documentary film directed by John Huston about the Battle of San Pietro Infine, from Naples, during World War II. It was shot by Jules Buck. It was released in the US in 1945 but shown to US troops earlier.
...
'' showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale; General Marshall overrode them, to ensure that the soldiers took their training seriously.
The OWI emphasized to returning, battle-scarred soldiers that there were places and jobs for them in civilian life. This promise was also featured in romantic stories, where a sweet, gentle heroine would help the veteran adjust to civilian life after his return from the war.
War effort
Americans were called upon to support the war effort in many ways. Cartoons depicted those who talked about victory but clearly were sitting around waiting for others to ensure it or showed how red tape
Red tape is an idiom referring to regulations or conformity to formal rules or standards which are claimed to be excessive, rigid or redundant, or to bureaucracy claimed to hinder or prevent action or decision-making. It is usually applied to g ...
was detrimental to the war effort. Defeatism was attacked, national unity was promoted, and themes of community and sacrifice were emphasized. Fictional characters were sharply divided into selfish villains and heroes who put the needs of others first and learned to identify with the defenders of freedom.
Propagandists were instructed to convey the message that the person viewing the propaganda media stood to personally lose if he or she failed to contribute; for example, the appeal for women to contribute to the war effort more closely personalized the soldiers dependent on their work as their sons, brothers and husbands.
Considerable complications were caused by censorship and the need to prevent the enemy from learning how much damage they had inflicted. For example, Roosevelt's fireside chat described the damage at Pearl Harbor as "serious" but he could not "give exact damage."
Many artists and writers knew that keeping up morale was important, but considerable debate arose over whether to go for light frivolous diversions, or to impress the severity of the war to stir up support.
Authors of fiction were encouraged to show their characters buying warbonds, conserving, planting victory gardens, and otherwise acting war-mindedly; characters could refrain from calling loved ones to avoid straining the phone system, or a romance would start when a man and woman carpooled.
Many stories were set in the frontier era or on family farms, to emphasize traditional virtues such as hard work, innocence, piety, independence and community values.
Civil defense
TheOffice of Civil Defense
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) was an agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1961–64. It replaced the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. The organization was renamed the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency on May 5, 197 ...
was created to inform Americans what to do in case of enemy attack. Within a day of the attack of Pearl Harbor, it produced pamphlets describing what to do in event of an air raid. It also promoted civilian morale, and its emblems helped remind people that the war was continuing.
Conservation
Women's magazines carried numerous tips for housewives on thrifty purchasing, dealing with rationing, and how to cope in a period of limited supplies. General Mills distributed a Betty Crocker "cookbooklet" with wartime recipes.Emily Yellin, ''Our Mothers' War'', p 22 A ''Victory Cookbook'' explained the principles of wartime cooking, starting with the need to share food with the fighting men. '' Ladies' Home Journal'' explained the principles behind sugar rationing, for example, sugarcane could be used to make explosives. The Office of Price Administration
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price contr ...
urged Americans in restaurants not to ask for extra butter or a refill on coffee.Robert Heide and John Gilman, ''Home Front America: Popular Culture of the World War II Era'' p 57 Radio soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s used plots about wartime rationing and condemned the hoarding of goods.
Rubber was in particularly short supply, and rubber rationing had the deepest impact on American life. However, the Rubber Survey Report, produced by a committee to investigate the rubber supply, succeeded in changing public opinion by showing the good reasons for rationing. Since gasoline was needed to power planes and military automobiles, Americans were encouraged to conserve. This also helped conserve rubber. Carpooling was promoted in government campaigns.
Scrap
Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...
drives were instituted, and supported by government PR efforts, even before the declaration of war. Such programs as Salvage for Victory redoubled after the outbreak. Many private individuals organized and publicized some of the most successful scrap drives of the war. President Roosevelt sent a letter to Boy Scout and Girl Scout
Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...
groups, urging the children to support scrap drives. Cartoons ridiculed those who did not collect scrap.
Conservation was the largest theme in poster propaganda, accounting for one of every seven posters during the war.Terrence H. Witkowski "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers" Journal of Advertising, Vol 32 No 1 Page 73 Conserving materials, in the kitchen and around the home, was one of five major topics in posters with conservation themes. Other topics included purchasing war bonds, planting victory gardens, the Office of Price Administration, and rationing. Women were encouraged to help with conservation in their cooking, saving fat and grease for explosives, and rationing sugar, meat, butter, and coffee to leave more for the soldiers.Terrence H. Witkowski "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers." Journal of Advertising, Vol 32 No 1 Page 71 Butcher shops and markets handed out bulletins that urged the conservation of waste fat, which could be brought back to the butcher. Due to these posters and other forms of propaganda the United States recycled of waste fats, of paper, and of tin.
People were told to conserve materials used in clothing, which resulted in clothing becoming smaller and shorter. Fiction often depicted a heroine who spent her high wages on fancy dress, but found that her soldier boyfriend disapproved until he learned she had a war job. Even then, he wanted her to change back to the clothes he knew her in before they went out.
=Industry
= Industry was also called on to conserve.Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is an American brand of cigarettes owned by the British American Tobacco group. Individual cigarettes of the brand are often referred to colloquially as "Luckies." Throughout their 150 year history, Lucky Strike has had fluctuating ...
used the metals in their dyes as a justification for changing their packaging from green to white. Prior to the shutdown of commercial production, cars no longer carried chrome.
Production
Even prior to Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt called on the United States to be the arsenal of democracy
"Arsenal of Democracy" was the central phrase used by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a radio broadcast on the threat to national security, delivered on December 29, 1940—nearly a year before the United States entered the Second Worl ...
in support of other countries at war with Fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
.
Industrial and agricultural production was a major focus of poster campaigns. Although the wartime boom meant that people had money to buy things for the first time since the Depression, propaganda emphasized the need to support the war effort, and not spend their money on non-essential items and so divert material from the war effort. The manufacture of the last civilian car was publicized in such venues as ''Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
''. Factories were represented as part of the war effort, and greater worker cooperation with management was urged. Stories symbolized such harmony by featuring romances between a working-class war worker and her employer. Cartoons depicted labor unrest as pleasing Hitler and racial discrimination as preventing the accomplishment of essential work. Fictional treatments of war issues emphasized the need for workers to combat absenteeism and high turnover.
Business entrepreneurs founding new businesses for military production were hailed as exemplars of American economic individualism.
After the death of the Sullivan brothers
The five Sullivan brothers were World War II sailor brothers of Irish American descent who, serving together on the light cruiser , were all killed in action during and shortly after its sinking around November 13, 1942.
The five brothers, ...
, their parents and sister made visits to shipyards and armament factories to encourage increased production. Veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign, America's first major offensive of the war, were also sent to factories to encourage production and discourage absenteeism.
Economy and industry were strongly emphasized in United States propaganda posters because of the need for long term production during the war. Factory workers were encouraged to become not just workers, but “Production Soldiers” on the home front. These posters were used to persuade workers to take shorter breaks, work longer hours, and produce as many tools and weapons as possible to increase production for the military. Shipyards hung out banners to encourage ''ships for victory''.
Increased production resulted in more workers moving to factory towns, straining available housing and other amenities. As a result, fictional plots often dealt with the need for homeowners to take in boarders and the necessity for tolerance and unity between residents and newcomers.
Victory gardens
The government encouraged people to plant vegetable gardens to help prevent food shortages. Magazines such as '' Saturday Evening Post'' and ''Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' printed articles supporting it, while women's magazines included directions for planting. Because planting these gardens was regarded as being patriotic, they were termed victory gardens, and women were encouraged to can and preserve food they raised from these gardens. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
provided information, many commercial publishers also issued books on how to plant these gardens.
During the war years, Americans planted 50 million victory gardens. These produced more vegetables than the total commercial production, and much of it was preserved, following the slogan: "Eat what you can, and can what you can't."William L. O'Neill, ''A Democracy At War: America's Fight At Home and Abroad in World War II'', p 137 The slogan "grow your own, can your own" also encouraged victory gardens to be planted.
War bonds
During the war, the sale ofWar Bond
War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...
s was extensively promoted.U.S. War Bonds/ref> Originally termed "Defense Bonds", they were called "war bonds" after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Much of the nation's artistic talent and best advertising techniques were used to encourage people to buy the bonds so as to keep the program voluntary.
The War Advertising Board did its best to convince people that buying bonds was a patriotic act, giving buyers a stake in the war. Advertisements were initially used on radio and in newspapers, but later magazines were also used, with both government and private companies producing the advertisements. The Writers' War Board was founded for the purpose of writing copy for war bond ads.
War bond rallies and drives were common, and were staged at many social events. Teachers passed out booklets to children to allow them to save toward a bond by purchasing war bond stamps.
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
and many other female movie stars sold many thousands of dollars' worth of war bonds. The Little Orphan Annie
''Little Orphan Annie'' is a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on Aug ...
radio show urged its young listeners to sell war stamps and war bonds. Even product ads often contained the slogan, "Buy War Bonds and Stamps!".
Enrolling in payroll deduction plans to buy war bonds was also urged through the media.
One hundred and thirty-five billion dollars worth of liberty bonds were sold, most of which were purchased by banks, insurance companies and corporations. However, individuals purchased $36 billion in bonds, with children accounting for close to $1 billion.
Womanpower
Major campaigns were launched to encourage women to enter the work force and convince their husbands that this was appropriate behavior. Government campaigns targeting women were addressed solely at housewives, perhaps because already employed women could move to the higher-paid "essential" jobs on their own, or perhaps in the belief that housewives would be the primary source of new workers. Propaganda was also directed at husbands, many of whom were unwilling to have their wives working. Fiction also addressed husbands' resistance to their wives working.
Key symbolic figures such as "Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is an allegorical cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new ...
" and "Mrs. Casey Jones" appeared in posters across the country representing strong women who supported their husbands in the war effort. Due to all the propaganda targeting female wartime duties, the number of women working jumped 15% from 1941 to 1943. Women were the primary figures of the home front, which was a major theme in the poster propaganda media,Sara Harrington. “Women’s Work: Domestic Labor in American World War II Posters.” Art Documentation. Vol 22 No 2. Rutgers University 2003. Page 41 and, as the war continued, women began appearing more frequently in war posters. At first, they were accompanied by male counterparts, but later women began to appear as the central figure in the posters. These posters were meant to show a direct correlation with the efforts of the home front to the war overseas and portray women as directly affecting the war. Radios also broadcast information and appeals, drawing on patriotic calls and the need of such work to save men's lives. In the later 20th century, Rosie the Riveter would be adopted by feminists movements as a movement symbol. Though Some modern historians view the campaign as sexist, claiming that "women were being encouraged to join the workforce, but with the understanding that they would abdicate their posts as soon as the soldiers returned."
Two major campaigns were launched: "Women in the War," to recruit for the armed services and war-related jobs; and "Women in Necessary Services," or such jobs as laundry, clerking in grocery and drug stores, and other employment necessary to support the economy. Books and magazines addressed women with the need for their labor. Many works of fiction depicted women working in industries suffering labor shortages, although generally in the more glamorous industries. Major magazines covers movies, and popular songs all depicted women workers.
The woman war worker was commonly used as a symbol of the home front, perhaps because, unlike a male figure, the question of why she was not serving in the armed forces would not be raised. In many stories, the woman worker appeared as an example to a selfish woman who then reformed and obtained employment.
Magazines were urged to carry fiction suitable for wartime. For instance, '' True Story'' toned down its Great Depression hostility to working women and featured war work favorably. At first, it continued sexual themes, such as female war workers being seduced, having affairs with married men, or engaging in casual affairs. The Magazine Bureau objected to this as hindering recruitment, and argued that war workers should not be shown as more prone to dalliance than other women. As a result, ''True Story'' removed such themes from stories featuring female war workers. The ambitious career woman whose life culminated in disaster still appeared, but only when motivated by self-interest; whereas women who worked from patriotic motives were able to maintain their marriages and bear children rather than suffer miscarriages and infertility, as working women invariably suffered in pre-war stories. Stories showed that war work could redeem a woman with a sordid past. '' Saturday Evening Post'' changed its depiction of working women even more: the pre-war, destructive career wife vanished entirely, and now employed women could also have happy families.
The image of the "glamour girl" was adapted to wartime conditions by depicting women in factory work as attractive and overtly showed that a woman could keep her looks while performing war work. Fictional romances presented war workers as winning the attention of soldiers, in preference to girls who lived for pleasure.Maureen Honey, ''Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender and Propaganda during World War II'', p 78, The motives for female war workers were often presented as bringing their men home earlier, or making a safer world for their children. Depictions of female war workers often suggested that they were working only for the duration, and planned to return full-time to the home afterward.
The appeal for women workers suggested that by performing war work, a woman supported her brother, boyfriend or husband in the armed forces, and hastened the day when he could return home.
=In the armed forces
= Women's groups and organizations were asked to recruit women for the WACS,WAVES
Waves most often refers to:
*Waves, oscillations accompanied by a transfer of energy that travel through space or mass.
*Wind waves, surface waves that occur on the free surface of bodies of water.
Waves may also refer to:
Music
*Waves (band) ...
, WASPS
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...
and other female branches of the services.
The image of the "glamour girl" was applied to women in the military, to reassure women that joining the military did not make them less feminine. In fictional romances, women in uniform won the hearts of soldiers who preferred them to women who did not support the war effort.
African American: Double V campaign
The African American community in the United States resolved on aDouble V campaign
The Double V campaign was a slogan and drive to promote the fight for democracy in overseas campaigns and at the home front in the United States for African Americans during World War II. The Double V refers to the " V for victory" sign promine ...
: Victory over fascism abroad, and victory over discrimination at home. Large numbers migrated from poor Southern farms to munitions centers. Racial tensions were high in overcrowded cities like Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
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; Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
and Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
experienced race riots in 1943. Black newspapers created the Double V campaign to build black morale and head off radical action. Special posters and pamphlets were prepared for distribution in black neighborhoods.
Most black women had been farm laborers or domestics before the war. Despite discrimination and segregated facilities throughout the South, they escaped the cotton patch and took blue-collar jobs in the cities. Working with the federal Fair Employment Practices Committee, the NAACP and CIO unions, these black women fought a "Double V" campaign—against the Axis abroad and against restrictive hiring practices at home. Their efforts redefined citizenship, equating their patriotism with war work, and seeking equal employment opportunities, government entitlements, and better working conditions as conditions appropriate for full citizens. In the South black women worked in segregated jobs; in the West and most of the North they were integrated, but wildcat strikes erupted in Detroit, Baltimore, and Evansville where white migrants from the South refused to work alongside black women.
Home fires
Most of the entertainment aimed at soldiers was heavy on sentiment and nostalgia, to help sustain morale. In most media, the girl next door
The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in romantic stories. She is so named because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a mutual friendship that later often ...
was often used as the symbol of all things American. Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer.
Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reign ...
characterized it as women giving soldiers something to fight for, but one soldier wrote to her saying that her pin-up photographs told them, in the midst of fighting, what they were fighting for. Songs on armed forces request programs were not about Rosie the Riveter, but of the girls who were waiting for the soldiers to return. Many such songs were also popular at the home front. Themes of love, loneliness and separation were given more poignancy by the war.
German intelligence officers, interrogating American prisoners, mistakenly concluded that the Americans notions of why they were fighting were for such vague concepts, such as " Mom's apple pie," and concluded that American servicemen were idealistically soft and could be convinced to desert their allies.
Stories for the home front recounted the soldiers' need for their sweethearts and families to remain as they were, because ''they'' were what the soldier were fighting for. As the war ended, real and fictional stories often featured women who left war work to return to their homes and to raise children. Women, particularly wives whose husbands were at war, and children were often portrayed as what was at risk in the war.
Home-front posters also invoked an idealized America, as in the series declaring "This is America", portraying "the family is a sacred institution," "where Main Street is bigger than Broadway," and "where a man picks his job".Fighting For An Ideal America/ref> Typically, men were presented as ordinary but women as beautiful and glamorous.
Allies
Pro-British
Roosevelt urged support for Britain before the United States entered the war, to gain support for theLend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
Act. Part of this reasoning was that those who were currently fighting the Axis powers would keep war from the United States, if supported.
In propaganda media, posters urged support for Great Britain, while the stock character of the "supercilious Englishman" was removed from film. Newsreels depicted the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
, showing the famous '' St Paul's Survives'' image of St. Paul's dome rising above the flames, and Ed Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...
reported the effects. Frank Capra's film ''The Battle of Britain
''The Battle of Britain'' was the fourth of Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' series of seven propaganda films, which made the case for fighting and winning the Second World War. It was released in 1943 and concentrated on the German bombardment o ...
'' (1943), in the ''Why We Fight
''Why We Fight'' is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in the ...
'' series, depicted the RAF's fight against Germany. While it embellished real life dogfights, it did depict the frightening night raids, which the British people nevertheless managed to carry-on through.
Before 7 December 1941 and the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii, a number of Americans in the north and mid-west United States were either sympathetic to Nazi Germany or simply opposed to another war with Germany because they were of German ancestry. In addition, numerous Irish-Catholic Americans were pro-Nazi because they were openly hostile to the British and British interests. However, the American South was very pro-British at this time, because of the kinship southerners felt for the British.
The South was deemed "a total failure" for the non-interventionist America First Committee
The America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost United States isolationist pressure group against American entry into World War II. Launched in September 1940, it surpassed 800,000 members in 450 chapters at its peak. The AFC principally supp ...
for reasons such as traditional southern pride in the military, pro-British sentiment and Anglophilia due to a predominance of British ancestry among most Southerners, political loyalty to the Democratic Party and the role of defense spending in aiding the region's depressed economy.
Pro-Soviet
Depicting theSoviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in American propaganda was a delicate issue throughout the war, as the Soviet Union could not possibly be presented as a liberal democracy.
However, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union inspired propaganda in its favor, and Hollywood produced pro-Soviet movies. At Roosevelt's urging, the film ''Mission to Moscow
''Mission to Moscow'' is a 1943 film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the 1941 book by the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies.
The movie chronicles the experiences of the second American ambassador to the Soviet ...
'' was made and depicted the purge trials
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
as a just punishment of a Trotskyite conspiracy. On the other hand, the 1939 Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
film ''Ninotchka
''Ninotchka'' is a 1939 American romantic comedy film made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch and starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Walter Reisch, based o ...
'' was not re-released as it ridiculed Russians.Lee Kennett, ''For the Duration. . . : The United States Goes To War'' p 164
Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' series included ''The Battle of Russia''. The first part of the film depicted the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, recounted past failures to invade Russia, and described Russian scorched earth and guerrilla tactics. It also omitted all references to the pre-War Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...
. The second part of the film depicts Germany being drawn too far into Russia; and mostly concentrates on the siege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...
. Indeed, it unrealistically portrays the great withdrawal into Russian territory as a deliberate ploy of the Soviet government.
Stories written in the US or Britain that were critical of the Soviet Union and its policies were often put on hold or not published at all due to the need to maintain friendly relationships with it. One notable example of this was George Orwell's anti-Soviet novel ''Animal Farm
''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...
'', which was written during the war but could not be published until afterwards.
Pro-Chinese
Support for the Chinese people was urged in posters. Even prior to the United States' entry into the war, many Chinese figures appeared on the cover of ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
''. Japanese propaganda attributed this not to any disgust Americans felt for Japanese atrocities in China, but simply to more effective Chinese propaganda.JAPANESE PSYOP DURING WWII/ref> Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' series included ''The Battle of China''. It depicted the brutal attack on China by Japan as well as atrocities such as the
Rape of Nanking
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
, which helped galvanize Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation. The film also depicted the building of the Burma Road
The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino ...
, which helped keep China in the war as the Japanese had occupied most Chinese ports The film ridiculed the Japanese anti-Western propaganda of "co-prosperity" and "co-existence" by reciting these themes over scenes of Japanese atrocities, it was the most stark, "Good vs Evil" film of the ''Why We Fight'' series.
Pearl Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buc ...
, a famous author of books on China, warned Americans to take seriously the appeal of the Japanese Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The , also known as the GEACPS, was a concept that was developed in the Empire of Japan and propagated to Asian populations which were occupied by it from 1931 to 1945, and which officially aimed at creating a self-sufficient bloc of Asian peo ...
to the people of China and other Asian nations. This was due to those people being treated as inferior races, an attitude many in the West had toward orientals. Elmer Davis
Elmer Holmes Davis (January 13, 1890 – May 18, 1958) was an American news reporter, author, the Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II and a Peabody Award recipient.
Early life and career
Davis was born ...
of the Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
also declared that since the Japanese were proclaiming the Pacific conflict as a racial war, the United States could only counter this propaganda by deeds that showed Americans believed in the equality of races. However, this was not officially addressed, and American propaganda did not confront the problem of prejudice based on color.
Occupied Europe
Frank Capra's films ''The Nazis Strike'' and ''Divide and Conquer'', part of the ''Why We Fight'' series, depicted the conquest of Europe. ''The Nazis Strike'' covers the seizure of land starting with theAnschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
and concluding with the invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, as it depicts Hitler creating an enormous military force. ''Divide and Conquer'' depicts German conquests in Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Special attention is given to atrocities, and the French population is depicted as enslaved after the conquest. An American poster depicted Frenchmen with raised hands warning them that German victory meant slavery, starvation and death.
The tragedy of Lidice
Lidice (, german: Liditz) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants.
Lidice is built near the site of the previous village of the same name, which was co ...
, shooting of the men and the sending of the women to concentration camps, was also depicted in posters. The Free French
Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...
also had posters published, urging the American population to support them. The Belgian Information Center had posters declaring that the people of Belgium still resisted.
American propaganda was circulated in occupied countries through the efforts of the underground movements. Stockpiled books were shipped to France within weeks of D-Day, in order to counteract Nazi propaganda, particularly anti-American propaganda. This was part of "consolidation propaganda", intended to pacify occupied regions so as to limit the forces needed to occupy; to counter-act Nazi propaganda, particularly about the United States; and to explain what the United States had done during the war.John B. Hench, ''Books As Weapons'', p69
Pro-Filipino
Posters were used to portray and support the Filipino resistance forces, which, while often listed as one of the greatest organized resistances in history, also exacted a terrible toll on the Filipino people.
See also
*United States home front during World War II
The United States home front during World War II supported the war effort in many ways, including a wide range of volunteer efforts and submitting to government-managed Rationing in the United States, rationing and price controls. There was a gen ...
* British propaganda during World War II
* British Security Coordination
*List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
During World War II and immediately after it, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreig ...
*Nazi propaganda
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation o ...
*Propaganda in Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II
Propaganda in Imperial Japan, in the period just before and during World War II, was designed to assist the regime in governing during that time. Many of its elements were continuous with pre-war themes of Shōwa statism, including the principle ...
*Propaganda in the United States
Propaganda in the United States is spread by both government and media entities. Propaganda is carefully curated information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread, usually to preserve the self-interest of a nation. It is used in advertising, rad ...
*Propaganda of Fascist Italy
The propaganda used by the National Fascist Party (PNF) in the years leading up to and during Benito Mussolini's leadership of Italy (1922–1943) was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Fascist ...
*Walt Disney's World War II propaganda production Between 1941 and 1945, during World War II, Walt Disney was involved in the production of propaganda films for the U.S. government. The widespread familiarity of Disney's productions benefited the U.S. government in producing pro-American war propa ...
* World War II political cartoons
References
Further reading
* Bredhoff, Stacey (1994), ''Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II,'' National Archives Trust Fund Board. * Cooke, James J. ''American Girls, Beer, and Glenn Miller: GI Morale in World War II'' (University of Missouri Press, 2012excerpt and text search
*, summaries of thousands of polls in US, Canada, Europe * Fox, Frank W (1975), ''Madison Avenue Goes to War: The Strange Military Career of American Advertising, 1941–45,'' Brigham Young University Press. * Fyne, Robert (1994), ''The Hollywood Propaganda of World War II,'' Scarecrow Press. * Gregory, G.H. (1993), ''Posters of World War II,'' Gramercy Books. * Gallup, George H. (1972), ''The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935- 1971, Vol. 1, 1935–1948,'' short summary of every poll * Holsinger, M. Paul and Mary Anne Schofield; ''Visions of War: World War II in Popular Literature and Culture'' (1992
online edition
* Honey, Maureen. (1984) ''Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender and Propaganda during World War II'' * Laurie, Clayton. (1996) ''The Propaganda Warriors: America's Crusade Against Nazi Germany'' (University of Kansas Press
excerpt and text search
* Winkler, Allan. (1978) ''The Politics of Propaganda: Office of War Information, 1942-1945. (Yale University Press) * Witkowski, Terrence H. "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers" ''Journal of Advertising'', Vol. 32, 2003
External links
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Life magazine
''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
''The Kitschified Mass Soul: American War Advertisements
Goebbels's analysis of American propaganda, for the German population *Th
Historical Society of Pennsylvania War Poster Collection
including over 500 original World War I and World War II posters, are available for research use at the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...
.Finding Aid to American war posters from the Second World War, circa 1940-1945
The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
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United States home front during World War II
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