The Use Of Propaganda During World War II

Even though the outcome of World War II was influenced by the technology utilized by the nations participating in the war, the outcome was also dependent on a manipulative form of information. That manipulative form of information is also known as “propaganda.” During World War II, propaganda was used to effectively: demoralize enemies, spread news, increase country morale, and indoctrinate civilians. Thanks to the use of propaganda, the outcome of the world favored the Allied Powers, but it also affected the core values of societies during and after World War II. World War II propaganda caused the populations of Japan, United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union to change their core value from “treating people ethically and
However, the propaganda poster ended up being too successful at its purpose and ended up causing the majority of U.S. civilians to end up also despising innocent Japanese-Americans; Hannah Miles points this out by stating, “although the war was being fought against the Japanese overseas, Japanese Americans were ultimately mistrusted and mistreated by the members of the dominant Anglo American culture.” Also, testimonies and a recount from individuals during WWII confirm the effectiveness of this poster, “As a member of the dominant Anglo-American audience, I found myself sympathizing with the Caucasian woman while looking down upon the animal-like Japanese soldier with disdain. The two races were starkly separated, and in my mind the Japanese race became the “other,” the “enemy,” “a U.S. Army veteran remembers that ‘[w]e had been fed tales of these yellow thugs, subhumans, with teeth that resembled fangs. If a hundred thousand Japs were killed, so much the better. Two hundred thousand, even better. I wasn't innocent, either. You couldn't escape it,’ ”
civilians to “surprisingly” despise and be terrified of the Japanese. The National WWII Museum of New Orleans affirms this exploitation existed by stating, “Other posters showed the dark side of war. They were filled with shocking images of what had happened to other countries and what could still happen in America if everyone did not do their part.” Unfortunately, likewise “Tokio Kid Say,” “This is the Enemy” also proved to be too effective for the Japanese-Americans’ own good. Meg Sullivan points out that this phenomenon is demonstrated by an individual who was the president of the United States, “ ‘The internment decision, which removed all males of Japanese ancestry from American society, was partly motivated by concern over the alleged deleterious effects of interracial mixing’ ” … “Franklin Roosevelt, who signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, actually commissioned a Smithsonian anthropologist to ‘undertake a study of cross-racing of Asian and European stocks.’ ” In addition, the fact that Sullivan states demographic studies have claim that Japanese-American males rarely married outside their own race reinforces the fact that the fear towards Japanese-Americans is irrational. This propaganda poster completely reverses a core value of the intended audience “treat people ethically and fairly” to “treat