Content note: A 1942 American newspaper cartoon showing Japan as a bespectacled, sabre-carrying army officer in the exaggerated caricature style of the period, choking on a dragon labelled The China Incident. This object is shown as it was published. Why

Five Years of Dragon-Swallowing -- and no end in sight!

A Japanese army officer labelled "Japan", drawn with round glasses and sabre, is choking as he tries to swallow a dragon whose body is lettered "The China Incident". The cartoon quotes the euphemistic Japanese term for the war in China and shows it as indigestible. It argues the war has become a trap for Japan; Berryman's stance is his own.

Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

Euphemism / doublespeak

Date: July 7, 1942
Period: Second World War
Made by: Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Cartoon
Issuer type: Media
Regime: Roosevelt Administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: War and the military, Empire and colonialism
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 (NARA), Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work)
Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, 5743126 (NAID 5743126).