Kiwi Medals

This is the sheet music for a wonderful little ditty named “We’re Gonna Have to Slap, The Dirty Little Jap, And Uncle Sam’s the Guy Who Can Do It“. It was written by Bob Miller and performed in December 1941 by Carlson Robison. I have the record here somewhere also.

Here are the words by the way…

We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap
And Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it
We’ll skin the streak of yellow from this sneaky little fellow
And he’ll think a cyclone hit him when he’s thru it
We’ll take the double crosser to the old woodshed
We’ll start on his bottom and go to his head
When we get thru with him he’ll wish that he was dead
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap
And Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it
The Japs and all their hooey will be changed into chop suey
And the rising sun will set when we get thru it
Their alibi for fighting is to save their face
For ancestors waiting in celestial space
We’ll kick their precious face down to the other place
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap
And Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it
We’ll murder Hirohito, massacre that slob Benito
Hang’em with that Shickle gruber when we’re thru it
We’ll search the highest mountain for the tallest tree
To build us a hanging post for the evil three
We’ll call in all our neighbors, let’em know their free
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

This is another U.S. propaganda item made right after Pearl Harbor. The words “Slap That Jap” may be a reference to a popular song of the time (I have the sheet music elsewhere on this site, yes it’s terrible).

The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 unleashed a vicious and visceral anti-Japanese racism. Badges like this were common and played to the “Ugly American”. Later on in the Pacific War it was the memory of this kind of nod to otherness that led to the ear collectors of Saipan.