Comic Book Covers Part 4

The author of the series says humor and hate can both be used against a foe and each method has its advantages and its disadvantages. There needs to be a balance, though, because you run the danger of making the enemy appear easy to defeat. You can picture them as morally worthless, though.

An interesting poster.

A cover showing a young super-hero dealing with Japanese soldiers.

A poster literally demonizing the Japanese.

Another poster. The author says you can picture the enemy as diametrically opposed to us.

You can picture the enemy as our exact opposites: dishonest, cruel, ugly, morally inferior, etc.

Japanese propaganda trying to depict all Asians as brothers and sisters.

The main emphasis of anti-Nazi covers and posters was often Adolph Hitler himself. Hatred could be directed towards him as a person. Many of the covers and posters featuring Japanese, though, did not have a specific person in mind (when they did it was usually Tojo, Hirohito or Yamamoto), and the hatred became more generalized towards all Japanese.

The enemy was often depicted in animal from, the Japanese being pictured often as monkeys or rats.

A Japanese as a rat.

A comic showing the Japanese as rats. The image is gory and the author says such goriness was usually reserved for covers showing the Japanese enemy.

Nazi propaganda that equated Jews and rats.

The Japanese at least in this incidence depicted their soldiers as heroic monkeys.

Enemy propaganda against England.

A 1944 comic book showing the Japanese as an octopus.

The Japanese depicted as a snake.

A Private Snafu cartoon showing Hitler as the devil.

The cover of a Shadow comic. The author says dehumanizing the enemy can then justify extreme actions taken against them.

Posters, etc, could also picture enemy atrocities thus making them even less human and thus easier to kill.

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