---
title: 'Hon. Spy Say: Thanks for the Can You Throw Away!'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hon-spy-say-thanks-for-the-can-1943/
description: On a black ground a grinning caricature in a Japanese army cap, with round spectacles, squinting eyes and bared teeth, speaks from beside a cream card in…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Racial caricature of a Japanese soldier with mock-pidgin speech. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Hon. Spy Say: Thanks for the Can You Throw Away!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hon-spy-say-thanks-for-the-can-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hon-spy-say-thanks-for-the-can-1943.jpg)

# Hon. Spy Say: Thanks for the Can You Throw Away!

On a black ground a grinning caricature in a Japanese army cap, with round spectacles, squinting eyes and bared teeth, speaks from beside a cream card in red script: 'Hon. spy say: Thanks for the can you throw away!' The mock-pidgin 'Hon.' and the distorted face are the label, and the enemy uniform is attached to an act of household waste so that discarding a can reads as helping the enemy.

## Text on the object

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

```
HON. SPY SAY:

Thanks
for the Can
you throw away!

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE   16—[illegible]—1
```

The imprint number at the lower right is partly legible; digits after '16—' are not transcribed. Library stamps and pencil notes ('Documents Room', 'Map Case', 'U.S. President EMO War production board') are annotations added by the library, not printed text.

[← Himmler-head forgery of the 6-pfennig Deutsches Reich stamp](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/himmler-stamp-forgery-1943/) [Hurry That Ship Along, Will You? And Give Us Another Crack at the Japs! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hurry-that-ship-along-navy-iid-1943/)

## 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)