The visual representation of an enemy during wartime is generally intended for the use of propaganda. Western portrayals of the Japanese during the Second World War are no exception. According to Gilmore, propaganda “...is designed to persuade the target audience to respond to a particular issue or idea either favorably or unfavorably.”l In the case of a war the desired response is to produce an effective and productive desire to win. This was achieved in two ways. First, the enemy is devalued; “they” are presented as something less worthy than “us.” Faults are exaggerated, actions are interpreted with a suspicious eye and the morality and/or cultural value of the target group is slandered. The enemy becomes someone to be feared, resisted at all cost and possibly deserving of total destruction.Secondly the esteem of the group producing the propaganda is raised. War ispresented in terms of doing one’s duty as a member of a morally superior society. If‘they’ are treacherous then ‘we’ are honest; if ‘they’ are inferior’ then ‘we’ are superior, and so on… The two approaches are directly proportional to one another. The more depraved an enemy the greater the moral standing of those who try to annihilate them. If ‘they’ are uncivilised then ‘we’ must be more civilised by default, or so the thinking goes. The balance between devaluing the enemy and empowering one’s own population says as much about how the propagandising body’s views as how it views the enemy. The former is often drawn by inference from the latter. Propaganda takes many forms and it is essential to understand the nature of the medium chosen to properly derive the intended message. In terms of expression each depiction of the other contains a mixture of verbal, graphic and contextual elements. The degree to which each of these elements exis...
