Browse Exhibits (38 total)
American Poster Propaganda during World War II
During the Second World War, the United States governmnet used a tool called propaganda to motivate, unite, and justify war-goals to the American public. The poster constituted propaganda that was seen throughout the nation. A majority of posters were produced by an organization called the Office of War Information which used various images to persuade and reinforce the messages of the government. Each poster, designed by different artists highlighted specfic themes such as bond-buying or rationing.
This exhibit displays the various styles and themes of OWI posters during the Second World War. How do you feel concerning the individual poster? Can you decipher how the poster contributed to American propaganda as a whole?
Luckiest men to ever live or heroes of the Second World War?
World War II is full of tales of heroic actions by one individual or another. However, no group is praised more than E company of the 101st Airborne division. As they go down in history the question becomes, were they truly the hero’s that our modern society has made them out to be or were they just men who were in the right place at the right time. Did they just bumble their way through the war soaking up casualties along the way, or through determination and quick wits did they endure as one of the most resilient units to ever hit the battlefield?
Female Native American Veterans of World War II
While Native American men enlisted in disproportionately large numbers, it is little known that Native Women also went to their local recruitment offices to join in some branch of the United States military. Over 800 Native women enlisted during World War II. They served not only in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later renamed the Women's Army Corps or WAC, but also in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps and various offshoots of the WAAC. These included the WAVES, SPARS, United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR), and the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots (WASP).
Women serving in military units faced prejudice, sexism, and accusations of licentiousness and immorality. Native American women faced these same discriminations and sometimes (but rarely) racist attacks on their Native status or "Indian blood."
These women came from diverse backgrounds. Some were raised traditionally, some in strictly Christian households. Some experienced boarding or parochial schools, some did not. Some grew up on the reservation or in rural settlements, and some grew up in the city. They joined various military groups for vastly different positions. These women served as clerks, mechanics, pilots, personal assitants, nurses, and mail carriers.
It is important to recognize these Native women, as their service occurred at a time when it was difficult to be a woman and difficult to be Native. Many of these women went on to have extraordinary careers, serving on tribal courts, participating in the Red Power movement for tribal sovereignty, and even continued service in the United States military.
Bombs versus Boards: The Rise of Surf Culture in Southern California
Just like the testing in the Marshall Islands, the clean cut wholesomeness of American culture in the 1950’s were coming to and end. The music market was dealing with two very opposite trends that focused on two entirely different themes. If the keywords of folk music were “honesty, authenticity, sincerity, freedom, and brotherhood” the key words of surf music were found in the title of the 1964 Beach Boys hit “Fun Fun Fun” Just as folk music was at the center of a subculture, with its norms of dress, language and behavior, so surfing music was also at the heart of its own subculture. The center of the culture was southern California, and as the popularity of the music spread across the country more would be surfers from Iowa, Nebraska, or even Maine were created. These Midwestern surfers acquired deep tans, bleached their hair blonde, put on their sandals and cutoffs, waxed down their boards and revved up their Impalas, T-birds or Corvettes. The fact that the largest nearby body of water may have been the country swimming pool was hardly a consideration. Unlike the folkers, the surfers deepest social concern was whether the local drugstore would run out of suntan oil.
Victory Culture in the Post World War II Era
Everything from The Lone Ranger television show to any John Ford Western, a vital myth arose from the ashes of World War II, victory culture. Victory culture infiltrated every part of American culture and indoctrinated Americans with the treasured belief that triumph over inferior enemy was an American birthright and point of pride and destiny. Victory culture focuses on the time between the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor until the fail of Saigon in 1975. As defined by writer Tom Englehardt’s book The End of Victory Culture, this culture portrayed Euro-Americans as the minority fighting swarms of savages. Therefore, the slaughter and colonization of Native Americans was seen as “a form of reassurance and entertainment: and audiences almost invariably cheered, or were cheered; by what they read, heard or saw”.
For victory culture, the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbor was no different than the menacing Indians attacking a stagecoach. Victory culture made Westerns the most popular film and television genre. The Lone Ranger which aired from 1949 to 1957 produced protrayed Native Americans as a codependent and pronoun challenged sidekick. John Ford, a Hollywood directoral powerhouse, protrayed Native peoples as motivated purely by menance. Each charachture of Native peoples reinforced the idea that Euro-Americans were righteous of "winning the West."
Victory culture invaded every chasm of popular culture post World War II. This website will showcase how victory culture was an intergral part of how society intereputed Native peoples, women, race and nationalistic attitudes.
WORLD WAR II: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN NARRATIVE
August 13, 1943
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the Philippines as he shared his devotion to victory in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He declared:
The story of the fighting on Bataan and Corregidor, and, indeed, everywhere in the Philippines, will be remembered so long as men continue to respect bravery and devotion and determination. When the Filipino people resisted the Japanese invaders with their very lives, they gave final proof that here was a nation fit to be respected as the equal to any on earth, not in size, but in the stout heart and national dignity which are the true measures of a people. That is why the United States, in practice, regards your lawful Government as having the same status as the governments of other independent nations. That is why I have looked upon President Quezon and Vice President Osmena, not only as old friends, but also as trusted collaborators in our united task of destroying our common enemies in the East as well as in the West.
President Roosevelt addressed the Filipino people as soldiers for democracy and now worthy of independence. Much like the lived reality of war felt by all Filipinos throughout this time, such respect was earned through Filipino-American encounters in war and not in peace. The narrative of the Filipino experience in World War II often begins with the Japanese invasion in 1941 and President Roosevelt's pledge to return freedom to the island through military might. The relationship expressed in Roosevelt’s promises of fellowship and solidarity only reveal partial truths. The history of the Filipino-American relationship is steeped in imperialist hierarchies of racial expectations and capabilities. This digital exhibit travels through newspaper articles, oral histories, and historical reviews as a means to reveal the untold narrative of the Filipino experience prior to and after World War II. Beginning this narrative in the midst of “The Good War” robs the Philippines of their struggle for independence from and lends the United States the undeserved reputation of benevolent.
American Film and Propaganda in World War II
Throughout the course of history we have seen various forms of propaganda to try and push a, typically political, agenda to a mass amount of people. In this paper we will explore the many forms used by The United States throughout the course of World War II. The Americans used many forms of media at hand whether it was film, posters, comic books, and more. From the iconic Rosie the Riveter to Uncle Sam, even today we still recognize and honor propaganda from decades before us. Though many of these forms of propaganda spawned immense patriotism and nationalism throughout the country, they also sparked more racism and stereotyping that would spread like wildfire across the country. Despite all of this, the propaganda machine played a major role in winning the war for us at home as well as the war abroad.