Content note: Racial caricature of a Japanese officer with exaggerated yellow skin and bared teeth, shown being crushed in a press. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Beat the promise: You and I put the squeeze on the Japanese!
Two workers turn the wheel of a press whose plates read PUT THE SQUEEZE ON THE JAPANESE, crushing a caricatured Japanese officer with exaggerated yellow skin and bared teeth, beside the slogan BEAT THE PROMISE followed by Morse dash-dot-dot-dot (B). 'You and I' addresses the viewer as a co-worker. The technique is a racial caricature of the enemy (name-calling) joined to a direct appeal to join the effort.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Unnamed issuer (no sponsor printed)
- 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
- War and the military, Home front, Race and ethnicity
- 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)
Unnamed issuer (no sponsor printed). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-471 (NAID 513941).
Text on the object
YOU AND I PUT THE SQUEEZE ON THE JAPANESE! BEAT THE PROMISE — • • • [imprint:] LITHO IN U.S.A. FORM 188219
