Tokio Kid Propaganda Analysis

One of the main targets that propaganda aimed to dehumanize was the Japanese through spreading the views of inhumane and racist perspectives on them. Many of the stereotypes and racial prejudice against Asians were developed during this time period. Propaganda exaggerated these stereotypical features in their visual in order to push Americans to unify against the Japanese (Miles). This sudden surfacing racism was caused by the Pearl Harbor attack which led to American citizens to feel personally and directly attack as opposed to witnessing the war from the other side of the world. The propagandists used this reason to justify their visuals when adding offensive animalistic features to the Japanese descent depicted in their illustration. In a poster depicting a “Japanese” man attacking an …show more content…
Another horrid poster that exemplifies the racism towards Japanese in propaganda is “The Tokio Kid.” The stereotypical “Asian accent”, small eyes, and big teeth are shown in the series of Tokio Kid propaganda giving Japanese, a distinct difference from Americans. The Tokio Kid is holding a knife behind his back and has a swastika on his shirt to show the message of how the Japanese may seem “nice” from the front but their “real intentions” were to harm Americans (The Tokyo Kid).This also encourages the idea that the Japanese are not as well educated as Americans, giving Americans another reason to not like them. The people of Japanese descent were permanently labeled due to racist propaganda which contributed to the development of racist stereotypes of Asians in America today. Due to the exchange of racism within the visuals of propaganda, the tensions grew between the Japanese and Americans causing Americans to encourage intervention after experiencing the first direct threat of the