Posters

The United States used posters to advertise, and produced more propaganda posters than any other country fighting in World War II.^[11] Almost 200,000 different designs were printed during the war.^[12]

These posters used a number of themes to encourage support for the war, including conservation, production, recruiting, home efforts and secrecy.^[11] Posters were usually placed in areas without paid advertisements.^[11] The most common areas were post offices, railroad stations, schools, restaurants and retail stores.^[13] Smaller posters were printed for the windows of private homes and apartment buildings.^[14] These were places where other propaganda media couldn't be used.^[15]

The Office of War Information (OWI) Bureau of Graphics was the government agency in charge of producing and distributing propaganda posters.^[16] The main distinction between United States poster propaganda and that of British and other allied propaganda was that the U.S. posters stayed mostly positive in their messages.^[16] The United States posters focused on duty, patriotism and tradition, whereas those of other countries focused on fueling the people's hatred for the enemy.^[16] The positive messages on U.S. posters were used to increase production on the home front instead of insuring that the "money raised was not lost."^[16] American posters rarely used images of war casualties, and even battlefield scenes became less popular, and were replaced by commercial images to satisfy the "consumer" need for the war.^[17]

The war posters were not designed by the government, but by artists who received no compensation for their work.^[16] Government agencies held competitions for artists to submit their designs, allowing the government to increase the number of designs that it could choose from.^[18]

Advertising

Companies ran advertising supporting the war. This helped keep their names before the public although they had no products to sell, and they were allowed to treat this advertising as a business expense.^[19] The War Advertising Council helped supervise such efforts.^[20] Car manufacturers and other producers that retooled for the war effort took out ads depicting their efforts.^[21] Other companies connected their products in some way with the war. For example, Lucky Strike claimed the change from green to white in its packaging was to save bronze for weapons, and, as a result, saw its sales skyrocket.^[22] Food and soft drink companies such as Coca-Cola depicted their products being consumed by defense workers and members of the armed forces.^[23] Many commercial ads also urged the purchase of war bonds.^[24]

Much of the war effort was defined by advertising, and the armed forces overseas preferred magazines with full ads rather than a slimmed down version without them.^[25]

Comic books and cartoons

Just as is done today, editorial cartoonists sought to sway public opinion. For example, Dr. Seuss supported interventionism even before the attack on Pearl Harbor.^[26]

Comic strips, such as Little Orphan Annie and Terry and the Pirates, introduced war themes into their stories.^[27] Even before the war, sabotage and subversion were common motifs in action-oriented strips.^[28]

Many superheroes were shown combating Axis spies or activities in America and elsewhere.^[29] A comic book depicting Superman attacking the German Westwall was attacked in an issue of Das Schwarze Korps, the SS weekly newspaper, with the Jewish origin of creator Jerry Siegel given prominent attention.^[30]

In 1944, after being praised by Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin's cartoons were syndicated in the United States. This effort was supported by the War Department due to Mauldin's grimmer depiction of everyday military life in his cartoons.^[31] Mauldin's cartoons not only publicized the efforts of the ground forces, but they made the war appear bitter and onerous, helping convince Americans that victory would not be easy. While his cartoons omitted carnage, they showed the difficulty of war through his depiction of the soldiers' disheveled appearance, and sad, vacant eyes.^[32] This helped produce continued support for the troops, by conveying the hardships of their daily experiences.^[33]

Leaflets

Leaflets could be dropped from aircraft to populations in locations unreachable by other means; for example, when the population was afraid or unable to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. As such, the United States extensively used leaflets to convey short informational tidbits. In fact, one squadron of B-17 bombers was entirely dedicated to this purpose.^[34] Leaflets were also used against enemy forces, providing "safe conduct passes" that enemy troops could use to surrender as well as counterfeit ration books, stamps and currency.^[35] The very scale of the leaflet operations had its effect on enemy morale, showing that the American armament industry was so productive that planes could be diverted for this purpose.^[36]

The use of leaflets against Japanese troops was of little effect.^[37] Many civilians in Okinawa discounted pamphlets declaring that prisoners would not be harmed.^[38] By the time American B-29 Superfortress bombers reached the Japanese home islands and intensely firebombed industrial and civilian centers with impunity, the leaflets had improved, providing "advance notice" of bombings that ensured the leaflets were read avidly despite prohibitions.^[37] These pamphlets were dropped in many targeted Japanese cities, declaring they had no wish to harm civilians but rather only strategic targets such as military bases and defense industries, encouraging them to flee the cities to avoid the bombings, and that the bombings could be stopped by demanding new leaders who would end the war.^[39] After the atomic attacks, more pamphlets were dropped, warning that the Americans had an even more powerful explosive at their disposal equal to that of 2,000 B-29 bombers carrying thousands of conventional bombs.^[40] When the Japanese government subsequently offered to surrender, the U.S. continued to drop pamphlets, telling the Japanese people of their government's offer and that they had a right to know the terms.^[41]

The American Historical Association's G.I. Roundtable Series of pamphlets was used to ease transition to the post-war world.^[42]

Radio

In the United States, radio was so widely used for propaganda that it greatly exceeded the use of other media that was typically used against other nations.^[43] President Roosevelt's fireside chats are an excellent example of this use of radio.^[44] In February 1942, Norman Corwin's This is War series was broadcast throughout the country and by shortwave throughout the world.^[45] Other significant uses of radio overseas includes messages to the Italian Navy, which persuaded it to surrender.^[46] CBS Radio's counterpropaganda series Our Secret Weapon (1942–43), featuring writer Rex Stout representing Freedom House, monitored Axis shortwave radio propaganda broadcasts and rebutted the most entertaining lies of the week.^[47]: 529

In 1942 and 1943 Orson Welles created two CBS Radio series that are regarded as significant contributions to the war effort. Hello Americans was produced under the auspices of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to promote inter-American understanding and friendship during World War II. Ceiling Unlimited, sponsored by the Lockheed-Vega Corporation, was conceived to glorify the aviation industry and dramatize its role in World War II.^[48]

The CBS international radio network continued to support the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the State Department and the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs throughout the 1940s.^[49] Included in this effort were live broadcasts to North and South America of the show Viva America, featuring the journalistic expertise of Edmund A. Chester and the artistic talents of Alfredo Antonini, Terig Tucci, Nestor Mesta Chayres and John Serry Sr.^[50][51]

Since radio was often a "live' media, there were restrictions. Broadcasters were warned not to cut to a commercial with the line, "and now for some good news," and reporters were instructed not to describe bombings precisely enough so that the enemy could tell what they hit, for example, they were to state "the building next to the one I am standing on," not "the First National Bank."^[52] While audience participation and man-on-the-street programs were immensely popular, broadcasters realized there was no way to prevent enemy agents from being selected, and these were discontinued.^[53] Many broadcasters worked war themes into their programming to such an extent that they confused the targeted audiences. As a result, the Radio War Guide urged broadcasters to focus on selected themes.^[54]

At first the Japanese population could not receive propaganda by radio because short-wave receivers were prohibited in Japan. However, the capture of Saipan not only shocked the Japanese because it was considered invincible, but allowed Americans to use medium-wave radio to reach the Japanese islands.^[55]

Books

Books were more often used in the post-combat consolidation phases than in combat, particularly because their intent was indirect, to mold the thinkers who would be molding public opinion in the post-war period, and therefore books had more of a long-range influence rather than an immediate effect.^[56]

And some topics were considered off limits. Books on submarines were suppressed, even ones drawing on public knowledge and made with naval assistance. In fact, attempts were made to suppress even fictional stories involving submarines.^[57] As fiction grew less popular, bookstores promoted non-fiction war books.^[58]

A few weeks after D-Day, crates of books were landed in Normandy to be distributed to French booksellers. An equal number of American and British efforts were included in these shipments.^[59] Books had been stockpiled for this purpose, and some books were specifically published for it.^[60]

Films

Hollywood movie studios, obviously sympathetic to the Allied cause, soon adapted standard plots and serials to feature Nazis in place of the usual gangster villains while the Japanese were depicted as being bestial, incapable of reason or human qualities.^[61] Although Hollywood lost access to most foreign markets during the war, it was now able to use Germans, Italians and Japanese as villains without diplomatic protests or boycotts. Many actors such as Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, Martin Kosleck, Philip Ahn and Sen Yung specialized in playing Axis spies, traitors and soldiers.^[62] Irreplaceable film workers received draft deferments to allow them to continue producing pro-Allied films.^[63]

In the early 1940s, as war was starting to gain importance in Europe, the goal of Hollywood studios was still to entertain. Many productions were musicals, comedies, melodramas or westerns. Major studios kept their neutrality and showed on screen the same isolationist sentiment as their audience. After noticing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's concern about U.S. foreign policy, fascism began to be reported on screen by Hollywood. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the studios were fully supportive of the Allied cause and its demands. Patriotic propaganda was seen as profitable by Hollywood, and it helped to transform the social and political stances of the country, while serving as an instrument of national policy.^[64]

Most movies had a background of war, even if their story was a complete invention. However, some were made to tie in with a past event, or even a current event with the release of the film synchronized with the happening in real life. For example, the Academy Award winner for Best Picture Casablanca, was released in the context of American attitudes toward Vichy and Free French Forces. This picture was considered as anti-Vichy, but there was a strong debate about whether this did or did not represent the American government policy.^[65] This was one of the most important productions of Hollywood during the war, and very representative of the studios' role and position at the time.

The war happened in the time of an important national conflict: racial segregation. White America was united behind the war, but in black America there was opposition. While Roosevelt was describing the Allied War goals as democratic, Walter Francis White, the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said that colored people had to "fight for the right to fight".^[66] Many blacks were weighing their loyalty to the country against loyalty to their race. To address the identity problem, the Office of War Information (that controlled and influenced the contents and subjects of American motion pictures^[67]) decided to collaborate with black leaders to try to improve Hollywood's portrayal of colored people and obtain their support to the Allied cause. It was a failure.^[68][how?]

The earliest Hollywood production to satirize any of the Axis governments was You Nazty Spy!, a Three Stooges short released on January 19, 1940, satirizing Hitler (Moe Howard as "Moe Hailstone"), Goering (Curly Howard as "Field Marshal Gallstone") and Goebbels (Larry Fine as "Larry Pebble"), nearly two years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The 1941 Nazi attack on the Soviet Union resulted in pro-Russian movies.^[69] The war also produced an interest in newsreels and documentaries, which had been unable to compete against entertainment films prior to the war.^[69] America's allies were no longer allowed to be depicted negatively in any way.^[57]

At the request of General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Frank Capra created a documentary series that was used as orientation films for new recruits.^[70] Capra designed the series to illustrate the enormous danger of Axis conquest and the corresponding justness of the Allies.^[71] This Why We Fight series documented the war in seven segments:

• Prelude to War, the rise of Fascism;^[72]
• The Nazi Strike, from Anschluss to the invasion of Poland;^[73]
• Divide and Conquer, the conquest of continental Europe;
• The Battle of Britain,
• The Battle of Russia,
• The Battle of China, and
• War Comes to America, covering subsequent events.^[74]

At President Roosevelt's urging, Why We Fight was also released to the theaters for the general public.^[75] In Britain, Churchill ordered the entire sequence to be shown to the public.^[74]

Movies were also useful in that propaganda messages could be incorporated into entertainment films.^[76] The 1942 film Mrs. Miniver portrayed the experiences of an English housewife during the Battle of Britain and urged the support of both men and women for the war effort. It was rushed to the theaters on Roosevelt's orders.^[77]

Furthermore, the 1943 film The Negro Soldier, a government produced documentary also directed by Frank Capra, challenged racial stereotypes in the ranks. Its popularity allowed it to pass over into mainstream distribution.^[78]

The 1944 film The Purple Heart was used to dramatize Japanese atrocities and the heroics of American flyers.^[79]

In 1933 William Dudley Pelley took a dissenting course. He founded the Silver Shirts, a paramilitary wing of his Christian Party sympathetic to the German Nazi Party. He called himself the "American Hitler". Harold Lasswell, an expert in communications and wartime propaganda, testified at his trial in 1944 that 1,195 statements of Nazi Party ideology were found in the Silver Shirts' Galilean newsletter. Pelley was sentenced to 15 years in prison.^[80]

Animation

World War II transformed the possibilities for animation. Prior to the war, animation was seen as a form of childish entertainment, but that perception changed after Pearl Harbor was attacked. On 8 December 1941, the U.S. Army immediately moved 500 troops into Walt Disney Studios and began working with Walt Disney. Army personnel were stationed at his studio and lived there for the duration of the war.^[81] A military officer was actually based in Walt Disney's office. The U.S. Army and Disney set about making various types of films for several different audiences. Most films meant for the public included some type of propaganda, while films for the troops included training and education about a given topic.

Films intended for the public were often meant to build morale. They allowed Americans to express their anger and frustration through ridicule and humor. Many films simply reflected the war culture and were pure entertainment. Others carried strong messages meant to arouse public involvement or set a public mood. Cartoons such as Bugs Bunny Bond Rally and Foney Fables pushed viewers to buy war bonds, while Scrap Happy Daffy encouraged the donation of scrap metal, and Disney's The Spirit of '43 implored viewers to pay their taxes.

The U.S. and Canadian governments also used animation for training and instructional purposes. The most elaborate training film produced, Stop That Tank!, was commissioned by the Canadian Directorate of Military Training and created by Walt Disney Studios.^[82] Troops became familiar with Private Snafu and Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli. These fictional characters were used to give soldiers safety briefs and instructions on expected behavior, while often portraying behavior that which was not recommended. The short Spies depicts an intoxicated Private Snafu giving secrets to a beautiful woman who is really a Nazi spy. Through the information he gives her, the Germans are able to bomb the ship Private Snafu is traveling on, sending him to hell.^[83]

Animation was increasingly used in political commentary against the Axis powers. The comedy cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face was one of Walt Disney's most popular propaganda cartoons, depicting Donald Duck dreaming he is a German laborer suffering through intense factory work and Nazi propaganda, before waking up from his nightmare and remembering he is an American citizen.^[84] Disney and the U.S. military wanted to depict Germans as living a life that belied the wonderful promises made by Hitler, and producers wished to show that the working conditions in German factories were not as glorious as Hitler made them sound in his speeches.

Education for Death, based on the bestselling book of the same name by Gregor Ziemer, was a more serious use of animation in propaganda. The film centered on children's propaganda in Nazi Germany and follows a boy being indoctrinated into Nazi ideals from birth, only to die young when he is drafted into the Wehrmacht.^[85]

Magazines

Magazines were a favored propaganda dissemination tool, as they were widely circulated. The government issued a Magazine War Guide which included tips for supporting the war effort.^[86] Women's magazines were the favored venue for propaganda aimed at housewives, particularly the Ladies' Home Journal. Magazine editors were asked to depict women as coping heroically with the sacrifices of wartime.^[86] Fiction was a particularly favored venue, and was used to subtly shape attitudes.^[87] Ladies' Home Journal and other magazine also promoted the activities of women in the armed services.^[88]

The pulp magazine industry was especially supportive, if only to prevent their being perceived as unessential to the war effort and discontinued for the duration of the war.^[89] The Office of War Information distributed guides to writers for Western, adventure, detective and other pulp genres with possible story lines and themes that would help the war effort. Among the suggestions were a detective who was "cheerful" about following a suspect without using an automobile, a woman working in a traditionally male job, the importance of the 35 miles per hour speed limit and carpooling, and good Chinese and British characters.^[90]

Newspapers

Newspapers were told that government press releases would be true, and to give no aid and comfort to the enemy—but this latter was not to be considered a prohibition on releasing bad news.^[91] However, partially through the cooperation of supportive journalists, the Office of Censorship (OOC) managed to remove negative news and other items useful to the enemy—such as weather forecasts—although neither the OOC nor any other agency managed to completely slant the news in a positive, morale-boosting manner.^[92] Indeed, some government officials found that both newspapers and radio were using uncorroborated news from Vichy France and Tokyo.^[93]

Army War Show

In 1942, the army's Bureau of Public Relations decided to produce a tour of the country to demonstrate to the public the army's capabilities.^[94] To this end they created the Provisional Task Force of the Army War Show, commanded by Colonel Wilson T. Bals. A national citizens committee was created to sponsor the show. Stewart McDonald was its president, Henry Steeger its vice president, and former Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey administrators William P. Dunn and John Reddy Jr. its secretary and treasurer. The committee consisted of 54 people, including political, industry, and entertainment luminaries such as Irving Berlin, Katherine Cornell, Marshall Field, Edsel Ford, Helen Hayes, Henry Luce, Paul Robeson, David Sarnoff, Spyros Skouras, and Thomas J. Watson. A non-profit corporation War Shows, Inc. was created to oversee the business aspects; the ticket revenue was turned over to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. War Shows, Inc's officers were New York World's Fair director Joseph M. Upchurch, Richard F. Flood, and Don J. Campbell.^[95]

The task force assembled nearly 700 soldiers at Fort Meade in early 1942 to prepare. The tour began in Baltimore with a three-day exhibition on June 12, 1942, and finished on December 20 that year, after touring eighteen American cities. A great number of civilians with experience in professional exposition and public production were called on to support the six-month tour, including father-and-son outdoor show producing team Frank and John Duffield, NBC's Blevins Davis, and Ringling Brothers transportation expert George Smith.^[95] By the November shows in Houston, the show had grown to 2,000 people and over 400 pieces of equipment and a cavalry troupe.^[96]

A typical show, titled "Here's Your Army", lasted four hours, and included brief demonstrations of infantry, cavalry, and mechanized infantry drills, demonstrations of flame throwers, tanks, and tank destroyers, performances by the band, and fireworks. Nearly 4 million tickets were sold.^[95]

Anti-German

Hitler was often depicted in situations ridiculing him, and editorial cartoons usually depicted him in caricature.^[107][108] Hitler's dictatorship was often heavily satirized.^[109] To raise morale, even prior to the turning of the war in the Allies' favor, Hitler often appeared in editorial cartoons as doomed.^[110] He and the German people were depicted as fools. For example, in an editorial cartoon by Dr. Seuss, a German father scolded his hungry son, telling him that the Germans ate countries, not food.^[111]

Nazi Germany was treated as the worst evil within the Axis, a greater threat than Japan and Italy.^[112] To counter the much greater desire in the United States to attack Japan, operations in the North African theater were implemented, despite military counterindications, to increase support for attacking Germany. Without such involvement, public pressure to more heavily support the war in the Pacific might have proven irresistible to American leaders.^[113]

Germans were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters,^[114] although many atrocities were specifically ascribed to Nazis and Hitler specifically, rather than to the undifferentiated German people.^[115]

Alternate history novels depicted Nazi invasions of America to arouse support for interventionism.^[116]

The Writers' War Board compiled lists of books banned or burned in Nazi Germany and distributed them for propaganda purposes, and thousands of commemorations of the book burnings were staged.^[117]

Anti-Italian

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Mussolini also appeared in situations ridiculing him.^[107] Editorial cartoons depicted him as a two-bit dictator.^[118] Italians were often stereotyped as evil in films and posters.^[114] Italy, often mocked as the "soft underbelly of the Axis" early in the war, was the first of the major Axis powers to see war approaching its home territory due to nearby defeats in North Africa.

Propagandistic treatment of Italy changed as Sicily became the first part of Europe to be stripped by the British and Americans from Axis rule. American treatment of the Italian people, especially anti-fascist partisans, became much more sympathetic. American media made much of demonstrations of anti-fascist sentiment as evidence that the Italian people were not the enemy. The puppet regime of Benito Mussolini remained an object of derision and hatred, and German troops were seen as agents of oppression of the Italian people. One part or another of Italy would be a war zone until the final weeks of the European war. The death of Mussolini and his allies would be presented as a fitting end to a tyrant.

Anti-Japanese

Propaganda portrayed the Japanese more than any other Axis power as a foreign, grotesque and uncivilized enemy.^[119] Drawing on Japanese samurai traditions, American propagandists portrayed the Japanese as blindly fanatic and ruthless, with a history of desiring overseas conquests.^[120] Japanese propaganda, such as Shinmin no Michi (or The Way of the Subjects), called for the Japanese people to become "one hundred million hearts beating as one"—which Allied propagandists used to portray the Japanese as a mindless, unified mass.^[121] Atrocities were ascribed to the Japanese people as a whole.^[115] Even Japanese-Americans would be portrayed as massively supporting Japan (e.g. in the Niihau incident), only awaiting the signal to commit sabotage.^[106] Japanese atrocities and their fanatical refusal to surrender supported the portrayal of otherwise racist elements in propaganda.^[122]

Even prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, accounts of atrocities in China roused considerable antipathy for Japan.^[123] This stemmed from as early as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, when accounts were received of Japanese forces of bombing civilians, or firing upon shell-shocked survivors.^[124] Such books as Pearl Buck's The Good Earth and Freda Utley's China At War aroused sympathy for the Chinese.^[125] As early as 1937, Roosevelt condemned the Japanese for their aggression in China.^[126] The Nanjing Massacre achieved particular notoriety due to the number of Western witnesses to it, with Chinese propagandists using it to cement Allied opinion.^[127]

Propaganda based on the attack on Pearl Harbor was used with considerable effectiveness, because its outcome was enormous and impossible to counter.^[128] Initial reports termed it a "sneak attack" and "infamous behavior".^[129] "Remember Pearl Harbor!" became the watchword of the war.^[130] Reports of the maltreatment of American prisoners of war also aroused fury,^[131] as did reports of atrocities against native populations, with babies being thrown in the air to be caught on bayonets receiving particular attention.^[132] When three of the Doolittle Raiders were executed, it evoked a passion for revenge in America, and the image of the "Japanese ape" became common in film and cartoons.^[55] The film The Purple Heart dramatized their story, with an airman giving a concluding speech that he now knew that he had understood the Japanese less than he had thought, and that they did not understand Americans if they thought this would frighten them.^[79] The diary of a dead Japanese soldier, which contained an entry coolly recounting the execution of a downed airman, was given considerable play as a demonstration of the true nature of the enemy.^[133]

The early overwhelming Japanese successes led to a pamphlet "Exploding the Japanese 'Superman' Myth" to counter the effect.^[134] The limitations of Japanese troops it cited, although minor, were actual flaws to counter the impression GIs had of Japanese military prowess.^[135] The Doolittle Raid was staged after urging from Roosevelt for a counter-attack, if only for morale reasons.^[136]

Japanese calls for devotion to death were used to present a war of extermination as the only possibility, without any question as to whether it was desirable.^[137] One Marine unit was briefed: "Every Japanese has been told that it is his duty to die for the emperor. It is your duty to see that he does so."^[138] The suicides at Saipan—of women, children, and the elderly as well as fighting men—only reinforced that belief.^[139] A thorough defeat of the Japanese was argued for in magazines so as to prevent a resurgence, as happened in Germany after World War I, of Japanese military power or ambition.^[140] This encouraged American forces to attack civilians, on the belief they would not surrender, which fed into Japanese propaganda about American atrocities.^[141]

Hirohito, Hideki Tojo, and undifferentiated "Japs" were often portrayed in caricature.^[142] Dr. Seuss's editorial cartoons, which often depicted Hitler and Mussolini, opted for a "Japan" figure rather than any given leader.^[143]

One OWI suggestion for adapting "pulp" formulas was a sports story of a professional baseball team touring Japan, which would allow the writers to show the Japanese as ruthless and incapable of sportsmanship.^[144]

American popular songs at the time included "We're Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap," "Taps for the Japs," "We’ll Nip the Nipponese," "We’re going to play Yankee Doodle in Tokyo," and "You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap."^[145] Wartime filmmakers embellished characteristics of Japanese culture that the American people would find scandalously foreign.^[145]

At the beginning of the war artists portrayed the Japanese as nearsighted, bucktoothed, harmless children.^[146] Indeed, many Americans believed that Germany had convinced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.^[147] As the war progressed, Japanese soldiers and civilians would be portrayed in films as evil, rat faced enemies that desired global domination.^[148]

In countries occupied by Japan and forced to join its would-be Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the failure to sustain the economic level prior to the war, particularly in the Philippines, was quickly used in propaganda about the "Co-Poverty Sphere."^[149]

Leaflets air-dropped to the Japanese people informed them of the Potsdam Declaration, which brought to bear the extent of Allied victory, and of the Japanese government's peace negotiations, undermining the ability of the Japanese hard-liners to insist on continued war.^[150]

Careless talk

Many posters ridiculed and shamed careless talk as providing information to the enemy, resulting in Allied deaths. His effort presented to the public as a device to prevent people with sensitive information from talking about it where spies or saboteurs could listen in.^[151]

However, that was not the real purpose, for the propaganda continued long after the enemy fleet had been sunk and their spy networks destroyed. The problem was with negative rumors, that spread much faster than good news, and threaten to weaken home front morale or make American groups fear or hate each other. Historian D'Ann Campbell argues that the purpose of the wartime posters, propaganda, and censorship of soldiers' letters was not to foil spies, but "to clamp as tight a lid as possible on rumors that might lead to discouragement, frustration, strikes, or anything that would cut back military production."^[152][153] This was a major topic endorsed by the Office of War Information.^[151]

Some of these posters contained the most well known slogans of the war and many were depicted by propaganda artist Cyril Kenneth Bird.^[154] Other slogans used for this type of poster were “loose talk costs lives”, "loose lips sink ships", “Another careless word, another wooden cross”, and “bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy”.^[16] Stories also emphasized an anti-rumor theme, as when one woman advised another not to talk with a man about her war job, because the woman he is dating is untrustworthy and might be an enemy agent.^[155]

Rumor mongering was discouraged on the grounds it fomented divisions in America and promoted defeatism and alarmism.^[156] Alfred Hitchcock directed Have You Heard?, a photographic dramatization of the dangers of rumors during wartime, for Life magazine.^[157]

Victories

Battle victories and heroism were promoted for morale purposes, while losses and defeats were underplayed. Despite his blunders in the first days of the war, General Douglas MacArthur was presented as a war hero due to the dire need for one.^[158] The desperate situation on Bataan was played down,^[159] although its fall caused considerable demoralization.^[160] The Doolittle Raid was carried out solely to help morale rather than to cause damage,^[161] a purpose which it fulfilled.^[162] After the Battle of Coral Sea, the Navy reported more Japanese damage than had actually been inflicted,^[163] and declared it a victory, which the Japanese also did.^[164] The decisive victory at the Battle of Midway was emblazoned on newspaper headlines,^[165] but was reported with restraint and the U.S. Navy overstated the Japanese damage. Life warned that Midway did not mean that Japan was no longer on the offensive.^[166]

In 1942, the survivors of the Battle of Savo Island were removed from public circulation to prevent news from leaking, and the August 9th disaster did not reach the newspapers until mid-October.^[167]

Limiting the distribution of bad news caused difficulty with gasoline rationing, as Americans were kept unaware of numerous tanker sinkings.^[168]

Earlier, people complained that the government was covering up the extent of the damage at Pearl Harbor, although this was partly to keep it from the Japanese. The Japanese had a good idea of the damage they inflicted, so only Americans were kept ignorant.^[169] One reporter reported, "Seven of the two ships sunk at Pearl Harbor have now rejoined the fleet."^[169] Although complaints of news suppression continued,^[170] both the newspapers and radio took favorable news and embellished it, a process not countered by the government.^[171]

Joseph Goebbels countered this propaganda to prevent it from influencing Germany, downplaying the defense of Corrigidor and attacking Douglas MacArthur as a coward. This was not very successful, as the German people knew it understated the American defense and that MacArthur had left under orders.^[172]

The invasion of North Africa produced a morale boost when American forces were bogged down in New Guinea and the Guadalcanal Campaign.^[173]

After Guadalcanal, attention was focused on Europe, where Italy was taken, heavy bombing was hammering Germany, and the Red Army was steadily advancing west.^[174]

False optimism

Some propaganda was directed to counter people's hopes that it would not be a long, hard war. Despite air victories in Europe, Dr. Seuss depicted Hitler as a mermaid destroying Allied shipping.^[110] The U.S. War Department supported the syndication of Bill Mauldin's cartoons because Mauldin was making the war appear bitter and onerous, showing that the victory would not be easy. His depiction of U.S. soldiers with disheveled appearances and sad, vacant eyes conveyed the difficulty of the war.^[175]

Death and injury

Until 1944, the mayhem of war (dead and wounded) was mostly toned down by American propagandists, who followed instructions allowing them to show a few wounded soldiers in a crowd. Later, more realistic presentations were allowed, partly owing to popular demand.^[176] The earlier attitude was supported by the media; for example, NBC warned that broadcasts were not to be "unduly harrowing."^[177] However, the American public wanted more realism on the grounds that they could handle bad news.^[178] Roosevelt finally authorized photos of dead soldiers, to keep the public from growing complacent about the toll of war.^[179]

When The Battle of San Pietro showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale; General Marshall overrode them, to ensure that the soldiers took their training seriously.^[180]

The OWI emphasized to returning, battle-scarred soldiers that there were places and jobs for them in civilian life.^[181] This promise was also featured in romantic stories, where a sweet, gentle heroine would help the veteran adjust to civilian life after his return from the war.^[182]

War effort

Americans were called upon to support the war effort in many ways. Cartoons depicted those who talked about victory but clearly were sitting around waiting for others to ensure it^[183] or showed how red tape was detrimental to the war effort.^[184] Defeatism was attacked,^[185] national unity was promoted,^[186] and themes of community and sacrifice were emphasized.^[187] Fictional characters were sharply divided into selfish villains and heroes who put the needs of others first^[188] and learned to identify with the defenders of freedom.^[189]

Propagandists were instructed to convey the message that the person viewing the propaganda media stood to personally lose if he or she failed to contribute; for example, the appeal for women to contribute to the war effort more closely personalized the soldiers dependent on their work as their sons, brothers and husbands.^[190]

Considerable complications were caused by censorship and the need to prevent the enemy from learning how much damage they had inflicted.^[191] For example, Roosevelt's fireside chat described the damage at Pearl Harbor as "serious" but he could not "give exact damage."^[192]

Many artists and writers knew that keeping up morale was important, but considerable debate arose over whether to go for light frivolous diversions, or to impress the severity of the war to stir up support.^[57]

Authors of fiction were encouraged to show their characters buying war bonds, conserving, planting victory gardens, and otherwise acting war-mindedly; characters could refrain from calling loved ones to avoid straining the phone system, or a romance would start when a man and woman carpooled.^[193]

Many stories were set in the frontier era or on family farms, to emphasize traditional virtues such as hard work, innocence, piety, independence and community values.^[194]

African American: Double V campaign

The African American community in the United States resolved on a Double V campaign: Victory over fascism abroad, and victory over discrimination at home. Large numbers migrated from poor Southern farms to munitions centers. Racial tensions were high in overcrowded cities like Chicago; Detroit and Harlem experienced race riots in 1943.^[276] Black newspapers created the Double V campaign to build black morale and head off radical action. Special posters and pamphlets were prepared for distribution in black neighborhoods.^[277]

Most black women had been farm laborers or domestics before the war.^[278] Despite discrimination and segregated facilities throughout the South, they escaped the cotton patch and took blue-collar jobs in the cities. Working with the federal Fair Employment Practices Committee, the NAACP and CIO unions, these black women fought a "Double V" campaign—against the Axis abroad and against restrictive hiring practices at home. Their efforts redefined citizenship, equating their patriotism with war work, and seeking equal employment opportunities, government entitlements, and better working conditions as conditions appropriate for full citizens.^[279] In the South black women worked in segregated jobs; in the West and most of the North they were integrated, but wildcat strikes erupted in Detroit, Baltimore, and Evansville where white migrants from the South refused to work alongside black women.^[280][281]

Home fires

Most of the entertainment aimed at soldiers was heavy on sentiment and nostalgia, to help sustain morale.^[282] In most media, the girl next door was often used as the symbol of all things American.^[283] Betty Grable characterized it as women giving soldiers something to fight for,^[284] but one soldier wrote to her saying that her pin-up photographs told them, in the midst of fighting, what they were fighting for.^[285] Songs on armed forces request programs were not about Rosie the Riveter, but of the girls who were waiting for the soldiers to return.^[286] Many such songs were also popular at the home front.^[287] Themes of love, loneliness and separation were given more poignancy by the war.^[288]

German intelligence officers, interrogating American prisoners, mistakenly concluded that the Americans' notions of what they were fighting for were for vague concepts, such as "Mom's apple pie," and concluded that American servicemen were idealistically soft and could be convinced to desert their allies.^[289]

Stories for the home front recounted the soldiers' need for their sweethearts and families to remain as they were, because they were what the soldier were fighting for.^[290] As the war ended, real and fictional stories often featured women who left war work to return to their homes and to raise children.^[291] Women, particularly wives whose husbands were at war, and children were often portrayed as what was at risk in the war.^[292]

Home-front posters also invoked an idealized America, as in the series declaring "This is America", portraying "the family is a sacred institution," "where Main Street is bigger than Broadway," and "where a man picks his job".^[293] Typically, men were presented as ordinary but women as beautiful and glamorous.^[293]

Allies