Friday, January 13, 2017

WWII Propaganda

The usage of propaganda during World War II was very widespread. Both sides used this as a strategy for gaining support from their citizens and to spread a sense of hate towards their enemies. These included very racist and offensive posters such as Tokio Kid which portrayed the Japanese as inhuman, vermin like monsters who had blood lust for Americans. As terrible as they may have been, strategies such as this were very effective at doing their job. They instilled hate towards the enemies and gave American's a better sense of nationality and motivation to win the war. However, its post-war effect was very negative in America- it promoted hatred towards all Japanese (including American-born citizens) and fostered racism. Do you think that these propaganda posters were necessary? If not, what are possible alternatives that would've have a lesser post-war side effect?

   

7 comments:

  1. I don't think that they propaganda was entirely necessary, especially to the extent that it got to during the war. This is because the American people were already looking to support their country during the war and while it was an effective motivator for Americans, it created a long term hate of the Japanese. I think finding more ways of distributing a "support America" message could have been just as effective as the "Japanese aren't even human" message.

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    1. I agree that "supporting America" can increase a sense of nationality and cause more men to enlist in the army. However, can the simple message of "supporting America" have the same effect when they are being forced to kill human beings? However nasty the propaganda may be, I think it also helps the soldiers feel less guilty about what they are really doing.

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    2. In my opinion, it would be somewhat extreme to claim that the "American people were already looking to support their country during the war," especially considering that there were a lot isolationists and veterans from WW1 who didn't want to see the country get into another war after the First World War had wreaked havoc on international economies (especially Germany's). And this idea is even further supported by the fact that the US government had to actively enforce war-related policies (such as rations) and had to produce extreme propaganda to convince people to help the war effort (making it an "effective motivator" as you said). Now, I do acknowledge that there were a lot of people who would have supported the war effort without the propaganda due to nationalism, patriotism, and a fear for the Axis powers gaining power being rampant in the US, since this fact was made obvious through the Victory gardens and resource donations. However, grouping all of America into the war-supporting category is inaccurate which is why it might not have been a good idea for the government to stop producing radical propaganda portraying the enemies as inhumane (since this might have been detrimental to the American war effort).

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  2. I think that the idea of propaganda was a good one, but they took it way too far. maybe saying things promoting americans and saying that japaneese are not on our side would be okay but making them inhuman is not okay.

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  3. I agree with Quinn. Propaganda surrounds us whether we recognize it or not. Some are more obvious forms. Pretty much a lot of bad things that happened during this time period were a result of people saying that certain freedoms had to be restricted to support the war effort. I disagree with this. I think that freedom of speech and other such things should not be limited. It wasn't detracting too much from the war effort. On the point of propaganda, it can be useful. Propaganda that doesn't spread the idea of hate towards another country or race is obviously detrimental as racism will continue after the war is over.

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  4. I think Jamie adds some good incite here. I also agree that freedom of speech should not ever be restricted. Propaganda doesn't have to be racist, like some used in World War II. Propaganda is used to relay a certain message and convince the viewer to think the same.

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  5. Personally I think that this type of propaganda was not necessary, but some type was. I believe that the U.S had to use some type of propaganda to make the people side with the U.S and want to fight the Japanese, but I dont think the U.S had to portray the entire race as inhuman.

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