Content note: Racialised caricature of a Japanese soldier stepping on Australia. This object is shown as it was published. Why
'He's coming south. It's fight, work or perish' (Australian Department of Information)
A caricatured Japanese soldier with a submachine gun strides across a globe from a rising-sun flag, his boot poised over Australia. The headline 'He's coming south' and the slogan 'It's fight, work or perish' stage an imminent invasion and offer wartime effort as the only protection.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Information
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Curtin Government
- Leader
- John Curtin
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Australian War Memorial, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (AWM: 'Copyright expired - public domain'; Public Domain Mark)
Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Information, 1942. Australian War Memorial, ARTV09225.
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
HE'S COMING SOUTH It's fight work or perish
The caption bar 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and the accession number ARTV09225 at the foot are the museum's, not the poster's.
