American propaganda during World War II
Encyclopedia
During World War II
, American
propaganda
was used to increase support for the war and commitment to an Allied victory. Using a wide variety of media
, propagandists fomented hatred for the enemy and support for America's allies, urged greater public effort for war production
and victory gardens
, persuaded people to make do with what they had so that more material could be used for the war effort, and sold war bonds.
began, most Americans viewed propaganda as a tool of totalitarian dictatorships
. Furthermore, many remembered with hostility the fervor of World War I propaganda efforts, which were later regarded as violating basic rights as well as conveying misinformation. At first, the government was reluctant to engage in propaganda campaigns, but pressure from the media, the business sector and advertisers who wanted direction persuaded the government to take an active role. Even so, the government insisted that its actions were not propaganda, but a means of providing information. These efforts were slowly and haphazardly formed into a more unified propaganda effort, although never to the level of World War I.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
created the Office of War Information
(OWI). This mid-level agency joined a host of other wartime agencies, including the War
and State
Departments, in the dissemination of war information and propaganda. Officials at OWI used numerous tools to communicate to the American public. These included Hollywood movie studios
, radio stations and printing presses.
The Writers' War Board
was privately organized for the purposes of propaganda and often acted as liaison between the government and the writers. Many of the writers involved regarded their efforts as superior to governmental propaganda, as they regarded their material as bolder and more responsive than governmental efforts. However, the writers both responded to official requests and initiated their own campaigns.
In 1944 (lasting until 1948), prominent U.S. policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to accept a harsh peace for the German people
. One method used in this campaign was an attempt to remove the commonly held view that the German people and the Nazi party were separate entities. A key participant in this campaign was the Writers' War Board
, which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.
These posters used a number of themes to encourage support for the war, including conservation, production, recruiting, home efforts and secrecy. Posters were usually placed in areas without paid advertisements. The most common areas were post offices, railroad stations, schools, restaurants and retail stores. Smaller posters were printed for the windows of private homes and apartment buildings. These were places where other propaganda media could not be used.
The Office of War Information (OWI) Bureau of Graphics was the government agency in charge of producing and distributing propaganda posters. The main distinction between United States poster propaganda and that of British and other allied propaganda was that the U.S. posters stayed mostly positive in their messages. The United States posters focused on duty, patriotism and tradition, whereas those of other countries focused on fueling the people's hatred for the enemy. The positive messages on U.S. posters were used to increase production on the home front instead of insuring that the "money raised was not lost." U.S. Posters rarely used images of war casualties, and even battlefield scenes became less popular, and were replaced by commercial images to satisfy the "consumer" need for the war.
The war posters were not designed by the government, but by artists who received no compensation for their work. Government agencies held competitions for artists to submit their designs, allowing the government to increase the number of designs that it could choose from.
claimed the change from green to white in its packaging was to save bronze for weapons, and, as a result, saw its sales skyrocket. Coca-Cola, as did many other soft drink manufacturers, depicted its product being drunk by defense workers and members of the armed forces. Many commercial ads also urged the purchase of war bonds.
Much of the war effort was defined by advertising, and the armed forces overseas preferred magazines with full ads rather than a slimmed down version without them.
Just as is done today, editorial cartoonists sought to sway public opinion. For example, Dr. Seuss
supported Interventionism
even before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Comic strips, such as Little Orphan Annie
and Terry and the Pirates
, introduced war themes into their stories. Even before the war, sabotage and subversion were common motifs in action-oriented strips.
Many superheroes were shown combating Axis spies or activities in America and elsewhere. A comic book depicting Superman
attacking the German Westwall
was attacked in an issue of Das Schwarze Korps
, the SS weekly newspaper, with the Jewish origin of creator Jerry Siegel
given prominent attention.
In 1944, after being praised by Ernie Pyle
, Bill Mauldin
's cartoons were syndicated in the United States. This effort was supported by the War Department due to Mauldin's grimmer depiction of everyday military life in his cartoons. Mauldin's cartoons not only publicized the efforts of the ground forces, but they made the war appear bitter and onerous, helping convince Americans that victory would not be easy. While his cartoons omitted carnage, they showed the difficulty of war through his depiction of the soldiers' disheveled appearance, and sad, vacant eyes. This helped produce continued support for the troops, by conveying the hardships of their daily experiences.
The use of leaflets against Japanese troops was of little effect. Many civilians on Okinawa discounted pamphlets declaring that prisoners would not be harmed. By the time American planes could reach the Japanese home islands, the leaflets had improved, providing "advance notice" of bombings ensured that the leaflets were read avidly despite prohibitions. These pamphlets declared they had no wish to harm civilians, only the military installations, and that the bombings could be stopped by demanding new leaders who would end the war. After the atomic attacks
, more pamphlets were dropped, warning that the Americans had an even more powerful explosive at their disposal. When the Japanese government subsequently offered to surrender, the U.S. continued to drop pamphlets, telling the Japanese people of their government's offer and that they had a right to know the terms.
The American Historical Association
's G.I. Roundtable Series of pamphlets was used to ease transition to the post-war world.
are an excellent example of this use of radio. In February 1942, Norman Corwin
's This is War series was broadcast throughout the country and, by shortwave, throughout the world. Other significant uses of radio overseas includes messages to the Italian Navy, which persuaded it to surrender.
Since radio was often a "live' media, there were restrictions. Broadcasters were warned not to cut to a commercial with the line, "and now for some good news," and reporters were instructed not to describe bombings precisely enough so that the enemy could tell what they hit, for example, they were to state "the building next to the one I am standing on," not "the First National Bank." While audience participation and man-on-the-street programs were immensely popular, broadcasters realized there was no way to prevent enemy agents from being selected, and these were discontinued. Many broadcasters worked war themes into their programming to such an extent that they confused the targeted audiences. As a result, the Radio War Guide urged broadcasters to focus on selected themes.
At first the Japanese population could not receive propaganda by radio because short-wave receivers were prohibited in Japan. However, the capture of Saipan not only shocked the Japanese because it was considered invincible, but allowed Americans to use medium-wave radio to reach the Japanese islands.
And some topics were considered off limits. Books on submarines were suppressed, even ones drawing on public knowledge and made with naval assistance. In fact, attempts were made to suppress even fictional stories involving submarines. As fiction grew less popular, bookstores promoted non-fiction war books.
A few weeks after D-Day, crates of books were landed in Normandy doe distributed to French booksellers. An equal number of American and British efforts were included in these shipments. Books had been stockpiled for this purpose, and some books were specifically published for it.
, Conrad Veidt
, Martin Kosleck
, Philip Ahn and Sen Yung specialized in playing Axis spies, traitors and soldiers. Irreplaceable film workers received draft deferments to allow them to continue producing pro-Allied films.
The 1941 Nazi attack
on the Soviet Union resulted in pro-Russian movies. The war also produced an interest in newsreels and documentaries, which had been unable to compete against entertainment films prior to the war. America's allies were no longer allowed to be depicted negatively in any way.
At the request of General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Frank Capra
created a documentary series that was used as orientation films for new recruits. Capra designed the series to illustrate the enormous danger of Axis conquest and the corresponding justness of the Allies. This Why We Fight
series documented the war in seven segments:
At President Roosevelt's urging, it was also released to the theaters for the general public. In Britain, Churchill ordered the entire sequence to be shown to the public.
Movies were also useful in that propaganda messages could be incorporated into entertainment films. The 1942 film Mrs. Miniver
portrayed the experiences of an English housewife during the Battle of Britain
and urged the support of both men and women for the war effort. It was rushed to the theaters on Roosevelt's orders.
The 1944 film The Purple Heart
was used to dramatize Japanese atrocities
and the heroics of American flyers.
was attacked. On 8 December 1941, the U.S. Army immediately began working with Walt Disney. Army personnel were stationed at his studio and lived there for the duration of the war. A military officer was actually based in Walt Disney
’s office. The U.S. Army and Disney set about making various types of films for several different audiences. Most films meant for the public included some type of propaganda, while films for the troops included training and education about a given topic.
Films intended for the public were often meant to build morale. They allowed Americans to express their anger and frustration through ridicule and humor. Many films simply reflected the war culture and were pure entertainment. Others carried strong messages meant to arouse public involvement or set a public mood. Cartoons such as Bugs Bunny Bond Rally and Foney Fables pushed viewers to buy war bonds, while Scrap Happy Daffy encouraged the donation of scrap metal, and Disney's The Spirit of '43 implored viewers to pay their taxes.
The U.S. and Canadian governments also used animation for training and instructional purposes. The most elaborate training film produced, Stop That Tank!, was commissioned by the Canadian Directorate of Military Training and created by Walt Disney Studios. Troops became familiar with Private Snafu and Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli. These fictional characters were used to give soldiers safety briefs and instructions on expected behavior, while often portraying behavior that which was not recommended. The short Spies depicts an intoxicated Private Snafu giving secrets to a beautiful woman who is really a Nazi spy. Through the information he gives her, the Germans are able to bomb the ship Private Snafu is traveling on, sending him to hell.
Animation was increasingly used in political commentary against the Axis powers. Der Fuehrer's Face
was one of Walt Disney's most popular propaganda cartoons. It poked fun at Hitler’s Germany by depicting Donald Duck
dreaming that he is a German war worker, eating breakfast by only spraying the scent of bacon and eggs onto his breath and dipping a single coffee bean into his cup of water. Disney and the U.S. Army wanted to depict Germans as living in a land that was a facade of the wonderful promises made by Hitler. Producers of the cartoon also wished to show that the working conditions in German factories were not as glorious as Hitler made them sound in his speeches. In the film, Donald works continuously with very little compensation and or time off. At the end, Donald awakes from his nightmare and is forever thankful he is a citizen of the United States of America. Education for Death
was a very serious film based on the best-selling book of the same name by Gregor Ziemer
. The film shows how a young boy in Nazi Germany is indoctrinated and brainwashed at an early age and learns to believe all that the German government tells him. While this short is educational, it also provides comic relief by mocking Hitler. However, the film is both shocking in its content and despairing in its ending, depicting the death of numerous such boys who are now German soldiers.
. Magazine editors were asked to depict women as coping heroically with the sacrifices of wartime. Fiction was a particularly favored venue, and was used to subtly shape attitudes. Ladies' Home Journal and other magazine also promoted the activities of women in the armed services.
The pulp magazine
industry was especially supportive, if only to prevent their being perceived as unessential to the war effort and discontinued for the duration of the war. The Office of War Information distributed guides to writers for Western, adventure, detective and other pulp genres with possible story lines and themes that would help the war effort. Among the suggestions were a detective who was "cheerful" about following a suspect without using an automobile, a woman working in a traditionally male job
, the importance of the 35 miles per hour speed limit and carpooling, and good Chinese and British characters.
(OOC) managed to remove negative news and other items useful to the enemy—such as weather forecasts—although neither the OOC nor any other agency managed to completely slant the news in a positive, morale-boosting manner. Indeed, some government officials found that both newspapers and radio were using uncorroborated news from Vichy France and Tokyo.
As in Britain, American propaganda depicted the war as an issue of good versus evil, which allowed the government to encourage its population to fight a "just war," and used themes of resistance in and liberation to the occupied countries. In 1940, even prior to being drawn into World War II, President Roosevelt urged every American to consider the effect if the dictatorships won in Europe and Asia. Precision bombing was praised, exaggerating its accuracy, to convince people of the difference between good and bad bombing. Hitler, Tojo, Mussolini and their followers were the villains in American film, even in cartoons where characters, such as Bugs Bunny, would defeat them -- a practice that began before Pearl Harbor. Cartoons depicted Axis leaders as not being human.
Roosevelt proclaimed that the war against the dictatorships had to take precedence over the New Deal
.
Artists and writers were strongly divided on whether to encourage hatred for the enemy, which occasioned debates. The government rarely intervened in such debates, only occasionally suggesting lines for art to take. However, the OWI suggested plot lines using Axis agents in place of traditional villainous roles, such as the rustler in Westerns.
In one speech, Henry Wallace
called for post-war efforts to psychologically disarm the effect of the Axis powers, requiring schools to undo, as far as possible, the poisoning of children's minds by Hitler and the Japanese "warlords." Two days later, a Dr. Seuss's editorial cartoon showed Uncle Sam
using bellows to drive germ out of the mind of the child "Germany," while holding the child "Japan" ready for the next treatment.
Nazi Germany
was treated as the worst evil within the Axis, a greater threat than Japan and Italy. To counter the much greater desire in the United States to attack Japan, operations in the North African theater were implemented, despite military counterindications, to increase support for attacking Germany. Without such involvement, public pressure to more heavily support the war in the Pacific might have proven irresistible to American leaders.
Germans were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters, although many atrocities were specifically ascribed to Nazis and Hitler specificially, rather than to the undifferentiated German people.
Alternate history novels depicted Nazi invasions of America to arouse support for interventionism
.
The Writers' War Board compiled lists of books banned or burned in Nazi Germany
and distributed them for propaganda purposes, and thousands of commemorations of the book burnings were staged.
or The Way of the Subjects, called for the Japanese people to become "one hundred million hearts beating as one"—which Allied propagandists used to portray the Japanese as a mindless, unified mass. Atrocities were ascribed to the Japanese people as a whole. Even Japanese-Americans would be portrayed as massively supporting Japan, only awaiting the signal to committ sabotage. Despite racist elements in the propaganda, Japanese atrocities and their fanatical refusal to surrender supported their portrayal.
Even prior to the Pearl Harbor
, accounts of atrocities in China roused considerable antipathy for Japan. This stemmed from as early as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, when accounts were received of Japanese forces of bombing civilians, or firing upon shell-shocked survivors. Such books as Pearl Buck's The Good Earth
and Freda Utley
's China At War aroused sympathy for the Chinese. As early as 1937, Roosevelt condemned the Japanese for their aggression in China. The Rape of Nanking, due to the large number of Western witnesses, achieved particularly notoriety, with Chinese propagandists using it to cement Allied opinion.
Propaganda based on the attack on Pearl Harbor
was used with considerable effectiveness, because its outcome was enormous and impossible to counter. Initial reports termed it a "sneak attack" and "infamous behavior". "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became the watchword of the war. Reports of the maltreatment of American prisoners of war also aroused fury, as did reports of atrocities against native populations, with babies being thrown in the air to be caught on bayonets receiving particular attention. When three of the Doolittle Raid
ers were executed, it evoked a passion for revenge in America, and the image of the "Japanese ape" became common in film and cartoons. The film The Purple Heart
dramatized their story, with an airman giving a concluding speech that he now knew that he had understood the Japanese less than he had thought, and that they did not understand Americans if they thought this would frighten them. The diary of a dead Japanese soldier, which contained an entry coolly recounting the execution of a downed airman, was given considerable play as a demonstration of the true nature of the enemy.
The early overwhelming Japanese successes led to a pamphlet "Exploding the Japanese 'Superman' Myth" to counter the effect. The limitations of Japanese troops it cited, although minor, were actual flaws to counter the impression GIs had of Japanese poweress. The Doolittle Raid was staged after urging from Roosevelt for a counter-attack, if only for morale reasons.
Japanese calls for devotion to death were used to present a war of extermination as the only possibility, without any question as to whether it was desirable. One Marine Unit was briefed: "Every Japanese has been told that it is his duty to die for the emperor. It is your duty to see that he does so." The suicides at Saipan—of women, children, and the elderly as well as fighting men—only reinforced that belief. A thorough defeat of the Japanese was argued for in magazines so as to prevent a resurgence, as happened in Germany after World War I, of Japanese military power or ambition. This encouraged American forces to attack civilians, on the belief they would not surrender, which fed into Japanese propaganda about American atrocities.
Hirohito and undifferentiated "Japs" were often portrayed in caricature. Dr. Seuss
's editorial cartoons, which often depicted Hitler and Mussolini, opted for a "Japan" figure rather than any given leader.
One OWI suggestion for adapting "pulp" formulas was a sports story of a professional baseball team touring Japan, which would allow the writers to show the Japanese as ruthless and incapable of sportsmanship.
American popular songs at the time included "We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap," "Taps for the Japs," "We’ll nip the Nipponese," "We’re going to play Yankee Doodle in Tokyo," and "You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap." Wartime filmmakers embellished characteristics of Japanese culture that the American people would find scandalously foreign.
At the beginning of the war artists portrayed the Japanese as nearsighted, bucktoothed, harmless children. Indeed, many Americans believed that Germany had convinced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. As the war progressed, Japanese soldiers and civilians would be portrayed in films as evil, rat faced enemies that desired global domination.
In countries occupied by Japan and forced to join its would-be Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
, the failure to sustain the economic level prior to the war, particularly in the Philippines, was quickly use in propaganda about the "Co-Poverty Sphere."
Leaflets air-dropped to the Japanese people informed them of the Potsdam Declaration
, which brought to bear the extent of Allied victory, and of the Japanese government's peace negotiations, undermining the ability of the Japanese hard-liners to insist on continued war.
This effort was used to prevent people with sensitive information from talking about it where spies or saboteurs could listen in. Posters with this theme conveyed the reality of war to the general public. This was a major topic endorsed by the Office of War Information.
Some of these poster contained the most well known slogans of the war and many were depicted by propaganda artist Cyril Kenneth Bird Other slogans used for this type of poster were “loose talk costs lives”, "loose lips sink ships
", “Another careless word, another wooden cross”, and “bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy”. Stories also emphasized an anti-rumor theme, as when one woman advised another not to talk with a man about her war job, because the woman he is dating is untrustworthy and might be an enemy agent.
Rumor mongering was discouraged on the grounds it fomented divisions in America and promoted defeatism and alarmism. Alfred Hitchcock
directed Have You Heard?, a photographic dramatization of the dangers of rumors during wartime, for Life magazine.
was presented as a war hero due to the dire need for one. The desperate situation on Bataan
was played down; although its fall caused considerable demoralization. The Doolittle Raid
was carried out solely to help morale rather than to cause damage. a purpose which it fulfilled. After the Battle of Coral Sea, the Navy reported more Japanese damage than had actually been inflicted, and declared it a victory, which the Japanese also did. The decisive victory at the Battle of Midway
was emblazoned on newspaper headlines, but was reported with restraint and the U.S. Navy overstated the Japanese damage. Life
warned that Midway did not mean that Japan was no longer on the offensive.
The survivors of the Battle of Savo Island
were removed from public circulation to prevent news from leaking, and the August 9th disaster did not reach the newspapers until mid-October.
Limiting the distribution of bad news caused difficulty with gasoline rationing, as Americans were kept unaware of numerous tanker sinkings.
Earlier, people complained that the government was covering up the extent of the damage at Pearl Harbor, although this was partly to keep it from the Japanese. The Japanese had a good idea of the damage they inflicted, so only Americans were kept ignorant. One reporter reported that "Seven of the two ships sunk at Pearl Harbor have now rejoined the fleet." Complaints of news suppression continued. However, both newspapers and radio took favorable news and embellish it, a process not countered by the government.
Joseph Goebbels
countered this propaganda to prevent it influencing Germany, downplaying the defense of Corrigidor and attacking Douglas MacArthur
as a coward. This was not very successful, as the German people knew it understated the American defense and that MacArthur had left under orders.
The invasion of North Africa produced a morale boost when American forces were bogged down in New Guinea
and the Guadalcanal Campaign
.
After Guadalcanal, attention was focused on Europe, where Italy was taken, heavy bombing was hammering Germany, and the Red Army was moving steadily advancing west.
depicted Hitler as a mermaid destroying Allied shipping. The U.S. War Department supported the syndication of Bill Mauldin
's cartoons because Mauldin made the war appear bitter and onerous, showing that the victory would not be easy. His depiction of U.S. soldiers with disheveled appearances and sad, vacant eyes conveyed the difficulty of the war.
When The Battle of San Pietro
showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale; General Marshall overrode them, to ensure that the soldiers took their training seriously.
The OWI emphasized to returning, battle-scarred soldiers that there were places and jobs for them in civilian life. This promise was also featured in romantic stories, where a sweet, gentle heroine would help the veteran adjust to civilian life after his return from the war.
was detrimental to the war effort. Defeatism was attacked, national unity was promoted, and themes of community and sacrifice were emphasized. Fictional characters were sharply divided into selfish villains and heroes who put the needs of others first and learned to identify with the defenders of freedom.
Propagandists were instructed to convey the message that the person viewing the propaganda media stood to personally lose if he or she failed to contribute; for example, the appeal for women to contribute to the war effort more closely personalized the soldiers dependent on their work as their sons, brothers and husbands.
Considerable complications were caused by censorship and the need to prevent the enemy from learning how much damage they had inflicted. For example, Roosevelt's fireside chat described the damage at Pearl Harbor as "serious" but he could not the "give exact damage."
Many artists and writers knew that keeping up morale was important, but considerable debate arose over whether to go for light frivolous diversions, or to impress the severity of the war to stir up support.
Authors of fiction were encouraged to show their characters buying warbonds, conserving, planting victory gardens, and otherwise acting war-mindedly; characters could refrain from calling loved ones to avoid straining the phone system, or a romance would start when a man and woman carpooled.
Many stories were set in the frontier era or on family farms, to emphasize traditional virtues such as hard work, innocence, piety, independence and community values.
was created to inform Americans what to do in case of enemy attack. Within a day of the attack of Pearl Harbor, it produce pamphlets describing what to do in event of an air raid. It also promoted civilian morale, and its emblems helped remind people that the war was continuing.
"cookbooklet" with war time recipes. A Victory Cookbook explained the principles of wartime cooking, starting with the need to share food with the fighting men. Ladies' Home Journal
explained the principles behind sugar rationing, for example, sugarcane could be used to make explosives. The Office of Price Administration
urged Americans in restaurants not to ask for extra butter or a refill on coffee. Radio soap opera
s used plots about wartime rationing and condemned the hoarding of goods.
Rubber was in particularly short supply, and rubber rationing had the deepest impact on American life. However, the Rubber Survey Report, produced by a committee to investigate the rubber supply, succeeded in changing public opinion by showing the good reasons for rationing. Since gasoline was needed to power planes and military automobiles, American were encouraged to conserve. This also helped conserve rubber. Carpooling was promoted in government campaigns.
Scrap drives were instituted, and supported by government PR efforts, even before the declaration of war. Such programs as Salvage for Victory
redoubled after the outbreak. Many private individuals organized and publicized some of the most successful scrap drives of the war. President Roosevelt sent a letter to Boy Scout
and Girl Scout
groups, urging the children to support scrap drives. Cartoons ridiculed those who did not collect scrap.
Conservation was the largest theme in poster propaganda, accounting for one of every seven posters during the war. Conserving materials, in the kitchen and around the home, was one of five major topics in posters with conservation themes. Other topics included purchasing war bonds, planting victory gardens, the Office of Price Administration, and rationing. Women were encouraged to help with conservation in their cooking, saving fat and grease for explosives, and rationing sugar, meat, butter, and coffee to leave more for the soldiers. Butcher shops and markets handed out bulletins that urged the conservation of waste fat, which could be brought back to the butcher. Dur to these posters and other forms of propagnada the United States recycled 538 million pounds of waste fats, 23 million tons of paper, and 800 million pounds of tin.
People were told to conserve materials used in clothing, which resulted in clothing become smaller and shorter. Fiction often depicted a heroine who spent her high wages on fancy dress, but found that her soldier boyfriend disapproved until he learned she had a war job. Even then, he wanted her to change back to the clothes he knew her in before they went out.
Industry was also called on to conserve. Lucky Strike
used the metals in their dyes as a justification for changing their packaging from green to white. Prior to the shutdown of commercial production, cars no longer carried chrome.
Industrial and agricultural production was a major focus of poster campaigns. Although the war-time boom meant that people had money to buy things for the first time since the Depression, propaganda emphasized the need to support the war effort, and not spend their money on non-essential items and so divert material from the war effort. The manufacture of the last civilian car was publicized in such venues as Life
. Factories were represented as part of the war effort, and greater worker cooperation with management was urged. Stories symbolized such harmony by featuring romances between a working-class war worker and her employer. Cartoons depicted labor unrest as pleasing Hitler and racial discrimination as preventing the accomplishment of essential work. Fictional treatments of war issues emphasized the need for workers to combat absenteeism and high turnover.
Business entrepreneurs founding new businesses for military production were hailed as exemplars of American economic individualism.
After the death of the Sullivan brothers
, their parents and sister made visits to shipyards and armament factories to encourage increased production. Veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign, America's first major offensive of the war, were also sent to factories to encourage production and discourage absenteeism.
Economy and industry were strongly emphasized in United States propaganda posters because of the need for long term production during the war. Factory workers were encouraged to become not just workers, but “Production Soldiers” on the home front. These posters were used to persuade workers to take shorter breaks, work longer hours, and produce as many tools and weapons as possible to increase production for the military. Ship factories hung out banners to encourage ships for victory.
Increased production resulted in more workers moving to factory towns, straining available housing and other amenities. As a result, fictional plots often dealt with the need for homeowners to take in boarders and the necessity for tolerance and unity between residents and newcomers.
The government encouraged people to plant vegetable gardens to help prevent food shortages. Magazines such as Saturday Evening Post and Life
printed articles supporting it, while women's magazines included directions for planting. Because planting these gardens was regarded as being patriotic, they were termed victory garden
s, and women were encouraged to can and preserve food they raised from these gardens. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided information, many commercial publishers also issued books, on how to plant these gardens.
During the war years, Americans planted 50 million victory gardens. These produced more vegetables than the total commercial production, and much of it was preserved, following the slogan: "Eat what you can, and can what you can't."
s was extensively promoted. Originally termed "Defense Bonds", they were called "war bonds" after the attack on Pearl Harbor
. Much of the nation's artistic talent and best advertising techniques were used to encourage people to buy the bonds so as to keep the program voluntary.
The War Advertising Board did its best op convince people that buying bonds was a patriotic act, giving buyers a stake in the war. Advertisements were initially used on radio and in newspapers, but later magazines were also used, with both government and private companies producing the advertisements. The Writers' War Board
was originally founded for the purpose of writing copy for war bond ads.
War bond rallies and drives were common, and were staged at many social events. Teachers passed out booklets to children to allow them to save toward a bond by purchasing war bond stamps.
Marlene Dietrich
and many other female movie stars sold many thousands of dollars worth of war bonds. The Little Orphan Annie
radio show urged its young listeners to sell war stamps and war bonds. Even product ads often contained the slogan, "Buy War Bonds and Stamps!".
Enrolling in payroll deduction plans to buy war bonds was also urged through the media.
One hundred and thirty-five billion dollars worth of liberty bonds were sold, most of which were purchased by banks, insurance companies and corporations. However, individuals purchased $36 billion in bonds, with children accounting for close to $1 billion.
Major campaigns were launched to encourage women to enter the work force and convince their husbands that this was appropriate behavior. Government campaigns targeting women were addressed solely at housewives, perhaps because already employed women could move to the higher-paid "essential" jobs on their own, or perhaps in the belief that housewives would be the primary source of new workers. Propaganda was also directed at husbands, many of whom were unwilling to have their wives working. Fiction also addressed husbands' resistance to their wives working.
Key symbolic figures such as "Rosie the Riveter
" and "Mrs. Casey Jones" appeared in posters across the country representing strong women who supported their husbands in the war effort. Due to all the propaganda targeting female wartime duties, the number of women working jumped 15% from 1941 to 1943. Women were the primary figures of the home front, which was a major theme in the poster propaganda media, and, as the war continued, women began appearing more frequently in war posters. At first, they were accompanied by male counterparts, but later women began to appear as the central figure in the posters. These posters were meant to show a direct correlation with the efforts of the home front to the war overseas and portray women as directly affecting the war. Radios also broadcast information and appeals, drawing on patriotic calls and the need of such work to save men's lives.
Two major campaigns were launched: "Women in the War," to recruit for the armed services and war-related jobs; and "Women in Necessary Services," or such jobs as laundry, clerking in grocery and drug stores, and other employment necessary to support the economy. Books and magazines addressed women with the need for their labor. Many works of fiction depicted women working in industries suffering labor shortages, although generally in the more glamorous industries. Major magazines covers movies, and popular songs all depicted women workers.
The woman war worker was commonly used as a symbol of the home front, perhaps because, unlike a male figure, the question of why she was not serving in the armed forces would not be raised. In many stories, the woman worker appeared as an example to a selfish woman who then reformed and obtained employment.
Magazines were urged to carry fiction suitable for wartime. For instance, True Story
toned down its Great Depression hostility to working women and featured war work favorably. At first, it continued sexual themes, such as female war workers being seduced, having affairs with married men, or engaging in casual affairs. The Magazine Bureau objected to this as hindering recruitment, and argued that war workers should not be shown as more prone to dalliance than other women. As a result, True Story removed such themes from stories featuring female war workers. The ambitious career woman whose life culminated in disaster still appeared, but only when motivated by self-interest; whereas women who worked from patriotic motives were able to maintain their marriages and bear children rather than suffer miscarriages and infertility, as working women invariably suffered in pre-war stories. Stories showed that war work could redeem a woman with a sordid past. Saturday Evening Post changed its depiction of working women even more: the pre-war, destructive career wife vanished entirely, and now employed women could also have happy families
The image of the "glamour girl" was adapted to wartime conditions by depicting women in factory work as attractive and overtly showed that a woman could keep her looks while performing war work. Fictional romances presented war workers as winning the attention of soldiers, in preference to girls who lived for pleasure. The motives for female war workers motives were often presented as bringing their men home earlier, or making a safer world for their children. Depictions of female war workers often suggested that they were working only for the duration, and planned to return full time to the home afterward.
The appeal for women workers suggested that by perfomring war work, a woman supported her brother, boyfriend or husband in the armed forces, and hastened the day when he could return home.
Women's groups and organizations were asked to recruit women for the WACS, WAVES and other female branches of the services.
The image of the "glamour girl" was applied to women in the military, to reassure women that joining the military did not make them less feminine. In fictional romances, women in uniform won the hearts of soldiers who preferred them to women who did not support the war effort.
Most of the entertainment aimed at soldiers was heavy on sentiment and nostalgia, to help sustain morale. In most media, the girl next door
was often used as the symbol of all things American. Betty Grable characterized it as women giving soldiers something to fight for, but one One soldier wrote to her saying that her pin-up photographs told them, in the midst of fighting, what they were fighting for. Songs on armed forces request programs were not about Rosie the Riveter, but of the girls who were waiting for the soldiers to return. Many such songs were also popular at the home front. Themes of love, loneliness and separation were given more poignancy by the war.
German intelligence officers, interrogating American prisoners, mistakenly concluded that the Americans notions of why they were fighting were for such vague concepts, such as "Mom's apple pie," and concluded that American servicemen were idealistically soft and could be convinced to desert their allies.
Stories for the home front recounted the soldiers' need for their sweethearts and families to remain as they were, because they were what the soldier were fighting for. As the war ended, read and fictional stories often featured women who left war work to return to their homes and to raise children. Women, particularly wives whose husbands were at war, and children were often portrayed as what was at risk in the war.
Home-front posters also invoked an idealized America, as in the series declaring "This is America", portraying "the family is a sacred institution," "where Main Street is bigger than Broadway," and "where a man picks his job". Typically, men were presented as ordinary but women as beautiful and glamorous.
Roosevelt urged support for Britain before the United States entered the war, to gain support for the Lend-Lease Act. Part of this reasoning was that those who were currently fighting the Axis powers would keep war from the United States, if supported.
In propaganda media, posters urged support for Great Britain, while the stock character of the "supercilious Englishman" was removed from film. Newsreels depicted the Blitz, showing the famous image of St. Paul's dome rising above the flames, and Ed Murrow reported the effects. Frank Capra's film Battle of Britain (1943), in the Why We Fight series, depicted the RAF's fight against Germany. While it embellished real life dogfights, it did depict the frightening night raids, which the British people nevertheless managed to carry-on through.
Before 7 December 1941 and the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii
, a number of Americans in the north and mid-west United States were either sympathetic to Nazi Germany or simply opposed to another war with Germany because they were of German ancestry. In addition, numerous Irish-Catholic Americans were pro-Nazi because they were openly hostile to the British and British interests. However, the American South was very pro-British at this time, because of the kinship southerners felt for the British.
in American propaganda was a delicate issue throughout the war, as the Soviet Union could not possibly be presented as a liberal democracy.
However, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union inspired propaganda in its favor, and Hollywood produced pro-Russian movies. At Roosevelt's urging, the film Mission to Moscow
was made and depicted the purge trials as a just punishment of a Trotskyite conspiracy. On the other hand, the 1939 Greta Garbo
film Ninotchka
was not re-released as it ridiculed Russians.
Frank Capra's Why We Fight series included The Battle of Russia. The first part of the film depicted the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, recounted past failures to invade Russia, and described Russian scorched earth and guerrilla tactics. It also omitted all references to the pre-War Hitler-Stalin pact. The second part of the film depicts Germany being drawn too far into Russia; and mostly concentrates on the defense of Leningrad. Indeed, it unrealistically portrays the great withdrawal into Russian territory as a deliberate ploy of the Soviet government.
, which Japan attributed not to disgust with such atrocities as the Rape of Nanking, but to effective Chinese propaganda.
Frank Capra's Why We Fight series included The Battle of China. It depicted the brutal attack on China by Japan as well as atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking, which helped galvanize Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation. The film also depicted the building of the Burma Road, which helped keep China in the war as the Japanese had occupied most Chinese ports The film ridiculed the Japanese anti-Western propaganda of "co-prosperity" and "co-existence" by reciting these themes over scenes of atrocities, it was the most stark, good vs. evil film of the Why We Fight series.
Pearl Buck, a famous author of books on China, warned Americans to take seriously the Japanese appeal of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
for China and other Asian nations, as people in those nations might prefer Japan to the West, solely on the grounds of not being treated as an inferior race, an attitude many in the west had toward orientals. Elmer Davis
of the Office of War Information also declared that since the Japanese were proclaiming the Pacific conflict as a racial war, the United States could only confront this concept by deeds that counteracted this. Unfortunately, this was not officially addressed, and American propaganda did not confront the problem of prejudice based on color.
The shooting of all the men and the sending of all the women of Lidice
to concentration camps was also depicted in posters. The Free French also had posters published, urging the American population to support them. The Belgian Information Center had posters declaring that the people of Belgium still resisted.
American propaganda was circulated in occupied countries through the efforts of the underground movements. Stockpiled books were shipped to France within weeks of D-Day, in order to counteract Nazi propaganda, particularly anti-American propaganda. This was part of "consolidation propaganda", intended to pacify occupied regions so as to limit the forces needed to occupy; to counter-act Nazi propaganda, particularly about the United States; and to explain what the United States had done during the war.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
was used to increase support for the war and commitment to an Allied victory. Using a wide variety of media
Media
Media may refer to:- Communications :* Media , tools used to store and deliver information or data** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising...
, propagandists fomented hatred for the enemy and support for America's allies, urged greater public effort for war production
Military production during World War II
Military production during World War II was a critical component to military performance during WWII. Over the course of the war, the Allied countries outproduced the Axis countries in most categories of weapons.-Gross domestic product :...
and victory gardens
Victory garden
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply...
, persuaded people to make do with what they had so that more material could be used for the war effort, and sold war bonds.
Campaigns
When World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began, most Americans viewed propaganda as a tool of totalitarian dictatorships
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
. Furthermore, many remembered with hostility the fervor of World War I propaganda efforts, which were later regarded as violating basic rights as well as conveying misinformation. At first, the government was reluctant to engage in propaganda campaigns, but pressure from the media, the business sector and advertisers who wanted direction persuaded the government to take an active role. Even so, the government insisted that its actions were not propaganda, but a means of providing information. These efforts were slowly and haphazardly formed into a more unified propaganda effort, although never to the level of World War I.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
created the Office of War Information
United States Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information was a U.S. government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services. It operated from June 1942 until September 1945...
(OWI). This mid-level agency joined a host of other wartime agencies, including the War
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
and State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
Departments, in the dissemination of war information and propaganda. Officials at OWI used numerous tools to communicate to the American public. These included Hollywood movie studios
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
, radio stations and printing presses.
The Writers' War Board
Writers' War Board
The Writers' War Board was the main domestic propaganda organization in the US during World War II. Privately organized and run, it coordinated American writers with the government.-Purpose:...
was privately organized for the purposes of propaganda and often acted as liaison between the government and the writers. Many of the writers involved regarded their efforts as superior to governmental propaganda, as they regarded their material as bolder and more responsive than governmental efforts. However, the writers both responded to official requests and initiated their own campaigns.
In 1944 (lasting until 1948), prominent U.S. policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to accept a harsh peace for the German people
Morgenthau Plan
The Morgenthau Plan, proposed by United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., advocated that the Allied occupation of Germany following World War II include measures to eliminate Germany's ability to wage war.-Overview:...
. One method used in this campaign was an attempt to remove the commonly held view that the German people and the Nazi party were separate entities. A key participant in this campaign was the Writers' War Board
Writers' War Board
The Writers' War Board was the main domestic propaganda organization in the US during World War II. Privately organized and run, it coordinated American writers with the government.-Purpose:...
, which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.
Posters
The U.S. used posters more than any other type of propaganda media, and produced more propaganda posters than any other country fighting in World War II. Almost 200,000 different designs were printed during the war.These posters used a number of themes to encourage support for the war, including conservation, production, recruiting, home efforts and secrecy. Posters were usually placed in areas without paid advertisements. The most common areas were post offices, railroad stations, schools, restaurants and retail stores. Smaller posters were printed for the windows of private homes and apartment buildings. These were places where other propaganda media could not be used.
The Office of War Information (OWI) Bureau of Graphics was the government agency in charge of producing and distributing propaganda posters. The main distinction between United States poster propaganda and that of British and other allied propaganda was that the U.S. posters stayed mostly positive in their messages. The United States posters focused on duty, patriotism and tradition, whereas those of other countries focused on fueling the people's hatred for the enemy. The positive messages on U.S. posters were used to increase production on the home front instead of insuring that the "money raised was not lost." U.S. Posters rarely used images of war casualties, and even battlefield scenes became less popular, and were replaced by commercial images to satisfy the "consumer" need for the war.
The war posters were not designed by the government, but by artists who received no compensation for their work. Government agencies held competitions for artists to submit their designs, allowing the government to increase the number of designs that it could choose from.
Advertising
Many companies ran advertising supporting the war. This helped keep their names before the public although they had no products to sell, and they were allowed to treat this advertising as a business expense. The War Advertising Council helped supervise such efforts. Car manufacturers and other producers that retooled for the war effort took out ads depicting their efforts. Other companies connected their products in some way with the war. For example, Lucky StrikeLucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
claimed the change from green to white in its packaging was to save bronze for weapons, and, as a result, saw its sales skyrocket. Coca-Cola, as did many other soft drink manufacturers, depicted its product being drunk by defense workers and members of the armed forces. Many commercial ads also urged the purchase of war bonds.
Much of the war effort was defined by advertising, and the armed forces overseas preferred magazines with full ads rather than a slimmed down version without them.
Comic books and cartoons
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
supported Interventionism
Interventionism (politics)
Interventionism is a term for a policy of non-defensive activity undertaken by a nation-state, or other geo-political jurisdiction of a lesser or greater nature, to manipulate an economy or society...
even before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Comic strips, such as Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...
and Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates is the title of:* Terry and the Pirates , the comic strip created by Milton Caniff* Terry and the Pirates , a radio serial based on the comic strip...
, introduced war themes into their stories. Even before the war, sabotage and subversion were common motifs in action-oriented strips.
Many superheroes were shown combating Axis spies or activities in America and elsewhere. A comic book depicting Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
attacking the German Westwall
Siegfried Line
The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I...
was attacked in an issue of Das Schwarze Korps
Das Schwarze Korps
Das Schwarze Korps was the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel . This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. Each SS member was supposed to read the publication and urge others to do so as well...
, the SS weekly newspaper, with the Jewish origin of creator Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
given prominent attention.
In 1944, after being praised by Ernie Pyle
Ernie Pyle
Ernest Taylor Pyle was an American journalist who wrote as a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain from 1935 until his death in combat during World War II. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944...
, Bill Mauldin
Bill Mauldin
William Henry "Bill" Mauldin was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from the United States...
's cartoons were syndicated in the United States. This effort was supported by the War Department due to Mauldin's grimmer depiction of everyday military life in his cartoons. Mauldin's cartoons not only publicized the efforts of the ground forces, but they made the war appear bitter and onerous, helping convince Americans that victory would not be easy. While his cartoons omitted carnage, they showed the difficulty of war through his depiction of the soldiers' disheveled appearance, and sad, vacant eyes. This helped produce continued support for the troops, by conveying the hardships of their daily experiences.
Leaflets
Leaflets could be dropped from aircraft to populations in locations unreachable by other means; for example, when the population was afraid or unable to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. As such, the United States extensively used leaflets to convey short informational tidbits. In fact, one squadron of B-17 bombers was entirely dedicated to this purpose. Leaflets were also used against enemy forces, providing "safe conduct passes" that enemy troops could use to surrender as well as counterfeit ration books, stamps and currency. The very scale of the leaflet operations had its effect on enemy morale, showing that the Allied armament industry was so productive that planes could be diverted for this purposes.The use of leaflets against Japanese troops was of little effect. Many civilians on Okinawa discounted pamphlets declaring that prisoners would not be harmed. By the time American planes could reach the Japanese home islands, the leaflets had improved, providing "advance notice" of bombings ensured that the leaflets were read avidly despite prohibitions. These pamphlets declared they had no wish to harm civilians, only the military installations, and that the bombings could be stopped by demanding new leaders who would end the war. After the atomic attacks
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
, more pamphlets were dropped, warning that the Americans had an even more powerful explosive at their disposal. When the Japanese government subsequently offered to surrender, the U.S. continued to drop pamphlets, telling the Japanese people of their government's offer and that they had a right to know the terms.
The American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
's G.I. Roundtable Series of pamphlets was used to ease transition to the post-war world.
Radio
In the United States, radio was so widely used for propaganda that it greatly exceeded the use of other media that was typically used against other nations. President Roosevelt's fireside chatsFireside chats
The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.-Origin of radio address:...
are an excellent example of this use of radio. In February 1942, Norman Corwin
Norman Corwin
Norman Lewis Corwin was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing...
's This is War series was broadcast throughout the country and, by shortwave, throughout the world. Other significant uses of radio overseas includes messages to the Italian Navy, which persuaded it to surrender.
Since radio was often a "live' media, there were restrictions. Broadcasters were warned not to cut to a commercial with the line, "and now for some good news," and reporters were instructed not to describe bombings precisely enough so that the enemy could tell what they hit, for example, they were to state "the building next to the one I am standing on," not "the First National Bank." While audience participation and man-on-the-street programs were immensely popular, broadcasters realized there was no way to prevent enemy agents from being selected, and these were discontinued. Many broadcasters worked war themes into their programming to such an extent that they confused the targeted audiences. As a result, the Radio War Guide urged broadcasters to focus on selected themes.
At first the Japanese population could not receive propaganda by radio because short-wave receivers were prohibited in Japan. However, the capture of Saipan not only shocked the Japanese because it was considered invincible, but allowed Americans to use medium-wave radio to reach the Japanese islands.
Books
Books were more often used in the post-combat consolidation phases than in combat, particularly because their intent was indirect, to mold the thinkers who would be molding public opinion in the post-war period, and therefore books had more of a long-range influence rather than an immediate effect.And some topics were considered off limits. Books on submarines were suppressed, even ones drawing on public knowledge and made with naval assistance. In fact, attempts were made to suppress even fictional stories involving submarines. As fiction grew less popular, bookstores promoted non-fiction war books.
A few weeks after D-Day, crates of books were landed in Normandy doe distributed to French booksellers. An equal number of American and British efforts were included in these shipments. Books had been stockpiled for this purpose, and some books were specifically published for it.
Movies
Hollywood movie studios, obviously sympathetic to the Allied cause, soon adapted standard plots and serials to feature Nazis in place of the usual gangster villains while the Japanese, were depicted as being bestial, incapable of reason or human qualities. Although Hollywood lost access to most foreign markets during the war, it was now able to use Germans, Italians and Japanese as villains without diplomatic protests or boycotts. Many actors such as Peter LorrePeter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
, Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
, Martin Kosleck
Martin Kosleck
Martin Kosleck was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, Kosleck would make a career in Hollywood playing villainous Nazis in films. While in the United States, he would appear in more...
, Philip Ahn and Sen Yung specialized in playing Axis spies, traitors and soldiers. Irreplaceable film workers received draft deferments to allow them to continue producing pro-Allied films.
The 1941 Nazi attack
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
on the Soviet Union resulted in pro-Russian movies. The war also produced an interest in newsreels and documentaries, which had been unable to compete against entertainment films prior to the war. America's allies were no longer allowed to be depicted negatively in any way.
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
created a documentary series that was used as orientation films for new recruits. Capra designed the series to illustrate the enormous danger of Axis conquest and the corresponding justness of the Allies. This Why We Fight
Why We Fight
Why We Fight is a series of seven war information training films commissioned by the United States government during World War II whose purpose was to show American soldiers the reason for U.S. involvement in the war. Later on they were also shown to the general U.S...
series documented the war in seven segments:
- Prelude to War, the rise of Fascism;
- The Nazi Strike, from AnschlussAnschlussThe Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
to the invasion of Poland; - Divide and Conquer, the conquest of continental Europe;
- The Battle of Britain,
- The Battle of Russia,
- The Battle of China, and
- War Comes to America, covering subsequent events.
At President Roosevelt's urging, it was also released to the theaters for the general public. In Britain, Churchill ordered the entire sequence to be shown to the public.
Movies were also useful in that propaganda messages could be incorporated into entertainment films. The 1942 film Mrs. Miniver
Mrs. Miniver (film)
Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright. Based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture,...
portrayed the experiences of an English housewife during the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
and urged the support of both men and women for the war effort. It was rushed to the theaters on Roosevelt's orders.
The 1944 film The Purple Heart
The Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film directed by Lewis Milestone.It is a dramatization of the trial of a number of US airmen by the Japanese during the Second World War...
was used to dramatize Japanese atrocities
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
and the heroics of American flyers.
Animation
World War II transformed the possibilities for animation. Prior to the war, animation was seen as a form of childish entertainment, but that perception changed after Pearl HarborAttack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
was attacked. On 8 December 1941, the U.S. Army immediately began working with Walt Disney. Army personnel were stationed at his studio and lived there for the duration of the war. A military officer was actually based in Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
’s office. The U.S. Army and Disney set about making various types of films for several different audiences. Most films meant for the public included some type of propaganda, while films for the troops included training and education about a given topic.
The U.S. and Canadian governments also used animation for training and instructional purposes. The most elaborate training film produced, Stop That Tank!, was commissioned by the Canadian Directorate of Military Training and created by Walt Disney Studios. Troops became familiar with Private Snafu and Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli. These fictional characters were used to give soldiers safety briefs and instructions on expected behavior, while often portraying behavior that which was not recommended. The short Spies depicts an intoxicated Private Snafu giving secrets to a beautiful woman who is really a Nazi spy. Through the information he gives her, the Germans are able to bomb the ship Private Snafu is traveling on, sending him to hell.
Der Fuehrer's Face
Der Fuehrer's Face is a 1943 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon, which features Donald Duck in a nightmare setting working at a factory in Nazi Germany, was made in an effort to sell war bonds and is an example of...
was one of Walt Disney's most popular propaganda cartoons. It poked fun at Hitler’s Germany by depicting Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
dreaming that he is a German war worker, eating breakfast by only spraying the scent of bacon and eggs onto his breath and dipping a single coffee bean into his cup of water. Disney and the U.S. Army wanted to depict Germans as living in a land that was a facade of the wonderful promises made by Hitler. Producers of the cartoon also wished to show that the working conditions in German factories were not as glorious as Hitler made them sound in his speeches. In the film, Donald works continuously with very little compensation and or time off. At the end, Donald awakes from his nightmare and is forever thankful he is a citizen of the United States of America. Education for Death
Education for Death
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an animated short film produced by Walt Disney and released on January 15, 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the anti-Nazi propaganda book by Gregor Ziemer, directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Ward Kimball...
was a very serious film based on the best-selling book of the same name by Gregor Ziemer
Gregor Ziemer
Gregor Athalwin Ziemer was an American educator, writer, and correspondent who lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, during which time he served as the headmaster of the "American School in Berlin." After fleeing Germany, Ziemer returned to his wife Edna's hometown of Lake City, Minnesota...
. The film shows how a young boy in Nazi Germany is indoctrinated and brainwashed at an early age and learns to believe all that the German government tells him. While this short is educational, it also provides comic relief by mocking Hitler. However, the film is both shocking in its content and despairing in its ending, depicting the death of numerous such boys who are now German soldiers.
Magazines
Magazines were a favored propaganda dissemination tool, as they were widely circulated. The government issued a Magazine War Guide which included tips for supporting the war effort. Women's magazines were the favored venue for propaganda aimed at housewives, particularly the Ladies' Home JournalLadies' Home Journal
Ladies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...
. Magazine editors were asked to depict women as coping heroically with the sacrifices of wartime. Fiction was a particularly favored venue, and was used to subtly shape attitudes. Ladies' Home Journal and other magazine also promoted the activities of women in the armed services.
The pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
industry was especially supportive, if only to prevent their being perceived as unessential to the war effort and discontinued for the duration of the war. The Office of War Information distributed guides to writers for Western, adventure, detective and other pulp genres with possible story lines and themes that would help the war effort. Among the suggestions were a detective who was "cheerful" about following a suspect without using an automobile, a woman working in a traditionally male job
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military...
, the importance of the 35 miles per hour speed limit and carpooling, and good Chinese and British characters.
Newspapers
Newspapers were told that government press releases would be true, and to give no aid and comfort to the enemy—but this latter was not to be considered a prohibition on releasing bad news. However, partially through the cooperation of supportive journalists, the Office of CensorshipOffice of Censorship
The Office of Censorship was an emergency wartime agency set up on December 19, 1941 to aid in the censorship of all communications coming into and going out of the United States.-Overview:...
(OOC) managed to remove negative news and other items useful to the enemy—such as weather forecasts—although neither the OOC nor any other agency managed to completely slant the news in a positive, morale-boosting manner. Indeed, some government officials found that both newspapers and radio were using uncorroborated news from Vichy France and Tokyo.
Axis
Roosevelt proclaimed that the war against the dictatorships had to take precedence over the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
.
Artists and writers were strongly divided on whether to encourage hatred for the enemy, which occasioned debates. The government rarely intervened in such debates, only occasionally suggesting lines for art to take. However, the OWI suggested plot lines using Axis agents in place of traditional villainous roles, such as the rustler in Westerns.
In one speech, Henry Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...
called for post-war efforts to psychologically disarm the effect of the Axis powers, requiring schools to undo, as far as possible, the poisoning of children's minds by Hitler and the Japanese "warlords." Two days later, a Dr. Seuss's editorial cartoon showed Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...
using bellows to drive germ out of the mind of the child "Germany," while holding the child "Japan" ready for the next treatment.
Anti-German
Hitler was often depicted in situations ridiculing him, and editorial cartoons usually depicted him in caricature. Hitler's dictatorship was often heavily satirized. To raise morale, even prior to the turning of the war in the Allies favor, Hitler often appeared in editorial cartoons as doomed. He and the German people were depicted as fools. For example, a German father scolded his hungry son, telling him that the Germans ate countries, not food.Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
was treated as the worst evil within the Axis, a greater threat than Japan and Italy. To counter the much greater desire in the United States to attack Japan, operations in the North African theater were implemented, despite military counterindications, to increase support for attacking Germany. Without such involvement, public pressure to more heavily support the war in the Pacific might have proven irresistible to American leaders.
Germans were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters, although many atrocities were specifically ascribed to Nazis and Hitler specificially, rather than to the undifferentiated German people.
Alternate history novels depicted Nazi invasions of America to arouse support for interventionism
Interventionism
Interventionism may refer to:*Interventionism is a political term for significant activity undertaken by a state to influence something not directly under its control....
.
The Writers' War Board compiled lists of books banned or burned in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and distributed them for propaganda purposes, and thousands of commemorations of the book burnings were staged.
Anti-Italian
Mussolini also appeared in situations ridiculing him. Editorial cartoons depicted him as a two-bit dictator. Italians were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters.Anti-Japanese
Propaganda portrayed the Japanese as a foreign, grotesque and uncivilized enemy. Drawing on Japanese samurai traditions, American propagandists portrayed the Japanese as blindly fanatic and ruthless, with a history of desiring overseas conquests. Japanese propaganda, such as Shinmin no MichiShinmin no Michi
The was an ideological manifesto issued by the Ministry of Education of Japan during World War II aimed at Japan’s domestic audience to explain in clear terms what was expected of them "as a people, nation and race".- Origins :...
or The Way of the Subjects, called for the Japanese people to become "one hundred million hearts beating as one"—which Allied propagandists used to portray the Japanese as a mindless, unified mass. Atrocities were ascribed to the Japanese people as a whole. Even Japanese-Americans would be portrayed as massively supporting Japan, only awaiting the signal to committ sabotage. Despite racist elements in the propaganda, Japanese atrocities and their fanatical refusal to surrender supported their portrayal.
Even prior to the Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, accounts of atrocities in China roused considerable antipathy for Japan. This stemmed from as early as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, when accounts were received of Japanese forces of bombing civilians, or firing upon shell-shocked survivors. Such books as Pearl Buck's The Good Earth
The Good Earth
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, it was an influential factor in Buck winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938...
and Freda Utley
Freda Utley
Winifred Utley, commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1928...
's China At War aroused sympathy for the Chinese. As early as 1937, Roosevelt condemned the Japanese for their aggression in China. The Rape of Nanking, due to the large number of Western witnesses, achieved particularly notoriety, with Chinese propagandists using it to cement Allied opinion.
Propaganda based on the attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
was used with considerable effectiveness, because its outcome was enormous and impossible to counter. Initial reports termed it a "sneak attack" and "infamous behavior". "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became the watchword of the war. Reports of the maltreatment of American prisoners of war also aroused fury, as did reports of atrocities against native populations, with babies being thrown in the air to be caught on bayonets receiving particular attention. When three of the Doolittle Raid
Doolittle Raid
The Doolittle Raid, on 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese Home Islands during World War II. By demonstrating that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, it provided a vital morale boost and opportunity for U.S. retaliation after the...
ers were executed, it evoked a passion for revenge in America, and the image of the "Japanese ape" became common in film and cartoons. The film The Purple Heart
The Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film directed by Lewis Milestone.It is a dramatization of the trial of a number of US airmen by the Japanese during the Second World War...
dramatized their story, with an airman giving a concluding speech that he now knew that he had understood the Japanese less than he had thought, and that they did not understand Americans if they thought this would frighten them. The diary of a dead Japanese soldier, which contained an entry coolly recounting the execution of a downed airman, was given considerable play as a demonstration of the true nature of the enemy.
The early overwhelming Japanese successes led to a pamphlet "Exploding the Japanese 'Superman' Myth" to counter the effect. The limitations of Japanese troops it cited, although minor, were actual flaws to counter the impression GIs had of Japanese poweress. The Doolittle Raid was staged after urging from Roosevelt for a counter-attack, if only for morale reasons.
Hirohito and undifferentiated "Japs" were often portrayed in caricature. Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
's editorial cartoons, which often depicted Hitler and Mussolini, opted for a "Japan" figure rather than any given leader.
One OWI suggestion for adapting "pulp" formulas was a sports story of a professional baseball team touring Japan, which would allow the writers to show the Japanese as ruthless and incapable of sportsmanship.
American popular songs at the time included "We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap," "Taps for the Japs," "We’ll nip the Nipponese," "We’re going to play Yankee Doodle in Tokyo," and "You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap." Wartime filmmakers embellished characteristics of Japanese culture that the American people would find scandalously foreign.
At the beginning of the war artists portrayed the Japanese as nearsighted, bucktoothed, harmless children. Indeed, many Americans believed that Germany had convinced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. As the war progressed, Japanese soldiers and civilians would be portrayed in films as evil, rat faced enemies that desired global domination.
In countries occupied by Japan and forced to join its would-be Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
, the failure to sustain the economic level prior to the war, particularly in the Philippines, was quickly use in propaganda about the "Co-Poverty Sphere."
Leaflets air-dropped to the Japanese people informed them of the Potsdam Declaration
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender is a statement calling for the Surrender of Japan in World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S...
, which brought to bear the extent of Allied victory, and of the Japanese government's peace negotiations, undermining the ability of the Japanese hard-liners to insist on continued war.
Careless talk
Many posters depicted careless talk as providing information to the enemy, resulting in Allied deaths.This effort was used to prevent people with sensitive information from talking about it where spies or saboteurs could listen in. Posters with this theme conveyed the reality of war to the general public. This was a major topic endorsed by the Office of War Information.
Some of these poster contained the most well known slogans of the war and many were depicted by propaganda artist Cyril Kenneth Bird Other slogans used for this type of poster were “loose talk costs lives”, "loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships is an American English idiom meaning "beware of unguarded talk".The phrase originated on propaganda posters during World War II...
", “Another careless word, another wooden cross”, and “bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy”. Stories also emphasized an anti-rumor theme, as when one woman advised another not to talk with a man about her war job, because the woman he is dating is untrustworthy and might be an enemy agent.
Rumor mongering was discouraged on the grounds it fomented divisions in America and promoted defeatism and alarmism. Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
directed Have You Heard?, a photographic dramatization of the dangers of rumors during wartime, for Life magazine.
Victories
Battle victories and heroism were promoted for morale purposes, while losses and defeats were underplayed. Despite his blunders in the first days of the war, General Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
was presented as a war hero due to the dire need for one. The desperate situation on Bataan
Battle of Bataan
The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast...
was played down; although its fall caused considerable demoralization. The Doolittle Raid
Doolittle Raid
The Doolittle Raid, on 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese Home Islands during World War II. By demonstrating that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, it provided a vital morale boost and opportunity for U.S. retaliation after the...
was carried out solely to help morale rather than to cause damage. a purpose which it fulfilled. After the Battle of Coral Sea, the Navy reported more Japanese damage than had actually been inflicted, and declared it a victory, which the Japanese also did. The decisive victory at the Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
was emblazoned on newspaper headlines, but was reported with restraint and the U.S. Navy overstated the Japanese damage. Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
warned that Midway did not mean that Japan was no longer on the offensive.
The survivors of the Battle of Savo Island
Battle of Savo Island
The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the , was a naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval forces...
were removed from public circulation to prevent news from leaking, and the August 9th disaster did not reach the newspapers until mid-October.
Limiting the distribution of bad news caused difficulty with gasoline rationing, as Americans were kept unaware of numerous tanker sinkings.
Earlier, people complained that the government was covering up the extent of the damage at Pearl Harbor, although this was partly to keep it from the Japanese. The Japanese had a good idea of the damage they inflicted, so only Americans were kept ignorant. One reporter reported that "Seven of the two ships sunk at Pearl Harbor have now rejoined the fleet." Complaints of news suppression continued. However, both newspapers and radio took favorable news and embellish it, a process not countered by the government.
Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
countered this propaganda to prevent it influencing Germany, downplaying the defense of Corrigidor and attacking Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
as a coward. This was not very successful, as the German people knew it understated the American defense and that MacArthur had left under orders.
The invasion of North Africa produced a morale boost when American forces were bogged down in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
and the Guadalcanal Campaign
Guadalcanal campaign
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by Allied forces, was a military campaign fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II...
.
After Guadalcanal, attention was focused on Europe, where Italy was taken, heavy bombing was hammering Germany, and the Red Army was moving steadily advancing west.
False optimism
Some propaganda was directed to counter people's hopes that it would not be a long, hard war. Despite air victories in Europe, Dr. SeussDr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
depicted Hitler as a mermaid destroying Allied shipping. The U.S. War Department supported the syndication of Bill Mauldin
Bill Mauldin
William Henry "Bill" Mauldin was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from the United States...
's cartoons because Mauldin made the war appear bitter and onerous, showing that the victory would not be easy. His depiction of U.S. soldiers with disheveled appearances and sad, vacant eyes conveyed the difficulty of the war.
Death and injury
Until 1944, the mayham of war (dead and wounded) was mostly toned down by American propagandists, who followed instructions allowing them to show a few wounded soldiers in a crowd. later, more realistic presentations were allowed, partly owing to popular demand. The earlier attitude was supported by the media; for example, NBC warned that broadcasts were not to be "unduly harrowing." However, the American public wanted more realism on the grounds that they could handle bad news. Roosevelt finally authorized photos of dead soldiers, to keep the public from growing complacent about the toll of war.When The Battle of San Pietro
The Battle of San Pietro
The Battle of San Pietro is a 1945 documentary film directed by John Huston about the Battle of San Pietro Infine during World War II. It was shot by Jules Buck.Huston and his crew were attached to the US Army’s 143rd regiment of the 36th division...
showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale; General Marshall overrode them, to ensure that the soldiers took their training seriously.
The OWI emphasized to returning, battle-scarred soldiers that there were places and jobs for them in civilian life. This promise was also featured in romantic stories, where a sweet, gentle heroine would help the veteran adjust to civilian life after his return from the war.
War effort
Americans were called upon to support the war effort in many ways. Cartoons depicted those who talked about victory but clearly were sitting around waiting for others to ensure it or showed how red tapeRed tape
Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making...
was detrimental to the war effort. Defeatism was attacked, national unity was promoted, and themes of community and sacrifice were emphasized. Fictional characters were sharply divided into selfish villains and heroes who put the needs of others first and learned to identify with the defenders of freedom.
Propagandists were instructed to convey the message that the person viewing the propaganda media stood to personally lose if he or she failed to contribute; for example, the appeal for women to contribute to the war effort more closely personalized the soldiers dependent on their work as their sons, brothers and husbands.
Considerable complications were caused by censorship and the need to prevent the enemy from learning how much damage they had inflicted. For example, Roosevelt's fireside chat described the damage at Pearl Harbor as "serious" but he could not the "give exact damage."
Many artists and writers knew that keeping up morale was important, but considerable debate arose over whether to go for light frivolous diversions, or to impress the severity of the war to stir up support.
Authors of fiction were encouraged to show their characters buying warbonds, conserving, planting victory gardens, and otherwise acting war-mindedly; characters could refrain from calling loved ones to avoid straining the phone system, or a romance would start when a man and woman carpooled.
Many stories were set in the frontier era or on family farms, to emphasize traditional virtues such as hard work, innocence, piety, independence and community values.
Civil defense
The Office of Civil DefenseOffice of Civil Defense
The Office of Civil Defense was an agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1961-64. It replaced the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. The organization was abolished on July 20, 1979, pursuant to Executive Order 12148. It was a predecessor to the Federal Emergency...
was created to inform Americans what to do in case of enemy attack. Within a day of the attack of Pearl Harbor, it produce pamphlets describing what to do in event of an air raid. It also promoted civilian morale, and its emblems helped remind people that the war was continuing.
Conservation
Women's magazines carried numerous tips for housewives on thrifty purchasing, dealing with rationing, and how to cope in a period of limited supplies. General Mills distributed a Betty CrockerBetty Crocker
Betty Crocker AKA: batter witch is a cultural icon, as well as brand name and trademark of American Fortune 500 corporation General Mills. The name was first developed by the Washburn Crosby Company in 1921 as a way to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. The name Betty was...
"cookbooklet" with war time recipes. A Victory Cookbook explained the principles of wartime cooking, starting with the need to share food with the fighting men. Ladies' Home Journal
Ladies' Home Journal
Ladies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...
explained the principles behind sugar rationing, for example, sugarcane could be used to make explosives. The Office of Price Administration
Office of Price Administration
The Office of Price Administration was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA was originally to control money and rents after the outbreak of World War II.President Franklin D...
urged Americans in restaurants not to ask for extra butter or a refill on coffee. Radio soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s used plots about wartime rationing and condemned the hoarding of goods.
Rubber was in particularly short supply, and rubber rationing had the deepest impact on American life. However, the Rubber Survey Report, produced by a committee to investigate the rubber supply, succeeded in changing public opinion by showing the good reasons for rationing. Since gasoline was needed to power planes and military automobiles, American were encouraged to conserve. This also helped conserve rubber. Carpooling was promoted in government campaigns.
Scrap drives were instituted, and supported by government PR efforts, even before the declaration of war. Such programs as Salvage for Victory
Salvage for Victory
The Salvage for Victory campaign was a program launched by the US Federal Government in 1942 to salvage materials for the American war effort in World War II....
redoubled after the outbreak. Many private individuals organized and publicized some of the most successful scrap drives of the war. President Roosevelt sent a letter to Boy Scout
Boy Scout
A Scout is a boy or a girl, usually 11 to 18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split this age group into a junior and a senior section...
and Girl Scout
Girl Scouts of the USA
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls". It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and was organized after Low...
groups, urging the children to support scrap drives. Cartoons ridiculed those who did not collect scrap.
Conservation was the largest theme in poster propaganda, accounting for one of every seven posters during the war. Conserving materials, in the kitchen and around the home, was one of five major topics in posters with conservation themes. Other topics included purchasing war bonds, planting victory gardens, the Office of Price Administration, and rationing. Women were encouraged to help with conservation in their cooking, saving fat and grease for explosives, and rationing sugar, meat, butter, and coffee to leave more for the soldiers. Butcher shops and markets handed out bulletins that urged the conservation of waste fat, which could be brought back to the butcher. Dur to these posters and other forms of propagnada the United States recycled 538 million pounds of waste fats, 23 million tons of paper, and 800 million pounds of tin.
People were told to conserve materials used in clothing, which resulted in clothing become smaller and shorter. Fiction often depicted a heroine who spent her high wages on fancy dress, but found that her soldier boyfriend disapproved until he learned she had a war job. Even then, he wanted her to change back to the clothes he knew her in before they went out.
Industry
Industry was also called on to conserve. Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
used the metals in their dyes as a justification for changing their packaging from green to white. Prior to the shutdown of commercial production, cars no longer carried chrome.
Production
Even prior to Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt called on the United States to be the arsenal of democracy in support of other countries at war with Fascism.Industrial and agricultural production was a major focus of poster campaigns. Although the war-time boom meant that people had money to buy things for the first time since the Depression, propaganda emphasized the need to support the war effort, and not spend their money on non-essential items and so divert material from the war effort. The manufacture of the last civilian car was publicized in such venues as Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
. Factories were represented as part of the war effort, and greater worker cooperation with management was urged. Stories symbolized such harmony by featuring romances between a working-class war worker and her employer. Cartoons depicted labor unrest as pleasing Hitler and racial discrimination as preventing the accomplishment of essential work. Fictional treatments of war issues emphasized the need for workers to combat absenteeism and high turnover.
Business entrepreneurs founding new businesses for military production were hailed as exemplars of American economic individualism.
After the death of the Sullivan brothers
Sullivan brothers
The Sullivan brothers were five siblings who were all killed in action during or shortly after the sinking of the light cruiser USS Juneau , the vessel on which they all served, on November 13, 1942, in World War II....
, their parents and sister made visits to shipyards and armament factories to encourage increased production. Veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign, America's first major offensive of the war, were also sent to factories to encourage production and discourage absenteeism.
Economy and industry were strongly emphasized in United States propaganda posters because of the need for long term production during the war. Factory workers were encouraged to become not just workers, but “Production Soldiers” on the home front. These posters were used to persuade workers to take shorter breaks, work longer hours, and produce as many tools and weapons as possible to increase production for the military. Ship factories hung out banners to encourage ships for victory.
Increased production resulted in more workers moving to factory towns, straining available housing and other amenities. As a result, fictional plots often dealt with the need for homeowners to take in boarders and the necessity for tolerance and unity between residents and newcomers.
Victory gardens
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
printed articles supporting it, while women's magazines included directions for planting. Because planting these gardens was regarded as being patriotic, they were termed victory garden
Victory garden
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply...
s, and women were encouraged to can and preserve food they raised from these gardens. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided information, many commercial publishers also issued books, on how to plant these gardens.
During the war years, Americans planted 50 million victory gardens. These produced more vegetables than the total commercial production, and much of it was preserved, following the slogan: "Eat what you can, and can what you can't."
War bonds
During the war, the sale of War BondWar bond
War bonds are debt securities issued by a government for the purpose of financing military operations during times of war. War bonds generate capital for the government and make civilians feel involved in their national militaries...
s was extensively promoted. Originally termed "Defense Bonds", they were called "war bonds" after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
. Much of the nation's artistic talent and best advertising techniques were used to encourage people to buy the bonds so as to keep the program voluntary.
Writers' War Board
The Writers' War Board was the main domestic propaganda organization in the US during World War II. Privately organized and run, it coordinated American writers with the government.-Purpose:...
was originally founded for the purpose of writing copy for war bond ads.
War bond rallies and drives were common, and were staged at many social events. Teachers passed out booklets to children to allow them to save toward a bond by purchasing war bond stamps.
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
and many other female movie stars sold many thousands of dollars worth of war bonds. The Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...
radio show urged its young listeners to sell war stamps and war bonds. Even product ads often contained the slogan, "Buy War Bonds and Stamps!".
Enrolling in payroll deduction plans to buy war bonds was also urged through the media.
One hundred and thirty-five billion dollars worth of liberty bonds were sold, most of which were purchased by banks, insurance companies and corporations. However, individuals purchased $36 billion in bonds, with children accounting for close to $1 billion.
Womanpower
Key symbolic figures such as "Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military...
" and "Mrs. Casey Jones" appeared in posters across the country representing strong women who supported their husbands in the war effort. Due to all the propaganda targeting female wartime duties, the number of women working jumped 15% from 1941 to 1943. Women were the primary figures of the home front, which was a major theme in the poster propaganda media, and, as the war continued, women began appearing more frequently in war posters. At first, they were accompanied by male counterparts, but later women began to appear as the central figure in the posters. These posters were meant to show a direct correlation with the efforts of the home front to the war overseas and portray women as directly affecting the war. Radios also broadcast information and appeals, drawing on patriotic calls and the need of such work to save men's lives.
Two major campaigns were launched: "Women in the War," to recruit for the armed services and war-related jobs; and "Women in Necessary Services," or such jobs as laundry, clerking in grocery and drug stores, and other employment necessary to support the economy. Books and magazines addressed women with the need for their labor. Many works of fiction depicted women working in industries suffering labor shortages, although generally in the more glamorous industries. Major magazines covers movies, and popular songs all depicted women workers.
The woman war worker was commonly used as a symbol of the home front, perhaps because, unlike a male figure, the question of why she was not serving in the armed forces would not be raised. In many stories, the woman worker appeared as an example to a selfish woman who then reformed and obtained employment.
Magazines were urged to carry fiction suitable for wartime. For instance, True Story
True Story (magazine)
True Story was an American magazine published by Dorchester Publishing. It was the first of the confessions magazines genre, having launched in 1919...
toned down its Great Depression hostility to working women and featured war work favorably. At first, it continued sexual themes, such as female war workers being seduced, having affairs with married men, or engaging in casual affairs. The Magazine Bureau objected to this as hindering recruitment, and argued that war workers should not be shown as more prone to dalliance than other women. As a result, True Story removed such themes from stories featuring female war workers. The ambitious career woman whose life culminated in disaster still appeared, but only when motivated by self-interest; whereas women who worked from patriotic motives were able to maintain their marriages and bear children rather than suffer miscarriages and infertility, as working women invariably suffered in pre-war stories. Stories showed that war work could redeem a woman with a sordid past. Saturday Evening Post changed its depiction of working women even more: the pre-war, destructive career wife vanished entirely, and now employed women could also have happy families
The image of the "glamour girl" was adapted to wartime conditions by depicting women in factory work as attractive and overtly showed that a woman could keep her looks while performing war work. Fictional romances presented war workers as winning the attention of soldiers, in preference to girls who lived for pleasure. The motives for female war workers motives were often presented as bringing their men home earlier, or making a safer world for their children. Depictions of female war workers often suggested that they were working only for the duration, and planned to return full time to the home afterward.
The appeal for women workers suggested that by perfomring war work, a woman supported her brother, boyfriend or husband in the armed forces, and hastened the day when he could return home.
In the armed forces
Women's groups and organizations were asked to recruit women for the WACS, WAVES and other female branches of the services.
The image of the "glamour girl" was applied to women in the military, to reassure women that joining the military did not make them less feminine. In fictional romances, women in uniform won the hearts of soldiers who preferred them to women who did not support the war effort.
Home fires
Girl next door
The cultural and sexual stereotype of the girl next door or the All-American girl is invoked in American contexts to indicate wholesome, unassuming femininity, as opposed to the culture's other female stereotypes such as the tomboy, the valley girl, the femme fatale, girly girl, or the slut. The...
was often used as the symbol of all things American. Betty Grable characterized it as women giving soldiers something to fight for, but one One soldier wrote to her saying that her pin-up photographs told them, in the midst of fighting, what they were fighting for. Songs on armed forces request programs were not about Rosie the Riveter, but of the girls who were waiting for the soldiers to return. Many such songs were also popular at the home front. Themes of love, loneliness and separation were given more poignancy by the war.
German intelligence officers, interrogating American prisoners, mistakenly concluded that the Americans notions of why they were fighting were for such vague concepts, such as "Mom's apple pie," and concluded that American servicemen were idealistically soft and could be convinced to desert their allies.
Stories for the home front recounted the soldiers' need for their sweethearts and families to remain as they were, because they were what the soldier were fighting for. As the war ended, read and fictional stories often featured women who left war work to return to their homes and to raise children. Women, particularly wives whose husbands were at war, and children were often portrayed as what was at risk in the war.
Home-front posters also invoked an idealized America, as in the series declaring "This is America", portraying "the family is a sacred institution," "where Main Street is bigger than Broadway," and "where a man picks his job". Typically, men were presented as ordinary but women as beautiful and glamorous.
Pro-British
In propaganda media, posters urged support for Great Britain, while the stock character of the "supercilious Englishman" was removed from film. Newsreels depicted the Blitz, showing the famous image of St. Paul's dome rising above the flames, and Ed Murrow reported the effects. Frank Capra's film Battle of Britain (1943), in the Why We Fight series, depicted the RAF's fight against Germany. While it embellished real life dogfights, it did depict the frightening night raids, which the British people nevertheless managed to carry-on through.
Before 7 December 1941 and the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, a number of Americans in the north and mid-west United States were either sympathetic to Nazi Germany or simply opposed to another war with Germany because they were of German ancestry. In addition, numerous Irish-Catholic Americans were pro-Nazi because they were openly hostile to the British and British interests. However, the American South was very pro-British at this time, because of the kinship southerners felt for the British.
Pro-Russian
Depicting the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in American propaganda was a delicate issue throughout the war, as the Soviet Union could not possibly be presented as a liberal democracy.
However, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union inspired propaganda in its favor, and Hollywood produced pro-Russian movies. At Roosevelt's urging, the film Mission to Moscow
Mission to Moscow
Mission to Moscow is a book by the former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Joseph E. Davies published by Simon and Schuster in 1941. It was adapted into a film directed by Michael Curtiz in 1943....
was made and depicted the purge trials as a just punishment of a Trotskyite conspiracy. On the other hand, the 1939 Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
film Ninotchka
Ninotchka
Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
was not re-released as it ridiculed Russians.
Frank Capra's Why We Fight series included The Battle of Russia. The first part of the film depicted the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, recounted past failures to invade Russia, and described Russian scorched earth and guerrilla tactics. It also omitted all references to the pre-War Hitler-Stalin pact. The second part of the film depicts Germany being drawn too far into Russia; and mostly concentrates on the defense of Leningrad. Indeed, it unrealistically portrays the great withdrawal into Russian territory as a deliberate ploy of the Soviet government.
Pro-Chinese
Support for Chinese force was urged in posters. And even prior to the United States' entry into the war, many Chinese figures appeared on the cover of TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, which Japan attributed not to disgust with such atrocities as the Rape of Nanking, but to effective Chinese propaganda.
Frank Capra's Why We Fight series included The Battle of China. It depicted the brutal attack on China by Japan as well as atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking, which helped galvanize Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation. The film also depicted the building of the Burma Road, which helped keep China in the war as the Japanese had occupied most Chinese ports The film ridiculed the Japanese anti-Western propaganda of "co-prosperity" and "co-existence" by reciting these themes over scenes of atrocities, it was the most stark, good vs. evil film of the Why We Fight series.
Pearl Buck, a famous author of books on China, warned Americans to take seriously the Japanese appeal of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
for China and other Asian nations, as people in those nations might prefer Japan to the West, solely on the grounds of not being treated as an inferior race, an attitude many in the west had toward orientals. Elmer Davis
Elmer Davis
Elmer Davis was a well-known news reporter, author, the Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II and a Peabody Award recipient.-Education and early career:...
of the Office of War Information also declared that since the Japanese were proclaiming the Pacific conflict as a racial war, the United States could only confront this concept by deeds that counteracted this. Unfortunately, this was not officially addressed, and American propaganda did not confront the problem of prejudice based on color.
Occupied Europe
Frank Capra's films The Nazis Strike and Divide and Conquer, part of the Why We Fight series, depicted the the conquest of Europe. The Nazis Strike covers the seizure of land starting with the Anschluss and concluding with the invasion of Poland, as it depicts Hitler creating an enormous military force. Divide and Conquer depicts German conquests in Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Special attention is given to atrocities, and the French population is depicted as enslaved after the conquest. An American poster depicted Frenchmen with raised hands warning them that German victory meant slavery, starvation and death.The shooting of all the men and the sending of all the women of Lidice
Lidice
Lidice is a village in the Czech Republic just northwest of Prague. It is built on the site of a previous village of the same name which, as part of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was on orders from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal...
to concentration camps was also depicted in posters. The Free French also had posters published, urging the American population to support them. The Belgian Information Center had posters declaring that the people of Belgium still resisted.
American propaganda was circulated in occupied countries through the efforts of the underground movements. Stockpiled books were shipped to France within weeks of D-Day, in order to counteract Nazi propaganda, particularly anti-American propaganda. This was part of "consolidation propaganda", intended to pacify occupied regions so as to limit the forces needed to occupy; to counter-act Nazi propaganda, particularly about the United States; and to explain what the United States had done during the war.
Pro-Filipino
Posters were used to portray and support the resistance forces in the Philippines, which, while often listed as one of the greatest organized resistances in history, also exacted a terrible toll on the Filipino people.See also
- British Security CoordinationBritish Security CoordinationBritish Security Coordination was a covert organization set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service in May 1940 upon the authorization of Winston Churchill.-Operation:...
- Propaganda in the United StatesPropaganda in the United StatesPropaganda in the United States comes from governments and private entities of various kinds. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence opinions and encite action...
- British propaganda during World War IIBritish propaganda during World War IIBritish propaganda during World War II took various forms. Using a wide variety of media, it called for actions needed for the war, such as production and proper behavior in the blackout, painted a dark picture of the Axis powers, and praised the Allies....
- Japanese propaganda during World War II
- Nazi propagandaNazi propagandaPropaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
- Propaganda of Fascist ItalyPropaganda of Fascist ItalyPropaganda of Fascist Italy was the material put forth by Italian Fascism to justify its authority and programs and encourage popular support.-Use:...
- Walt Disney's World War II propaganda productionWalt Disney's World War II propaganda productionBetween 1942 and 1945, during World War II, Walt Disney was involved in the production of propaganda films for the US government. The widespread familiarity of Walt Disney's productions benefited the US government in producing pro-American war propaganda in an effort to increase support for the...
- List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
- World War II political cartoonsWorld War II political cartoonsPolitical cartoons produced during World War II commented upon the events, personalities and politics of the war. Governments used them for propaganda and public information...
External links
- Anti-Axis Propaganda
- Faked German South America map
- WWII: Intense Propaganda Posters - slideshow by Life magazine
- The Kitschified Mass Soul: American War Advertisements Goebbels's analysis of American propaganda, for the German population
- The Historical Society of Pennsylvania War Poster Collection, including over 500 original World War I and World War II posters, are available for research use at the Historical Society of PennsylvaniaHistorical Society of PennsylvaniaThe Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historical society founded in 1824 and based in Philadelphia. The Society's building, designed by Addison Hutton and listed on Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items...
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