How Did Japan Use Propaganda During Ww2

Even though the two films were created from different aspects, in both Our Enemy: The Japanese (1943) and My Japanese (1945), the narrators created under the purpose of propaganda among American citizens. In “Our Enemy: The Japanese,” the entire film was described in a strong sense of belittle and satire toward Japanese. As indicated in the film, Japanese were not only weak on their industrial progress since all their knowledge were learned from the Western civilizations, but also how the life as Japanese were terrible under the control of their emperor. There were multiple quotes used in the film to depreciate Japanese, for example "Never an inventive or creative people, Japanese have always depended on the scientific and industrial knowledge of the Western world. And now that they are at war with Britain and the United States, they find their chief source from which to borrow fast-changing production techniques in Nazi Germany " and "Every channel of public information is being used to impress upon Japan's people that the war is proceeding according to a divinely-guided plan. " Furthermore, the narrator also started to criticize the life as women and children

During World War II propaganda was ubiquitous. It consisted of a wide range of carriers including leaflets, radio, television, and most importantly posters. Posters were used based on their appeal: they were colorful, creative, concise, and mentally stimulating. Posters often portrayed the artist's views on the war. They demonstrated the artist concern for the war, their hopes for the war, and reflected the way enemies were envisioned. Posters also show a nations political status: they reflect a nations allies and enemies, how the nation saw itself, and its greatest hopes and fears of the war.

During World War II, propaganda was used for a number of reasons, it not only showed how anyond could be of use to the war efforts, but it also showed that every person could contribute as well. These posters empowered everyone to stand behind their nation's Army, and to continue contributing to the war efforts. The posters showed that everyone is needed, that anyone could make a difference, and some even emphasized certain values to those who are already helping with the war effort.

Over the course of the almost 4 years that the war in the Pacific took place, both America and Japan created propaganda posters, film, etc. to support their respective war efforts. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, American perceptions of the Japanese was epitomized by racial propaganda that scrutinized their new powerful enemy. Meanwhile Japan sought to keep out the impure Western culture from spreading East by defaming it. Despite these differences, both nations’ utilized similar approaches in the creation of their propaganda, dehumanizing the inferior enemy while glorify their superior power and culture. John W. Dower explains the factors that were brought about during the war which influenced enemy sentiment of both countries and the use of propaganda posters and films such as Know Your Enemy: Japan in chapters 3 and 5 of his book War Without Mercy.

The book Fly Boys written by James Bradley gives us many different stories and viewpoints during WWII. During this time Japan was in the dark compared to china or the U.S. They didn't like outside influences and thought the gaizin were ruining their religious beliefs, but the Japanese reacted to this in a bad way. The Japanese army was at war with china and would not only captured chinese soldiers but would also take the women from china. They would rape the women and spread disease from soldier to soldier. The reason for the spread of disease is that “ 1 women for every 35 soldiers,”(Bradley 61) and they viewed the women as military supplies. They kept the women for months on end and would only give them one day off to be checked by doctors.

The Japanese, though, had a similar facade covering their actions in Asia. Prior to World War II, there was a number of colonial settlements in Asia to which were controlled by Western Allies. “In the highly publicized Assembly of the Greater East Asiatic Nations convened in Tokyo in November 1943, a succession of Asian leaders voiced support for Japan and placed the war in East-versus-West, Oriental-versus-Occidental, and ultimately blood-versus-blood context”(6). The war appeared to be a way for Asian leaders to gain control over their own lands again; however, Japan’s behavior towards other Asians caused for a lose of support in their growth. the Japanese became “dominating the political scene, taking over local economies, imposing broad programs of “Japanization,” slapping non-Japanese in public, torturing and executing dissidents, exploiting native labor so severely that between 1942 and 1945 the death toll among such workers numbered in the hundreds of thousands” (7). Though moving across the continent under ideals of a “free Asia,” the Japanese were also moving with the ideal of imperialism and cultural superiority.

This concept baffled the Japanese. The idea of prisoners had not occurred to them. These men were dishonorable, and the thought of feeding and taking care of the dishonorable repulsed the Japanese (Pitt & Mason, 1993). For a while, the issue was not dealt with, and the POW's were left alone. Unfortunately, that was not to be their permanent state of being. Soon, an "inspiration" gave light to the issue. The Japanese discovered they held in their hands a free work force. In these dishonorable men, lay the path to accomplishing the new goals being set for a nation at war (La Forte & Marcello, 1993).

Anti Japanese propaganda conveys dehumanization and racial slurs and makes you want to fear the Japanese. During WWII a lot of the propaganda was anti Japanese. The propaganda showed the Japanese as murderers, which caused Americans to have hatred towards the Japanese. The Japanese that lived in America were forced to go to camps because of the propaganda. This shows that the racial and animalism stereotypes towards the Japanese made the Americans fear them.

In 1937, the Japanese troops took Nationalist Army headquarters city and spent seven weeks killing 300,000 men, women, and children by hand in the Rape of Nanjing. “Death from two atomic bombs are pale shadows to the deaths resulting from the Japanese military’s systematic abuse and killings of prisoners of war and slave laborers from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia,” Ohio University Professor of History Donald Jordan. In the Rape of Nanjing thousands of women were forced to become sex slaves for the Japanese. Not only was this enemy fanatical with their treatment of prisoners, the action on the battlefield was even more dreadful. Kamikaze pilots would fly their planes into US ships and naval bases. They believed in the Brushido, which emphasized on not surrendering. If a Japanese person were to surrender, it would be in vain towards their country, and should commit suicide rather than surrender. With this type of mentality, how could one argue Japan was leaning towards surrendering? The Japanese wanted Soviet mediation for a settlement in their best interest. If it was not met to their approval, Japan would prepare a bitter, suicidal resistance that could last for months until meeting their desired terms. In July of 1945, Admiral Kantaro Suzuki told the Japanese Cabinet that thousands of kamikaze pilots would fly against enemy ships even in training planes, that millions of soldiers would fight the “Decisive Battle” by suicide banzai charges

The Japanese troops were expected to find their own food and were even ordered to eat captured enemies, even dead Japanese soldiers. When they ran out of bullets they had to fight with rocks and did not have the supplies they needed to win. Japanese troops were left to fend for themselves and did not get support from the government like other troops did during World War II. Japanese soldiers were fighting for their emperor and did whatever they needed to to win. Even if that meant using their natural resources. The soldiers did things that were unethical because they were told to. The Japanese were not given enough supplies but were still told to fight till their

That was evident throughout the entirety of the war. There really was no such thing as an individual in Japan. Everything was directed towards the war effort and success of Japan. Drafts were installed and nobody questioned the fighting, in fact this war was encouraged to finally show strength against the west.

The Japanese were also led by an ultra-nationalist government. They were very militaristic and had one of the most powerful armies at hand in Asia. Japan led all the countries participating in the world with a staggering 28.2% of the country's national income on defence and military. As Japan racism ruled throughout the military and they thought of themselves so highly that anyone who was not Japanese was considered inferior. Even before WWII Japan had a history of fighting and war with other countries. They had many disputes with China and also had some conflict with the Soviet Union, then later with the U.S in the war. Whenever conflict would arise, the japanese result would always be militarism as that is what the motive of the country was. Both Germany and Japan’s strong sense of nationalism was a great motivation for them to start WWII. With the Germans wanting to blame all struggles against the Jews and becoming a very anti semitic country, all this hate led them to finally pull the trigger and start their execution of the Jews during the

Japanese officers were resigned to the fact they would die fighting for their country. Infact The whole population was to be involved in the battle against the invaders (even young school girls).

The Japanese shot and killed the POW’s who had Japanese memento on them. Tortures were rampant in these shake down formations. The Japanese made the POW’s stand in the hot sun for hours at a time with no food or water. Anyone caught disobeying the rules were severely beaten or killed on the spot. There was no special treatment between Officers or Enlisted, Americans or Filipino troops; they all suffered the same consequences. The Japanese believed that if a warrior surrenders you are worthless and treated with no dignity. Japanese guards beat and tortured the POW’s at will with no consequence during search shakedowns, Japanese Officers beheaded hundreds of U.S and Filipino POW for having Japanese items on them; this was a common practice during the search

Richard Flanagan illustrates the tensions the Japanese had with the prisoners of war (POW) that are from American, Australian, and Chinese nationalities because of cultural circumstances like the Japanese spirit. Flanagan explains that the Japanese feel invincible because “the indomitable Japanese spirit” is not found in the Western culture, and it is “this spirit that believes will prevail until its final victory” (Flanagan 23). The Japanese adhere to this spirit because they believe it will be the sole reason that they will come out victorious from World War