Saturday 2 December 2023

Japanese War Propaganda Poster

The Japanese Army invaded Malaya just after midnight on 8 December 1941 at Padang Pak Amat beach, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Their ruthlessness, tyranny and pilferage of the countries natural resources lasted until the Japanese first garrison to surrender in Penang on 2 September 1945.

The currency adopted during that tenure was the Japanese Government issued Dollar or referred informally with contempt as the banana money because of the motif of the banana tree on the 10 dollar banknote. 

Internet, Facebook, X, television was not a form of mass communication back then. 

To get your message across a broad spectrum of society quickly and effectively, radio, leaflets or posters were used to spread messages.

The invading Japanese forces used slogans such as "Asia untuk orang Asia" (Asia for Asians) to garner support from the locals. The aim was to convince the local population that Japan was the actual saviours of Malaya while Britain was portrayed as an imperialist force that wished to exploit Malaya's resources. 

The propaganda posters utilised were to touch the sentiments of the locals by using colourful art depicting Japanese army as their saviour, spreading false news of the war, depicting how well locals would be treated as opposed to the previous occupying imperial forces. Whatever lies it takes to entice support.

Lithographs posters were commonly used during that time period. Colours used were vibrant, vivid, bright and evocative. I have one such poster in my collection.

I have with the aid of sifu Dickson Niew provided some details as to the translation as I am unable to read Mandarin.

As mentioned above. If you construe the colours look very vivid and unique unlike printed colours of today. The paper material is also different. Another indication compared to the many re-printed fakes of today are the condition is damaged and not perfect, indication of its age, wear and tear. Fakes today are in perfect condition.    


Depicted on the bottom left corner is the artist name.




Pacific Ocean War.


Printer. Copyright. Reserved.


US aircraft carrier was attacked by the Japanese. Suicide bombers.


During the landing of America's army on an island at South Pacific Ocean, there were attacked by Japanese war planes.


Painting of Second World War USA & Airforce vs Japanese.


Anyone who can share more light on this matter please do email me at s_surins@hotmail.com



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