---
title: Buy This Man a Hari-Kari Kit on December 7, 1944
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/buy-this-man-a-hari-kari-kit-1944/
description: A small cartoon soldier with round glasses, bared teeth and a peaked cap stands in front of an itemised bill for a 'Hari-Kari Kit' (dagger, kneeling…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Cartoon Japanese soldier with bared teeth beside a joke bill for a suicide kit. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Buy This Man a Hari-Kari Kit on December 7, 1944](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/buy-this-man-a-hari-kari-kit-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/buy-this-man-a-hari-kari-kit-1944.jpg)

# Buy This Man a Hari-Kari Kit on December 7, 1944

A small cartoon soldier with round glasses, bared teeth and a peaked cap stands in front of an itemised bill for a 'Hari-Kari Kit' (dagger, kneeling pillow, basin, towel, total $75.00), under the line 'Buy EXTRA War Bonds on Pearl Harbor Day!'. The bond price is mapped onto a joke about the enemy's death by suicide, and the caricature stands for the whole nation.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
BUY THIS MAN A
HARI-KARI KIT
ON DECEMBER 7, 1944

Pearl Handle Dagger $44.50
Velvet kneeling Pillow 9.98
Handy enamel Basin 20.00
Genuine turkish towel .52
TOTAL $75.00

Buy EXTRA War Bonds on
PEARL HARBOR DAY!
```

No imprint, signature or issuer text found on the scan.

[← Tango no sekku (Boys' Day) carp-banner leaflet (I07-J-1)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/boys-day-carp-banners-leaflet-1944/) ['Denryoku wa senryoku!' (Electric Power Is Military Power!) home-front poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/electric-power-is-military-power-poster-1944/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)