“This Is Our Enemy”

2012 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
Racial Tolerance ◽  
American Society ◽  
The U.S

During World War II, the U.S. government, through the Writers’ War Board (WWB), co-opted comic books as an essential means of disseminating race-based propaganda to adult Americans, including members of the armed forces. Working with comic creators, the WWB crafted narratives supporting two seemingly incompatible wartime policies: racializing America’s enemies as a justification for total war and simultaneously emphasizing the need for racial tolerance within American society. Initially, anti-German and anti-Japanese narratives depicted those enemies as racially defective but eminently beatable opponents. By late 1944, however, WWB members demanded increasingly vicious comic-book depictions of America’s opponents, portraying them as irredeemably violent. Still, the Board embraced racial and ethnic unity at home as essential to victory, promoting the contributions of Chinese, Jewish, and African Americans.

scholarly journals Comics in Action: A Reflection of the Dominant Narrative in World War II

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (Spring 2019) ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Japanese Americans ◽  
World War ◽  
Internment Camps ◽  
Book Covers ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Times ◽  
The U.S

In this paper, I argue that the propagandized use of comic books during World War II promoted views among Americans which contributed to antipathy towards Americans of Japanese and German descent. More generally, the goal of the essay is to highlight the importance of comic books as a reflection of the times – they simultaneously influence and are influenced by society’s dominant ideas – and promote the further study of such material. I examine the text and art from three comic book covers dated from 1942-1943. An analysis of these selections suggests that comic books depicted Axis soldiers as savage and animalistic, while Americans are portrayed as trustworthy heroes with whom the reader may easily identify. These conclusions are confirmed by various government sources, which claimed to have been teaching citizens about the war and the enemy, which in reality meant teaching citizens how to hate the enemy. Even more disturbing, comic books were read primarily by children, so these hateful ideas were spread to the most impressionable of all Americans. These very depictions, I argue, reflected and contributed to the general American sentiment towards the war, specifically in relation to the treatment of Japanese-Americans in internment camps and the use of atomic bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Further, the proliferation of comic books and the sole fact that they were used as a propaganda arm by the U.S. Government demonstrates their importance during the period and suggests that they be studied more to further understand their importance to American society.

War Changes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Horne
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
World War ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Espionage Act ◽  
External Threat ◽  
The Face ◽  
Racial Progress ◽  
The U.S

This chapter discusses how the U.S. entry into World War II marked a watershed for both the Negro press generally and the Associated Negro Press (ANP) specifically. The “Double V” campaign among African Americans targeting fascism abroad and Jim Crow at home was a simple continuation and escalation of ANP prewar policy. Despite the racial progress propelled by the antifascist war, there were contrary disquieting notes that did not escape the gaze of Claude Barnett. The Negro press could hardly ignore the ambivalence, if not outright support, within their constituency for Tokyo. This factor helped to further propel black militancy at a moment when Washington was demanding stolid acquiescence in the face of the external threat. This widespread sentiment had led FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover to demand Espionage Act indictments of certain Negro papers.

Office of Strategic Services versus Special Operations Executive: Competition for the Italian Resistance, 1943–1945

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Tommaso Piffer
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
World War ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Military Support ◽  
Office Of Strategic Services ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The U.S

This article explores the relationship between the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Italian campaign during World War II. Drawing on recently declassified records, the article analyzes three issues that prevented satisfactory coordination between the two agencies and the impact those issues had on the effectiveness of the Allied military support given to the partisan movements: (1) the U.S. government's determination to maintain the independence of its agencies; (2) the inability of the Armed Forces Headquarters to impose its will on the reluctant subordinate levels of command; and (3) the relatively low priority given to the Italian resistance at the beginning of the campaign. The article contributes to recent studies on OSS and SOE liaisons and sheds additional light on an important turning point in the history of their relations.

scholarly journals Questioning the Constitutional Order: A Comparison of the French and the U.S. Politics–Administration Dichotomy Controversies After World War II

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 737-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rosser ◽  
Céline Mavrot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
General Interest ◽  
World War ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
American Society ◽  
The U.S

By comparing the French and the U.S. controversies on the appropriate position of public administration within the constitutional order of the state after World War II, this article aims to contribute to the historical clarification of the politics–administration dichotomy as one of the key ideas of administrative research and theory. The article underscores that the same phenomenon—the rejection of the dichotomy—has led to different conclusions among administrative scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, the dichotomy was rejected in favor of a reinforcement of the legislature and the judiciary as well as a more representative administration to preserve the plurality of interests of American society. In contrast, the French rejection was aimed toward strengthening the executive and the administrative elite as guardians of the general interest. The article illustrates how ideas and values about public administration change according to different spatiotemporal contexts. If these contexts are disregarded, understanding remains fragmentary at best, if not misleading.

The Endkrieg and the Last of the Napolas

2021 ◽  
pp. 358-393
Author(s):  
Helen Roche
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
West Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Third Reich

For pupils at the Napolas, the last few months of World War II heralded an inexorable transition from ‘total war’ to total chaos. Boys as young as 15 or 16 were called up into the armed forces, and many of the schools had to be evacuated wholesale in the face of the advancing Allied armies. This chapter explores the experiences of pupils from a range of different Napolas throughout the Third Reich, as Germany’s territories shrank around them. Some boys were forced to fight their ‘liberators’ to the last, having been drafted into makeshift units of the SS, the Wehrmacht, or the Volkssturm; others fought on willingly even after the armistice, unable to believe that the regime to which they had given their all had collapsed into utter ruin. Many were merely concerned to reunite themselves with their families, even if they were unsure whether any of their relatives remained alive, or if their homes would still be standing. Yet others simply wished to flee and avoid internment at all costs, once they knew that the war was truly lost. In this chapter, the last days of four different groups of NPEA are charted: Stuhm, Köslin, and Rügen, which had most to fear from the encroaching Red Army; Rottweil and Reichenau in south-west Germany, which fell into French hands; Göttweig, Traiskirchen, and Wien-Theresianum in Austria; and Berlin-Spandau and Potsdam, whose pupils were caught up in a series of desperate last stands as Hitler’s capital was finally reduced to rubble.

Granger, Lester Blackwell

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryann Syers
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Black People ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
World War ◽  
Urban League ◽  
The U.S

Lester Blackwell Granger (1896–1976), an outspoken advocate for interracial cooperation and equal opportunity for Black people, was best known for his leadership of the Urban League and for his efforts to desegregate the U.S. armed forces after World War II.

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