Race and World War 2 Posters: An Analysis

Jonathan McLucas

HST 110

November 26th, 2021

is today. While the Allied victory does not lie solely in American hands, the country’s fielding

of soldiers and its powerful homefront proved to be an extremely important tipping of the scales

in Europe and the South Pacific. These wartime resources were the result of the sweat and tears

of millions amid a concerted effort to unite the American people. In the 1940s, one of the

foremost methods of gaining participation from the people were propaganda posters. The main

goal of these art pieces was to unite the people behind the US Government’s opposition to the

Axis powers and to get everyone to step in and do their part. All of them were meant to spur

some kind of emotion, whether that be fear, determination, anger or anything else that could help

the wartime cause. However, common in many posters was a theme of racism, both subtle and

obvious, which helped drive the country to war. These posters also help us appreciate the

importance of the war to people of color in the United States, however, and how the largest

conflict in global history helped legitimize them in the eyes of their Country’s military.

Stepping in and doing your part is the main theme of the first poster I’ll look at, a piece

called “Man the Guns - Join the Navy”.

holding a shell, presumably readying to load it into one of the bigger artillery pieces. Meanwhile,

an anti-aircraft gun fires in the background. The text reads “Man the Guns” in a stylized red

color, while “Join the Navy” is presented in a blue color more commonly associated with a

seaborne military. This poster immediately gets its point across: American soldiers are some of

the best. The man shown is an ideal American from the time, and this detail is where the subtle

creep of racism begins. He is strong, capable and is fair skinned with blonde hair. While the

American forces had begun recruiting more and more non-white members in the Second World

War, the country as a whole still viewed them as lesser than Whites. “Despite the gains of the

abolition of slavery and the three Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution,” Henry Louis

Gates explains, “Jim Crow segregation had pervaded every aspect of American society since the

1890s. And the military was no exception. When black men volunteered for duty or were drafted

following the Japanese sneak attack, they were relegated to segregated divisions and combat
support roles, such as cook, quartermaster and grave-digging duty. The military was as

segregated as the Deep South” (2013). Indeed, the days of Black equality were far off.

Additionally, Asian Americans were viewed with suspicion. Japanese Americans were

infamously imprisoned in internment camps following the Imperial Japanese Navy’s attack on

Pearl Harbor. It makes sense, then, that the US Government’s portrayal of a brave Navy Sailor

looks like he could be right at home on the other side of the European front. Though the United

States was a far cry from the atrocities of Nazi Germany, the general public still shared many of

the White Supremacist views that helped breed the Nazi death machine.

While many posters, such as the above, were focused on the international fight, there

were many that were more locally oriented. Forest Fires, for instance, were a major issue for the

US at the time, potentially draining resources from the much more important war effort. Gerald

W. Williams, Ph.D, elaborates: “Recreation was deemphasized nationwide during the war; forest

fire protection became quite important, especially along the west coast. Aircraft Warning

Stations (AWS), usually at selected forest lookouts, were established in 1942 to warn of

impending air attacks on the west and east coasts. Almost 2,000 Forest Service employees joined

the Armed Forces. In 1943, many conscientious objectors at home volunteered for smokejumper

duty. Sixty were chosen for this very dangerous work. As during World War I, women were

again employed as fire and aircraft lookouts, while civilian volunteers and outdoor groups were

encouraged to form "Forest Service Reserves" to help with lookout and firefighting work on the

national forests. The Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention Campaign—a joint venture between the

Forest Service and State forestry officials—was organized during the war, when it became vitally

important to protect the Nation's timber supply. In 1944, this program became the Smokey Bear
campaign” (Williams 2000). The next poster, entitled “Our carelessness, Their Secret Weapon”,

was drawn in 1943 for the Forest Service.

With the problem of forest fires being almost entirely domestic, you might think that any

posters made to support the issue would be relatively free of the racism typical of the period.

You would be wrong. This poster depicts Axis Leaders Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo in a

mocking caricature. While Hitler simply looks cartoony and incompetent, Tojo is a full-on racist

stereotype of the Japanese people. With yellow-tinted skin, small slit-like eyes and massive buck

teeth, this depiction of the Japanese leader is meant to be nothing less than a full insult towards

America’s then-enemy. Racism was a powerful motivator at the time, even for something as

simple as preventing forest fires, and it could help whip the majority-white population of the

United States into a frenzy. Using the concept of “the other” to rally support is a tactic as old as

war itself, weaponizing fear and ignorance towards other cultures to drive people to a

government’s will. It had been seen mere decades earlier, when the British and Americans

famously depicted the German people as Barbarian Huns during the First World War.
 The final poster I’ll look at stands at odds with the other two. This one seeks to take

advantage of the United States’ diversity.

Entitled “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty”, this piece was created by David Stone

Martin in 1943 and was based on Dorie Miller, who took a position on an Anti-Aircraft gun at

Pearl Harbor, which he fired at enemy aircraft until he ran out of ammunition. As the war drew

on, the US Government began to understand the value that Black Americans could bring.

Additionally, many Black Americans were beginning to demand more from their country.

Writing to the Pittsburgh Courier on January 31st, 1942, a Black defense worker named James G.

Thompson argued that he felt “Half American”. He was forced to work in the cafeteria of his

aircraft manufacturing company, rather than the construction floor itself. Euell A. Nielsen goes

into more detail: “Thompson called for a ‘double VV for victory’ sign, with the first V standing

for victory of enemies from without and the second V for victory over enemies within, meaning
those in the United States who limited the freedoms of African Americans. The Courier picked

up the theme and on February 7, published on its front page a “Double V” insignia, announcing

the “Democracy at Home-Abroad” slogan to test its popularity with their readers. The initial

response was overwhelming. The Courier ran a survey on October 24, 1942 to measure the

impact of the campaign and 88 percent of its readers responded in support. Black soldiers and

sailors in particular embraced the idea, and some even carved the Double V on their chests”

(2020). The later days of the war marked a turning point in how the military thought about race.

Posters and ideas like these had great effect on the armed forces, leading to a desegregation of

the military several years after war’s end. “Later in 1946 Truman convened the President’s

Committee on Civil Rights.” [Link] says. “That group’s landmark report, To Secure

These Rights, was published in October 1947. It proposed ‘to end immediately all discrimination

and segregation based on race, color, creed, or national origin, in the organization and activities

of all branches of the Armed Services.’ Facing resistance from Southern senators, Truman

circumvented a threatened Senate filibuster by issuing Executive Order 9981 in July 1948,

integrating the armed forces and establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of

Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, an advisory body tasked with determining the

best possible way to implement the new policy” (Ray, n.d.). Make no mistake, the growing

prevalence of non-whites in the US armed forces drove the military to a remarkably progressive

action for the time. While the overall response was mixed, posters like “Above and Beyond the

Call of Duty” helped put non-white Americans into the public consciousness.

While many of these posters displayed horrible racism, there are still individual pieces

among them that helped chip away at America’s White Supremacist foundations. One can find

both a dark past and a vision of a bright future among their varied displays of the American way.
They help to show how World War 2 evolved our culture, leading to the eventual removal of

some systemic barriers. Others, like the denial of Civil Rights to Black Americans, would take

another few decades to fix. They are a fascinating look at American history, and each holds its

own symbolism and meaning.

Barclay, McClelland. "Man the Guns - Join the Navy". [Link]. Naval History and Heritage
Command. Accessed November 26, 2021. [Link]
collections/art/exhibits/conflicts-and-operations/wwii/the-art-of-mcclelland-barclay/man-
[Link].

Gates , Henry Louis. “Segregation in the Armed Forces during World War II.” PBS. Public
Broadcasting Service, September 19, 2013. [Link]
many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-was-black-americas-double-war/.

Martin, David Stone. "Above and Beyond the Call of Duty". [Link]. National Portrait Gallery.
Accessed November 26, 2021.
[Link]

Nielsen, Euell A. “The Double V Campaign (1942-1945) .” [Link], July 1, 2020.

Ray, M.. "Executive Order 9981." Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.

United States. Forest Service. Our carelessness, their secret weapon: prevent forest fires., poster,
1943; [Washington D.C.]. ([Link]
accessed November 26, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital
Library, [Link]

Williams, Gerald W. The USDA Forest Service: The First Century. Http://[Link].
Washington, DC: USDA Forest Service, 2000, p.81.
[Link]