Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbour, American capitalism and racist jingoism met and fell in love. Their offspring was a flood of dime-store tat that was fed to the public in an ultimately successful attempt to stir feeling enough that they were prepared to spend whatever it took to defeat the Empire of Japan. Here is an example from my collection of a postcard printed for that purpose.
Here’s a second variation on the sheet music for that classic agi-prop song, “We’re gonna have to slap the Dirty Little Jap”. The other one I have is here, and the record is here. The lengths the US Government had to go to get the US people fired up for war were pretty extreme at times and resorted to gross caricature and racism in most cases.
This is the second version of this novelty that I have. Content wise it is very similar to this one here. However there are minor differences, in the front and rear pages and small verbiage deltas. This one is not attributed to the Robbins Novelty Company but it is so similar that it’s either theirs or a knock-off.
More home front nonsense here. This plate topper (designed to be mounted above the rear number plate of a private car) comes out of the States and perfectly captures the three axis stooges theme of mid-war anti-axis personality propaganda. A good solid yellow bucktooth Tojo, followed by Hitler and the giant-chinned Mussolini. These are just about impossible to find anymore. They didn’t have reflective paint like we do now so the paint contains ground glass to make it shine under light at night.
I love these home front items. They represent a great view into the social zeitgeist that existed or had to be manufactured in the middle of the largest war we have ever seen. They range in execution from the cheesy comedy to toxic racism. It really does show how hard they had to work to generate the hatred necessary for a democracy to defeat militarism. This particular one is a novelty representation of Adolf’s last testament. It was manufactured by the prolific D J Robbins Novelty Company of NY in 1943.
This is a great example of the mid-war propaganda coming out of the U.S. home front. It’s a card designed to be mailed in the accompanying envelope. It uses a bit of misdirection in the delivery of the joke as initially you are led to believe that Hitler will be squashed under the heel of a boot. Instead he’s in the shitter and obviously not too happy about it. Made by the D J Robbins Novelty Company of NY in 1943. Charming.
Advertisement for these novelty cards. These were intended as “ticket lifters” and sold through convenience stores and barbershops.
There’s a racist theme in early war propaganda coming out of the US. Fairly uniformly the Japanese were displayed as small, bucktoothed and simian-like. Certainly the phrase “Slap the Jap” was very common. Of course the US would have a very hard war in the Pacific that wasn’t really helped by their consistent underrating of the Japanese soldier. This postcard, franked in October 1942, is illustrative of the messaging used at this point in the war.
Fieldings of Staffordshire put out a very successful run of propaganda items in the opening months of the war. These included small “po’s” that mocked the Axis leadership. Of course there were imitators that got onto the market, hoping to take advantage of the demand that Fieldings created. These imitators are generally lower in quality than the Fieldings ones. Here is an example. It simply says “Adolf in Poland” on the outside and has a caricature of the guy inside.
More googling tells me that these were made by Lancaster Ltd. in Hanley, England during 1939-1940.
This is the fifth in a series of faux chamber pots put out by Fieldings of Staffordshire, England. On the front it says ‘Jerry No 2”. On the rear it says “Flip your ashes on Old Piggy″ and “Violation of Poland. Inside is a cartoon image of Goering. The design is a tongue in cheek one executed by the outstanding designer Enoch Boulton. These pots were viewed as being a little bad taste at the time, especially the ultra-rare large one that rotated on a wooden base and played “Rule Britannia”. Funnily enough I never realised that this one existed. An internet guy emailed me looking to buy my Mussolini and he ended up selling me the Goering one.
British-made, celluloid-covered metal cover designed to hold a box of wooden matches. Front shows hand with thumb and fingers labeled “China/Britain/America/Russia/Free French” squeezing Hitler’s neck. The one side panel of the piece reads “The Greatest Enemy In History Against Humanity Is At Last In The Allies Grip.” The back of the piece has verse “Mussolini’s Note To Hitler/Why Oh! Why, Must I Die, All Through You, Oh! The Pity Of It All. With One Sharp Twist/Of That Wrist,/We’ll Both Be Through/I’m Sure We’re Heading For A Fall/Yours Broken-Heartedly,/Mussolini.”
Such fun!
Here’s a fun little item. This is a Daily Sketch parody of the well-known German children’s book, Struwwelpeter. Der Struwwelpeter is a German children’s book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehaviour in an exaggerated way.
In this version, printed in 1941 or before judging from the content, the writers parody Hitler, Stalin and Germans in general. Struwwelhitler: A Nazi Story Book by Dr. Schrecklichkeit was written by Robert & Philip Spence to benefit the War Relief Fund of the Daily Sketch, a now-defunct conservative British tabloid.
This is the rarest of the propaganda items put out by Fieldings of Staffordshire, England in 1940 to take advantage of the, then recent, “Violation of Poland” by Hitler’s armies. On the top it says “Caught In The Allies Web” while down below says “Drop Your Ashes On Old Nasty”. Inside is a cartoon image of Hitler, probably by David Low, a prominent political cartoonist of the period. The design is a tongue in cheek one executed by the outstanding designer Enoch Boulton. These items were viewed as being a little bad taste at the time, especially the faux chamber pots.
These ash trays are very hard to find in good condition. This one took me three years to find.
I don’t know what to say here. Basically I think, in WW2 USA you could stick an anti Japanese or anti German statement on a turd and someone would say I’ll buy it. This pair is stamped U.S Navy and has the message “Shoot the Pants off the Japanazi”. So Kitsch.
Kiwi Medals 