Enemy Identification

Barbaric Nazi 

Sailor Accuses Carelessness  

Mongrel Hirohito 

The infamous Frank Capra film series "Why We Fight" was shown to many Americans throughout the 1940s and that America and her allies fight for "good" and against "evil". In the Prelude section of the series it uses a theme such as free and slave worlds. A free world is a nation that has high moral religious standing regardless of preference, which holds a constitutional democracy that ardently supports individual freedoms.  However, a slave world contradicts the free. It is one that “kills freedom” and reverses the progress of humanity. It has leaders which are selfish, greedy, and manipulative, which undermines their nation’s individual liberties. These slave worlds are heavily militaristic and imperialistic.[1]

Capra's film series and along with all forms of propaganda including posters had the intent of denouncing or possibly demonizing the enemy. This is common with any war as groups attempt to justify actions that may or may not be necessary. However, American enemy denuciation was arguably necessary, at least against Nazi Germany.  The Nazi government successfully employed a propaganda program headed by Joseph Goebbels that emphasized specific concerns and goals through emotional repetition, and that Hitler was infalliable. 

On the left are three examples of OWI attempts of denunciation and demonization. This is the Enemy! features a vainly and masculine arm with a swastika on the cuff of the sleeve, bearing a large knife. It symbolizes the Nazi as brutal and vicious with the intent of destroying a particular culture. In the case of this poster it is the Christian religion, as the knife stabs the bible. Someone Talked! pertains to enemy espionage and poor domestic concern for sensitive information. This poster features a distressed and drowning sailor who is blaming his death on a secretive enemy and a careless and/or lazy citizen at home. Lastly, Your bit can drive him mad! displays emperor Hirohito in a negative racial tone, as a goblin or animal like beast who preys upon the various nations of the Asiatic hemisphere. This poster reinforces the portral of Japanese relentlessness which was seen through their infamous Banzai charges and Kamikaze attacks.