Propaganda During World War II

Propaganda is information that is biased and used to promote a particular cause or point of view. Propaganda was used through movies, radios, news channels, posters, and movies. Propaganda was very important during this time because without it, people won’t join the army and the country will be at risk. Everywhere people looked there was propaganda. Propaganda influenced many people to serve During World War Two. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, he shows how the students in there school were easily persuaded to enlist in the war. The three main ways that propaganda was used to persuade individuals to enlist in the war are posters, films, and media.

Propaganda made a great impact on World War II society. Propaganda was used intently during World War II and was particularly important because it allowed the government to control citizen’s thoughts and beliefs about the war. Propaganda is defined as information or ideas that promote a point of view, group, belief, etc. Usually, it is either misleading or biased in order to portray a desired viewpoint for people to believe. In the war, the government utilized propaganda to make citizens believe that the war was worth fighting for, even though that wasn’t the case. They did so by creating propaganda that advocated for unification, domination of the enemy, and war employment opportunities, to name a few. Maus by Art Spiegelman is a graphic novel

The citizens of the United States help majorly before the war and during. For example, the 14 million Women work about twenty-five percent of the nation’s labor force. During the war in 1945 that number jump about five million and rose about five percent (New Roles For Women during WW2 1st paragraph). Even though women didn’t get paid as much as men they still wanted to help America better again make people dream about it how great it is. The Women didn’t fight in the war, (although some did) instead they worked in munitions factories, shipyards, and offices(New Roles For Women during WW2 2nd paragraph) they still managed to make a big impact on the war. With the U.S. Desperate for more workers so they decided to make propaganda directed to Women such as “Rosie the Riveter”

Propaganda was used by the government as a Mean to accomplish all their major objectives during the war. Propaganda played a very significant part in winning over the citizens of the Unites States of America in the First World War. This propaganda helped gain support for the war, and also created a high morale of the people. Although this is the definition of propaganda, the real question is how valuable really was this propaganda in influencing the views of Americans? The answer is very useful, and looking at propaganda used throughout this major world war you’ll notice its value.

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 gardens, persuaded people to save some of their material so that more material could be used for the war effort,

Countries such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom, are a few of the many countries that used propaganda as an art of persuasion. Propaganda was a popular tool used in World War One to change the opinions of the masses. Most propaganda was negative and/or misleading and lead to feelings of anger or sadness by using blackmail and over-exaggeration. Propaganda was used during the war to influence the public on the home front and boost moral. At the beginning of the war, it was used to encourage the fact that the enemies were evil and also to boost enlistment figures. The United States of America also use propaganda to aid in conserving and rationing food to send to soldiers. World War One would have been very different if the home front had not been persuaded to ration their food or create victory gardens or send men off to the war if there had not been

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor from Japan on December 7, 1941. American President Franklin Roosevelt declared a former declaration of Allied war aims with British prime minister Winston Churchill. Japan intended the bombing of Pearl Harbour to cripple America from interfering with their plans of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Pearl Harbour was a military camp filled with ships and planes, the bombing destroyed many valuable equipment and many soldiers were killed and injured. The United States shared many goals with Britain and Russia to defeat Germany, while acting defensive against Japan. The propaganda made by the General Motors Company was used to encourage the public to produce more goods and funds to the war efforts. Propaganda posters

During World War II, the use of propaganda was commonly used to get a point across or to encourage the citizens to do the “right thing.” An example of this is photograph 4 stating to “BUY WAR BONDS.” To win a war, it cost billions of money so this photo encourages the citizens to buy war bonds to contribute to the war. The photo also states “Keep him flying.” Those words state the reason why citizens would buy war bonds and if they bought some what the government would accomplish with

Propaganda refers to when biased information is spread to influence a certain audience to promote another political opinion. Propaganda greatly influenced the home front by convincing civilians to get involved by downplaying the WW1. They came up with many ways to convince homefront to defend their country and claimed that it would be a very “swell” place to go.

World War I had a massive impact in Europe and North America and all over the world. It had an influence on all the spheres of individuals, especially in Europe and North America. The word propaganda is defined as the "doctrines, ideas, arguments, facts, or allegations spread by deliberate effort through any medium of communication in order to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause" (Dombrowski, 1999, 59). In simple terms, it is defined as the strategy and course of action taken to influence a cause and promote it within the entire community. It is also considered to be the publicity of ideas in order to convince the public. In order to promote a propaganda, it is essential that strong media is utilized to transmit it to a large audience in order to accomplish its objective(Gavin, 2007, 46).

Throughout the Nazis’ reign they employed many different types of propaganda to lure the public to their views and ideals. Propaganda lurked in even the most innocent of places waiting to entrap the unsuspecting mind and often targeting the young men of Germany. The Nazis use of propaganda was meant to appeal to the public through a sense of nationalism and fear of enemy nations. The propaganda was tailored to the public preexisting opinions and prejudices. These aspects along with the Nazis opportunistic style of propaganda made for a dangerous trap that threatened to ensnare all of Germany. The Nazis used opportunistic propaganda to convince a nation to follow in their ideals and actions.

The use of propaganda in wartime was not a common thing, but when it came to resources it did. Societies have used and lived with propaganda from the earliest civilizations like Ancient Greece. World War I marked a turning point for state use of propaganda both in war and during peace. One reason was That World War I was the first “Total War.” In the US many Americans were towards the use of propaganda because they needed supplies and men. So propaganda persuaded the audience with ethos or their emotions just so people can get or do what they want.

Using propaganda as a service announcement allowed the government to get money to fund the war. In junction with animated propaganda was movie-based propaganda. Director Frank Capra produced seven films from 1943 to 1944, collectively called Why We Fight, portraying Germany, Italy and Japan as nations of inhuman murderers. The film was produced as a response to Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will and had a tough time convincing non-interventionist America to get involved in the war. Capra’s goal was to “let the enemy prove to our soldiers the enormity of his cause - and the justness of ours” (Wikipedia, Why We Fight). In order to persuade Americans to support the war, Capra took out many facts from the film in order to paint the Allies, especially the Soviets, as “good guys.” The Nazi-Soviet Alliance, the Soviet’s invasion of Poland, and Soviet occupation of the Baltic States were all excluded.

During World War 2, two main countries utilized propaganda the most: Germany and the United States of America. Germany utilized propaganda more frequently and aggressively compared to the United States, making it the more dominant use of power. The United States is considered submissive because it only used propaganda to get people to support the war cause. The Germans concentrated on three goals for the propagandas: make Hitler into a God-like figure, make Jews into the common enemy for all Germans, and rally the masses. For the US, propaganda primarily served in recruiting more citizens, influencing citizens to financially aid the war, unifying the public, and increasing factory production for the war.

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. At its root, propaganda is to propagate (spread around) a certain position or point of view, rather than just reporting the facts. Most propaganda is associated with politics or war time. It is used to help unite countries, especially the U.S. in the past. [Pg. 1, sec. 1]