World War II Propaganda Posters, Explained

This is maybe the most famous recruitment poster in American history.J.M. Flagg designed the famous picture.J.M. Flagg designed the famous picture of Uncle Sam.Uncle Sam is the subject.Uncle Sam appeared in 1917, based on a poster of British high-ranking officer Lord Kitchener.Kitchener is named.Flagg used his own face for Uncle Sam. Veteran Walter Botts sat for the pose.

This made the war a personal crusade. The US did not want someone else to fight; it wanted YOU to fight.

Secrecy was a key part of fighting the war at home. Seymour Goff designed this poster.Seymour Goff designed the poster.Goff designed it for workers at Seagram Distillery. This poster fit the fear-based campaign meant to stop people from revealing naval movements.

Other countries used similar campaigns. German posters exclaimed "Schäm Dich, Schwätzer!" ("Shame on you, blabbermouth!")."Schäm Dich, Schwätzer!" ("Shame on you, blabbermouth!") is the German phrase.The poster displays this phrase.

Rationing was daily life in Allied countries. The civilian population had to accept having less.

This poster, now an internet meme, reminds citizens they lack coffee while troops at the front have it.

J. Howard Miller created this.Miller designed this inspirational poster in 1942 for Westinghouse Electric employees. It pushed women workers to supply equipment for men at the front. The war did not use this poster much; it reappeared in the 1980s.

This poster is known as ""Rosie the Riveter"The woman in the picture is likely factory employee Geraldine Hoff, who quit the Westinghouse factory after the photo.

Grotesque, racist caricatures of Japanese people were typical of WWII propaganda posters.Caricatures of Japanese people appeared.Japanese people appeared on WWII propaganda posters. People generally felt Germany was an enemy to defeat. Japan, however, was seen as a racially inferior group that first spilled blood on America.

This poster uses a Tojo-esque monster.It uses a Tojo-esque monster to tell civilians not to waste.This shows how offensive propaganda can be.

Racist propaganda hit the homefront too. This American poster told troops in the field to sync their watches using caricatures of the three Axis leaders. Tojo looked like a grinning monster, and Mussolini resembled a stereotypical African tribesman.

The enemy is inhuman. Keeping correct time is one way to crush them.

Beating the Axis in production was vital for the war effort. This poster uses fear of home destruction to motivate workers to make more equipment for overseas use.

The message states: keep working, or you are next.

Dehumanizing the enemy was a propaganda tool. Exhorting service glory was another, as this Army Air Force poster showed.

The flier is a brave, handsome man holding a 500-pound bomb, ready for a gallant plane to drop it.

This poster mixed styles, making the war personal for every munitions worker who saw it. It also showed the enemy as a two-headed beast that would ruin America if it won.

The poster made it clear: each worker had to ensure this did not happen.

This event surpassed any other in the war.Bataan Death MarchThe Bataan Death March fueled American views of the Japanese as barbaric monsters needing elimination.

Thousands of American and Filipino prisoners died during a forced march of nearly 60 miles in brutal heat. They had little food or water. News of this event reached the US, where it became propaganda to fuel Japan's rising hatred.

Americans had to learn who their allies were against the Axis. This seemed strange. Yet, even in the 1940s, the US held anti-English feelings while most Americans did not want to fight unless directly involved.

Posters showing English, French, and Soviet troops fighting for freedom aimed to get Americans to help those nations later.

In the early 20th century, US anti-Filipino feelings grew because of the brutal actions.PhilippineInsurrection. Japan's brutal control of the island shocked Americans.

Posters like this showed the Filipino people's courage and fight against the Japanese.

This Japanese poster showed President Roosevelt as a weak monster, using the same style as American depictions of Japanese figures like Tojo.

Propaganda posters openly targeted Japanese people with racism. However, prejudice against German-Americans was not accepted.

Allied posters mocked Hitler and other German officials without mercy, showing them as objects of scorn.

Poster designerBen ShahnIn 1942, this poster tells the story of Lidice, a Czech mining village the Nazis destroyed for killing SS official Reinhard Heydrich. All village men died; women and children went to concentration camps.

The destruction of Lidice symbolized Nazi brutality. It showed what could happen in America if the Nazis won.

This poster's warning lacks subtlety: random girls and sex workers you meet might have an STD. You cannot support the war effort while having an STD. Some posters even blamed 'good time girls' for being Axis agents, though that was false.

Soldiers and workers catching VD was a constant Allied problem because over600 menVarious social diseases kept men out of action every day.

War bondsThese securities financed military action, making goods, and transport. They also helped manage inflation. The US sold over $185 billion in war bonds during WWII; posters like this one aided that effort, lacking subtlety seen in others.

She gave her man to the war. You must give some money.

This poster shows the need for fuel rationing. Troop trains require this fuel for moving across the country.

Your trip matters little. Theirs matters.

War workers needed attendance. A worker who took a day off to sleep was working for Hitler, this poster states.