Content note: A cartoon panel shows a newspaper headline reading 'JAPS TAKE', using a wartime ethnic slur for Japanese people. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Be silent: the enemy is listening (Douglas War Production Drive cartoon sheet)
Black-and-white cartoon sheet of six panels in a plant setting: a worker whispering near a peddler under a 'Be silent, the enemy is listening' sign, two men smoking beneath 'No smoking', a woman wasting paper at 'Conserve material', a man walking past 'Buy war bonds here', a late clock-puncher, and workers falling over a newspaper headline. The technique is plain-folks: everyday cartoon workmen model rules of conduct, with a faint fear-appeal in the enemy-listening sign.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Douglas Aircraft Company, War Production Drive (cartoons by Lee Morehouse)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Labor, Home front, Security and surveillance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Douglas Aircraft Company. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-461 (NAID 513931).
Text on the object
BE SILENT THE ENEMY IS LISTENING NO SMOKING CONSERVE MATERIAL WASTE BUY WAR BONDS HERE SWISH -LATE AGAIN- -NEWS- JAPS TAKE [illegible] - AND DO THEY RAISE HELL ! WHEN THE WAR NEWS IS BAD ! [emblem: DOUGLAS WAR PRODUCTION DRIVE AIRCRAFT] [signature: LEE MOREHOUSE, ILLUSTRATED PARTS CATALOG] W 100 [on badges: 200 / 30; 686]
