---
title: Jappy So-o-o Happy When This Happens to You (Navy Department Safety Poster)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jappy-so-o-o-happy-navy-safety-poster-1943/
description: A large caricature face, the cap band lettered 'Tojo', shows thick round glasses, a toothbrush moustache and bared teeth beside the line 'Jappy so-o-o…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Racial caricature of a Japanese face labelled 'Tojo', with an ethnic slur ('Jappy'). This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Jappy So-o-o Happy When This Happens to You (Navy Department Safety Poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/jappy-so-o-o-happy-navy-safety-poster-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/jappy-so-o-o-happy-navy-safety-poster-1943.jpg)

# Jappy So-o-o Happy When This Happens to You (Navy Department Safety Poster)

A large caricature face, the cap band lettered 'Tojo', shows thick round glasses, a toothbrush moustache and bared teeth beside the line 'Jappy so-o-o happy when this happens to you', above a small drawing of two cars colliding. A driving-safety warning is carried by pasting the enemy leader's grin and a stereotyped face onto an ordinary traffic accident.

## Text on the object

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

```
TOJO

JAPPY
SO-O-O
HAPPY
WHEN
THIS
HAPPENS
TO
YOU

WATCH OUT FOR THE DRIVER
AHEAD, THE DRIVER BEHIND
AND THE ONE AROUND THE
CORNER!

NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER

(Artist's signature, lower right: Chuck Thorndike)
```

NARA's catalog title reads 'Happen'; the poster reads 'Happens'.

[← Japanese Relocation (Office of War Information film), opening text card](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japanese-relocation-owi-film-title-card-1943/) [Japs Execute Doolittle Men. We'll Pay You Back Tojo →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japs-execute-doolittle-men-payroll-savings-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)