"The Surprising Impact of World War II Propaganda" Topic

…Animation Design

"It shouldn't be any surprise that design is a powerful tool of persuasion. The employment of design techniques to convey messages has been traced back as far as 15,000 B.C. cave paintings in France. From the development of the first device capable of producing animations, the zoetrope, motion design has moved the masses. But it's impact was potentially never more strong than during World War II. In the wartime climate, battling countries provoked their populaces to join the fight through entertainment. And these design efforts had a powerful impact on viewers. Propaganda animation design created a sense of community among peoples of various nations, lit a fire under the feet of several soldiers, and provided an outlet for those emotionally, physically, and financially suffering as a result of the conflict…"

More here

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Armand

How Disney Propaganda Shaped Life on the Home Front During WWII

"When World War II rewrote the script for Americans' daily lives, beloved cartoon characters were cast in new roles, too. Donald Duck (then Disney's biggest star) donned khakis as a United States Army recruit, while Minnie Mouse recycled leftover bacon grease to make explosives. Uncle Sam deployed the whole Disney crew, reassigning its members from pratfalls to pitching war bonds and victory gardens in animated movies…"

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Armand

You can see "Der Fuehrer's Face," one of Disney's better World War II short films, starring Donald Duck, here: link

Grelber

How did Public Opinion About Entering World War II Change Between 1939 and 1941?

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IIRC the American people had to be "sold" on the Germany first strategy because it was the Japs who attacked us, not Germany.

Wolfhag

I thought Wolfhag's posting of the changing polls, with the progress of the war, was fascinating. It always amazes me that the US did follow the Germany First policy (thank God they did) when Commonwealth forces must have seemed so ineffective (Second Tobruk, Singapore, Burma etc), while US troops were fighting for months in Bataan, desperate for assistance.

Even the three Stogies got in on it.

Thanks

Armand

One of the claims I read (I think it was from Alanbrooke's book) was that the Germany First policy was a result of the British out-staffing the Americans during the first Roosevelt-Churchill meeting, when the decision was taken. They had their facts and arguments better designed to draw a picture for the high command than the Americans.

I think Roosevelt had long wanted to go to the aid of Britain, and once a state of war existed he had the power to do it. Army officers who had fought Germany in WWI probably were focused on that opponent more, anyway. The war with Japan would be mostly a naval war.

I am still not convinced, but thank God they did focus on Germany First (I will not comment on current US response in the same situation today).

Logically, morally, international relations,global trade, commercially, Nazi Germany was a far greater threat to the USA, than the Japanese Empire.

The threat of an invasion of the Hawaiian Islands and Los Angeles by the Japanese must have seem much worse than U boats operating off the Eastern seaboard (well to Joe Public anyway).

I will never understand how "America First" translated into "Germany First" almost overnight (I say almost, after reading Wolfhag's posts, showing the US public were more savvy than I had thought)

I think most governments need to "sell" the idea of war to their citizens.

Communist Russia was the real threat to the US before 1939.

On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the CPUSA initially opposed U.S. involvement, but reversed its stance after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, fervently supporting the war effort.

Wolfhag

Thanks also.

Armand

Wolfhag, Russia – a threat to the USA? With the fleet and air force that the USSR had, it could not pose any threat to the USA or the American continents in general, except that it was a source of spreading communist ideas.
But the destruction of the British Empire, as a serious competitor, was a necessity for the USA, and that is what actually happened as a result of the war.

Didn't you realise? The reds were under the beds?