Content note: Cartoon caricatures of a Japanese officer (exaggerated teeth, squint, glasses) and a German officer laughing, with blood dripping from their hands. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Ha! Ha! Ha! Materials wasted... means lives wasted!
Caricatures of a Japanese officer and a German officer in Nazi-style uniform laugh over a 'Spy-o-gram' reading that careless waste of materials aids the Axis; both have blood dripping from their hands. The tell is the blame placed on the Axis leaders as beneficiaries of waste, in racial caricature, with the slogan tying waste to lives lost. The Japanese figure uses exaggerated teeth, squint and glasses.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Victory-Builders Division, Bressler Editorial Cartoons, Inc. (artist Packer)
- 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
- Home front, War and the military, 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)
Victory-Builders Division, Bressler Editorial Cartoons, Inc.. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-926 (NAID 514432).
Text on the object
HA! HA! HA! SPY-O-GRAM CARELESS WASTE OF MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES IN U.S. INDUSTRIES AIDING AXIS MATERIALS WASTED... MEANS LIVES WASTED! [signature:] Packer [imprint:] [illegible] Copyright "Victory-Builders" Division Bressler Editorial Cartoons, Inc., New York
