Content note: Caricature of a Japanese officer with exaggerated teeth and round glasses, the racialised wartime depiction, with the slur-adjacent phrase 'son-of-a-sun' in the headline. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Let's get in and pitch to smash the son-of-a-sun
Cartoon of a crowd of factory workers hurling artillery shells at a fleeing caricatured Japanese officer with round glasses, bared teeth and a rising-sun cap badge, with the slogan 'Let's go everybody - keep 'em firing!' The enemy is drawn as a grimacing caricature (name-calling) and the production workers appear as ordinary men acting together (plain-folks).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Oldsmobile Division, General Motors Corporation
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- 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, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Oldsmobile Division, General Motors Corporation. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1261 (NAID 514867).
Text on the object
LET'S GET IN AND PITCH- TO SMASH THE SON-OF-A-SUN! LET'S GO EVERYBODY -KEEP 'EM FIRING! [imprint:] COPYRIGHT, 1942 - OLDSMOBILE DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, LANSING, MICHIGAN -10- LITHO IN U. S. A.
