Content note: Racial caricature of a Japanese face labelled 'Tojo', with an ethnic slur ('Jappy'). This object is shown as it was published. Why
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.
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Navy Department (printed banner 'Navy Department Safety Poster'); artist signed Chuck Thorndike
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 514676, local id 44-PA-1140), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. federal work; NARA-held; Commons tag PD-USGov-Treasury)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 514676, 44-PA-1140)
Text on the object
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'.
