---
title: '"Jap Trap": Material Conservation (Douglas Aircraft poster)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jap-trap-douglas-material-conservation-1942/
description: A bucktoothed rat in round glasses, a rising-sun cap flying off his head, is caught by the jaws of a mousetrap marked 'Material Conservation'; the title…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Ethnic slur ('Jap') in the title; the Japanese enemy is drawn as a bucktoothed rat in a trap. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["Jap Trap": Material Conservation (Douglas Aircraft poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/jap-trap-douglas-material-conservation-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/jap-trap-douglas-material-conservation-1942.jpg)

# "Jap Trap": Material Conservation (Douglas Aircraft poster)

A bucktoothed rat in round glasses, a rising-sun cap flying off his head, is caught by the jaws of a mousetrap marked 'Material Conservation'; the title reads '"Jap Trap".' Saving materials on a factory floor is staged as a trap for a verminous Japanese figure, so the slur and the animal do the arguing.

## Text on the object

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

```
MATERIAL
CONSERVATION

"JAP TRAP"

One of a series designed by Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., under its material conservation program.

(Top right, faint artist signature: Campbell)
```

The signature at upper right is faint in this scan; read as 'Campbell' with moderate confidence.

[← Neen, Coen, ook wij burgers zullen niet dispereeren! (No, Coen, we citizens too shall not despair!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/indie-weerbaar-neen-coen-1942/) [Nippon Eigasha Djawa newsreel "Japan conquers South-East Asia", date card "15 FEBRUARI 2602" →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japan-verovert-zuidoost-azie-singapore-1942/)

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