Japan’s propaganda to repel Western influence
Prior to the Second World War, there had been a feeling of superiority from the Americans towards the Japanese. According to Japan-guide.com “arrogance and racial discrimination towards the Japanese had plagued Japanese-Western relations since the forced opening of the country in the 1800s.” As an example of the statement, in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Japan had made a proposal to the League of Nations to amend “a racial equality clause” but it was rejected by the United States, Britain and Australia. In addition, in 1924 the Exclusion Act was passed by the U.S. Congress, which prohibited further immigration from Japan. During the 1920’s Japan underwent a series of events that made the national economy suffer such as the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and the global Great Depression that started in 1929. When Japan joined with Germany and Italy to form the “Axis” group of powers, Britain and the U.S. responded by placing an embargo on all oil supplies into Japan. Japan later became embroiled in the war with the Allies by not resolving the oil conflict diplomatically and chose instead to capture the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, also known as Indonesia.
At this point, the Japanese military had almost total control of the government and “indoctrination and censorship in education and media were further intensified.” During the war, the Japanese considered themselves as “the leading race of the world.” They regarded themselves as the Yamato Minzoku race (“pure race”). [2] The Japanese had always been very particular about maintaining their purity and protecting themselves from outside pollution (and this tradition continues today, to a much lesser degree). During the Second World War they had an intensive push to preserve their traditional values and culture. It was for this reason that in the past they had avoided certain relationships with other tribes and now with other countries that were different than them. The Japanese were always aware and cautious of strangers, fearing that they could bring evil and misfortune. A cartoon titled “Purging One’s Head of Anglo-Americanism” represents this Japanese belief. The cartoon shows a woman combing her hair and dandruff falling from her head. At the bottom there is a quote that says “Get rid of that dandruff encrusting your head!” and along with the dandruff falling from her head are also the words “extravagance, selfishness, hedonism, liberalism, materialism, money worship, individualism, and Anglo-American ideas.”[3]
This cartoon explicitly shows how the Japanese desired to rid themselves of any Western influence, particularly that of the Americans. This is considered a type of propaganda in that it provided the the people of Japan the necessary casus belli to save their culture from pollution.
Propaganda in Japan portrayed it as the father, the protector, and the savior of Asia. Many posters represented Japan as helping others, those less fortunate such as India and other smaller Asian countries. An excellent example is a cartoon titled “People of the Southern Region” where Japan liberates Indonesia from the Dutch. The Japanese are represented as a blazing sun of prosperity and a big white hand coming from a jacket cuff shaking hands with a smiling Asian peasant holding a shovel, darker skinned and half-naked, with the implication that he is less civilized.
Another example of Imperialist Japan is a poster of children from all different Asian cultures each wearing their cultural dresses along with a map of Asia in the background. The title of this poster reads “The Greater East Asia Cooperation Manifesto.” This poster implies all the different nations of Asia as one under Japanese rule.
The most visible iconography the Japanese used to characterize the English and Americans in their propaganda during the Second World War were demons or the devil.[4] In cartoons, the U.S. has been depicted as a serpent, a “grotesque frog” in the middle of the ocean trying to stay afloat with the scorching sun as Japan, a reptile, a worm and in another both Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are represented as a fish, being grilled by a house wife with the slogan that say’s “One hundred million as a ball of fire.” Ideographs were also used as a form of propaganda .The word for American was manipulated by newspapers to read Mei-ri-ken which literally translated to “misguided dog” and An-gu-ro (Anglo) for the British which translated to “dark-stupid-foolish.”[5] Even when the Japanese knew that the war had dreadfully turned against them, the government more explicitly depicted the enemy as a demon and portrayed the importance of suicidal tactics to the general populace.
Preceding these series of events we see a revival of the Samurai Spirit and the Kamikaze pilots. In order to fully understand the reasoning behind their actions we must look at their history and traditions. In ancient Japanese history, a Samurai was a member of the military class who was loyal to his leader. The literal meaning for the name is “one who serves.” Beginning in the late 500’s with the soldier Yorozu, a soldier was considered a hero and respected if he killed himself after defeat in battle, before becoming a prisoner of war. “… Self-destruction was accepted as a release from shame, an act of honor and courage and an ultimate proof of integrity” states Ivan Morris, author of The Nobility of Failure. He explains that though a Samurai might fail at his purpose, through self-annihilation he could be respected by friends and even his enemy for his “physical courage, determination, and sincerity.”[6] They were considered heroes. This was the foundation on which the Kamikaze fighters acted upon, the “psychological groundwork had been laid during many centuries.” When they were chosen for this mission the soldiers felt honored to be given such a privilege as to die for their emperor and become heroes. Even before the pilots departed they were already considered heroes with brief ceremonies and a speech from the commanding officer, ending with “an exhortation that they do their very best.”[7] Admiral Onishi Takijiro, organizer of the first Kamikaze units writes, before his own self-annihilation after the news of Japan’s unconditional surrender, in gratitude to the heroes of the Kamikaze flights and as a testament to the country’s youth “they fought and died valiantly with faith in our ultimate victory…With all the fervour of spirit of the special attackers, strive for the welfare of Japan and for the peace throughout the world.”[8] He, too, became a hero of Japan.
At its heart, propaganda is the gateway to the exploitation of an idea, a collective thought, or a national myth. It is invoked the strongest in times when a country is in the wake or in the midst of some degree of conflict, whether necessary or simply political. The government uses propaganda as a source of communication to their populous by reaching them using assorted media such as television advertisements, newspaper articles, magazine advertisements, or even postings in the New York City transit system. Their use of propaganda is simple: feed the people their ideology until they have embraced it as their own.