---
title: Crosses in the Wake of Allied Blockade, Japan Times & Advertiser cartoon
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/coral-sea-crosses-japan-times-1942/
description: A newspaper cartoon titled 'Crosses in the Wake of Allied Blockade' shows a graveyard of crosses standing in water, each labelled with a British or…
section: Collection
---

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

[![Crosses in the Wake of Allied Blockade, Japan Times & Advertiser cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/coral-sea-crosses-japan-times-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/coral-sea-crosses-japan-times-1942.jpg)

# Crosses in the Wake of Allied Blockade, Japan Times & Advertiser cartoon

A newspaper cartoon titled 'Crosses in the Wake of Allied Blockade' shows a graveyard of crosses standing in water, each labelled with a British or American warship, while a top-hatted Uncle Sam figure sets up a cross marked U.S.S. California. Accurate British losses (Prince of Wales, Repulse, Hermes, Cornwall, Dorsetshire) share the plot with U.S. ships, so the list works as a selected tally in which the confirmed entries lend credibility to the disputed ones.

- **Date:** May 13, 1942
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** The Japan Times & Advertiser, Tokyo (English-language daily; the cartoon credits no individual artist)
- **Region:** [East Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=east-asia)
- **Country:** [Empire of Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=empire-of-japan)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Showa Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=showa-japan)
- **Leader:** [Hideki Tojo](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=hideki-tojo)
- **Audience:** [Foreign public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=foreign-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Regime:** [Empire of Japan, 1937 to 1945](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/)
- **Leader:** [Hideki Tōjō](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/#hideki-tojo)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (scanned from Cressman, 'That Gallant Ship USS Yorktown (CV-5)', 2004, p. 118)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coral_Sea_Japan_Times_cartoon.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain: Japanese newspaper work (organisational), pub. 1942; expired in Japan by 1996 (PD-1996) The Japan Times & Advertiser, 13 May 1942; scan from Cressman (2004) via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

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

```
[masthead, partly cropped] TIMES & ADVERTISER, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1942

[title] Crosses in the Wake of Allied Blockade

[crosses, left to right] H.M.S. HERMES [partly cropped]; H.M.S. DORSETSHIRE; H.M.S. CORNWALL; H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES; H.M.S. REPULSE; U.S.S. SARATOGA; U.S.S. CALIFORNIA; [illegible prefix] YORKTOWN

[map lettering] [partly illegible] ...N OCEAN; CORAL SEA
```

Read from a 960-px reproduction of a halftone book scan. The prefixes on the smaller crosses are small and partly obscured; the Hermes cross is cut by the left edge. The prefix on the Yorktown cross is not clearly legible and is marked [illegible prefix].

[← 'Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry' (exclusion order posted in San Francisco)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exclusion-order-japanese-ancestry-1942/) [Groot Ruimte-Economie (VNV lecture poster, Ostend) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vnv-groot-ruimte-economie-oostende-1942/)

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- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (Kingdom of England · 1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [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)
- [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)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Peru · Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (United States · May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (United States · 1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (German Empire · Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (United States · May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.