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| Counting them all out, and counting them all back: Rabbits of the Japanese Imperial navy are relieved to see their planes safely back from attacking the demons. |
The propaganda techniques developed by the British in World War One had slithered right around the globe by the outbreak of World War Two. On their way through the United States, these techniques had bumped into Edward Bernays and studied hard. By the time they got to Nazi Germany, they were trained and lean and straining to articulate the inchoate thoughts of many.
People's innate tendancies to form a group, as well as traditional prejudice often necessary to maintain that group, would be piled together like fasces, as propaganda poured on the petrol.
The Jews: "mercilessly looting the culturally superior rightful inhabitants" (of the promised land.)........"born of totally different racial elements"......."They differ from us in body and above all in soul."
We are informed that they "wandered relentlessly" and "everywhere made themselves unwelcome."
And then, with a simple act of description, the spread of the Jewish people is compared to the historic movement and success of rats; "they are cunning and cruel and usually appear in massive hordes" states the narrator over footage of the swarming rodents. It finishes with: "They represent the elements of sneakiness among animals, just as the Jews do among mankind", as the image dissolves from rodents to Jewish people.
Questions are of course, not encouraged.
To encourage a nation to go to war, to encourage the levels of contempt necessary to load people into cattle-trucks, or incinerate civilians, it requires that the idea of the other as less-than-human must spread, carried on the back of a plague of propaganda.
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| Allied propaganda shows Japan as a snake, an octopus and the old favourite, a rat. |
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| Takoyaki, courtesy of the U.S. Marines.* |
The Japanese themselves had adopted western propaganda techniques, and in 1943 produced the first long-form Japanese anime entitled 桃太郎の海鷲/ Momotaro's Sea Eagles.
(It can be seen here with English sub-titles.)
Based on the traditional Japanese tale of Momotaro, the young hero is the captain of an air-craft carrier ploughing through the Pacific. His brave crew consist of his traditional animal friends of dog, monkey and pheasant; as well as some kawaii rabbits. They are all patriotically engaged in a sneak attack on 鬼ヶ島/ Demon Island, otherwise known as Hawaii.
The film is aimed at children and includes comedic moments to keep the viewer entertained. It is when those comedic moments include an American sailor on fire after the bombing that the actual intention of the propaganda becomes clear: Bombing and killing the enemy is a good and noble pursuit and should be enjoyed. **
Japan had also learned that in the art of war, deception is key, and propaganda must ensure that you can march into people's countries and make the claim that you are doing it for their good. So it was that Japan marched into the British colonies of Singapore and Hong Kong promising to free the people from the yoke of the Empire and offering a place in The Great East Asia Prosperity Sphere (大東亜共栄圏）, where they would, of course, be serving the purposes of the Japanese Empire.
Germany used the concept of Lebensraum to give its own invasions an aura of inevitable logic, the implied idea being that the superior invading the land of the untermenschen is simply the natural order.***
And, inevitably, everyone had God on their side.****
Everywhere, the clashing powers were asserting their ancient right to ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles..(and) call it Empire, and...make a desert and call it peace.+
The value of communication in encouraging people to fight can be clearly seen in the British propaganda of World War Two. As dramatised in the 2011 Oscar-winner The King's Speech, the fact that King George VI needed training to overcome his speech impediments and that this was considered of national importance shows the increasing importance of radio addresses as propaganda.
In 1938, with what was possibly the first modern sound bite, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, freshly returned from a meeting in Munich concerning Germany's territorial claims in Czechoslovakia, famously promised: "Peace for our time."
The war in Europe would start within the year.
After Chamberlain's resignation in 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. Having earned his living as a writer, Churchill fully appreciated the magical power of words in forming ideas. Especially at the beginning of the war, his speeches played a vital part in British propaganda, encouraging people to fight at a time when the outlook was bleak, and prominent cabinet members were arguing for a peace settlement with Hitler.
Churchill's speech after he became Prime Minister noted the importance of fighting the "monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the long lamentable catalogue of human crime". George Orwell would explain it thus-
The choice before human beings is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils. You can let the Nazis rule the world: that is evil; or you can overthrow them by war, which is also evil. There is no other choice before you, and whichever you choice you will not come out with clean hands.
On the 10th of May 1940, the day that Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, Britain invaded the neutral country of Iceland.
But this invasion was nothing compared to just how dirty Britain's hands would be by the end of the war.
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*I've sometimes said to my students in Japan: "If I was here 60 years ago, I'd be trying to kill you..."#
**Popeye's sparring partner Bluto, is shown trying to survive the attack. A deliberate choice must have been made not to include Popeye. Probably because the drunken and blubbering Bluto serves the propaganda purpose better than a Popeye who, well known to the young viewers, would come storming back.
*** One could ask why the successful spread of the Jewish hordes is not considered a mark of their superiority. But as in any increasingly fascist system, Bela Lugosi, if not dead, knows that his life depends on keeping his mouth shut.
**** Japan would claim that not only was God on their side, but that he was Japanese; and everyone knew where he lived in Tokyo.
+ The Roman historian Tacitus claimed that this was from a speech by the Caledonion Calgacus. Most interestingly, historians consider that Tacitus made it up
++ I was surprised to discover that that actual quote is not: "Peace in our time." This mis-quotation must be in the top ten mis-quotes that would also include such you-must-remember-this certs as: "Play it again, Sam." As always: Information------> Idea.
# (So stop complaining...)
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