Anti-Japanese Propaganda, "Tokio Kid" and the "Jap Trap"

        The war against Japan was a war that had an evident result but still required a significant amount of war and men lost to achieve victory. The United States, as they did with African Americans, created propaganda depicting the Japanese as “inhuman”. In the case of African Americans, the caricatures depicted them with large features, including big lips, and traits of animals such as monkeys. For the Japanese, the caricatures were quite similar, depicting very narrow eyes and similarities with a rat.
        The anti-japanese propaganda was brought to mainstream attention after their attacks on Pearl Harbor. Before this, America’s propaganda was more focused on German and other Europeans. However, they were depicted in a shockingly different manor than the Japanese. Simply put, the anti-german propaganda portrayed them to be more humanlike and was centered around the dislike of the Nazis, not the German people themselves. After Pearl Harbor, the production and spread of the anti-japanese propaganda spread rapidly. As briefly covered above, one of the main representations of the Japanese was that they resembled or were rats. One common piece of propaganda was the “Jap Trap”. Because of the “ugly” nature of the Japanese troops, the propaganda demonstrated them being trapped in “material conservation” which was common for the Japanese to do. The US was able to outproduce the Japanese, which meant if they wanted to even stand a chance against the Allies they had to conserve their materials and resources. Another common piece of Japanese propaganda was with the character “Tokio Kid”, whose name demonstrates the incorrectness of the caricature. The “Tokio Kid” was drawn with large, fang-like teeth, which inconjunct with his stereotypical Asian features, was a commonly depicted image that was meant to represent the fearful nature of the Japanese. Today, this depiction of any race or ethnicity is viewed as heinous and simply disrespectful, but during the war, they were as common as other marketing and billboards.

Sources: https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/collections/history/history-blog/2017/august-2017/ralphwilliams

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8332/

https://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2012/03/wwii-propaganda-the-influence-of-racism/