Content note: Ethnic slur against Japanese people in the headline. This object is shown as it was published. Why
All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!
A giant ear drawn as the Japanese rising-sun flag hangs over a shipyard while one worker starts to talk about his section and another hushes him: 'Don't discuss your job!' The headline attaches the slur 'Jap' and the trait 'sneaky' to a whole nationality, so the label, not any evidence, carries the warning.
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. wartime plant-security poster (an RCA 'E' flag appears in the scene), held in the poster file of the Office of War Information, Bureau of Special Services; artist signed Alexander
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Security and surveillance, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-callingScapegoating
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 513778, local id 44-PA-331), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons; tagged PD-USGov-Treasury)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Text on the object
ALL THE EAR-MARKS OF A SNEAKY JAP! "OVER IN MY SECTION, WE'RE ....!!" "HEY, SH!" DON'T DISCUSS YOUR JOB!
The artist's signature ('Alexander') and small printer's-imprint text at bottom left/right ('LITHO. IN U.S.A.' and a form/stock number) are present but too small and low-contrast in this scan to transcribe reliably; not included above.
