WWII Propaganda: "My Japan" 1945 United States Treasury

more at http://quickfound.net/

'Complex and disturbing anti-Japanese propaganda film produced to spur the sale of U.S. war bonds.'

Originally a public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Japan

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My Japan is a 1945 American anti-Japanese propaganda short film produced to spur sale of American war bonds. The film takes the form of a mock travelogue of Japan, presented by an impersonated Japanese narrator...

Background

The film was produced by the War Finance Division, a division of the United States Office of War Information, which was responsible for promoting the sale of all securities offered to the public by the Treasury Department. The 1945 United States Government Manual outlines their rights and responsibilities, stating:

"The sales organization (field) consists of offices in all States, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Alaska, actively operating in recruiting of volunteer committees, sales, and promotional personnel. The Washington organization formulates publicity and promotion campaigns for recommendation to the State committees and for use at the national level."

My Japan was the only film produced by the War Finance Division in 1945...

The technique used in My Japan is a form of reverse psychology - to make Americans angry with themselves for their materialistic values, and then turn this anger against the enemy:

"They work longer hours than you do, twice as long, quite often. Why not? They're not working for the clock. They're working to win the war! They do not make as much money as you do. Well, they are not working to make money, they are working to win war! They work every day of every week. Is this so strange? They are not working to get days off, they are working to win the war!"

"How we suffer when you do not have a full tank of gasoline. How devastated we are at the sight of you jammed into pleasure trains. How we tremble when you have to wait to get into the movies, restaurants and nightclubs....You are a nation of bargain-hunters" (My Japan).

The film also seeks to anger Americans by belittling their military achievements up to that point:

"Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima - you boast of them as major victories; to you they are. To us they are minor defeats - the loss of island outposts. You Americans are fond of saying 'look at the score.' Very well, look at it. You sent your finest troops against these outposts. They died by the thousands. Here they are massacred, slaughtered. But you took the islands, you say. Yes, we expected you to. That is why we garrisoned them with second-rate troops. The best of your lives for the worst of ours. WE TOO, know a thing or two about bargains. You have not yet faced the best of our armies. You have faced only ten percent of our worst!" (My Japan)...