History 1BB3: America and the World: The Twentieth Century

Dr. Stephen M. Streeter

McMaster University, Winter 2002

 

Tutorial 5

Deciphering Pictorial Evidence: American and Japanese propaganda

Introduction:

Although historians rely primarily on textual sources to conduct their research, pictorial evidence can also help us to understand how people experienced the past. This tutorial explores visual evidence by analyzing U.S. and Japanese propaganda during the Second World War. The background reading discusses how American society generated hostile views of the Axis powers. The graphic images, mostly political cartoons, come from an award winning book on the racial dimensions of the Pacific War.

Background Reading:

John Morton Blum, "Pictures of the Enemy" in V Was for Victory: American Politics and Culture During World War II (1976), pp. 45-52

Sources:

John Dower, War Without Mercy (1986), pp. 181-200

Discussion Questions:

1. What kinds of visual sources does Dower use to make his point that the Pacific War was primarily a race war? When and where did these images appear? Who would have seen them?
2. How did the Americans and Japanese view each other in World War II? (Be specific.)
3. How might these images have affected the conduct of the war?

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