Content note: Racial caricature of a Japanese man holding a bloodied dagger, with mock-pidgin speech. This object is shown as it was published. Why
'"Honorable thanks" ABSENTEE' (Australian silkscreen poster, General Motors Holden)
A bowing, bespectacled caricature of a Japanese man in tailcoat and top hat tips his hat with one hand while a dagger drips blood from the other behind his back. The mock-courteous pidgin 'Honorable thanks' addressed to 'ABSENTEE' casts a worker's missed shift as a favour to the enemy.
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- General Motors-Holden's, South Australia (industrial-morale silkscreen poster; maker unknown)
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Curtin Government
- Leader
- John Curtin
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-callingFear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Australian War Memorial, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (AWM: 'Copyright expired - public domain'; Public Domain Mark)
General Motors-Holden's / SEF Silkscreen, South Australia, 1942-43 (maker unknown). Australian War Memorial, ARTV00053.
Text on the object
"Honorable thanks" ABSENTEE S E F / 3 6 / SCREEN
Printer's mark at the foot ('SEF/3 6/SCREEN') is partly legible. The caption bar 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and the accession number at the foot are the museum's; AWM's title spells the word 'Honourable', the poster 'Honorable'.
