Content note: Wartime racial slur ('Japs') in the slogan; depicts Japanese soldiers killed in combat. This object is shown as it was published. Why
'Askari wetu washinda Wajapani / Smash the Japs!' (British poster for East Africa)
Five African soldiers in jungle kit rush and fire on Japanese troops, some of whom flee while others lie dead. The Swahili headline says 'our soldiers defeated the Japanese' and the English slogan below it is 'Smash the Japs!': the enemy is reduced to a slur, printed as the call to action.
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- British government (printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd; artist Roland Davies) for East African audiences
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Reassure
- Themes
- War and the military, Race and ethnicity, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Imperial War Museums (scan via Wikimedia Commons), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired; PD-UKGov per Wikimedia Commons)
Roland Davies (artist); printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd, c. 1939-1945. Imperial War Museums, Art.IWM PST 15396; scan via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
ASKARI WETU WASHINDA WAJAPANI Smash the Japs! [signature, lower left of image:] ROLAND DAVIES [illegible: small print at the lower left and lower right]
OUR SOLDIERS DEFEATED THE JAPANESE (Swahili) Smash the Japs! (English)
Swahili headline, English slogan. The small print at the foot is not legible in the committed image; the IWM record gives it as a printing imprint for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd, Watford and London.
