One of the key features of propaganda during wartime is its attempt to appeal to the basest of human emotions and ideals, whether its noble human desires like justice and freedom, or less noble ones like hatred and fear. One of the most effective tools for stirring these evil thoughts and drumming a populace into support for a war is good, old fashioned racism. Used by armies since the dawn of time, the technoque works because it casts the enemies as something less than human; a scourge that needs to be eradicated before it destroys everything we love and cherish. There are countless examples of racist propaganda posters from World War 2, but one of the best examples was the American poster This is the Enemy. Shocking by todays standard, it shows grinning caricature of a Japanese soldier with slanted eyes and simian arms carrying away a naked white woman while others swing from their necks in the burning background. It is a dark, unneruning image. Perhaps the most fightening thing about the poster is that it wasnt used to create an inmage of the Japanese, but to reinforce one already widely and unquestionably held by regular, everyday people.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 14:19:33 +0000
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