Content note: Racial caricature of Japanese soldiers with yellow-green faces aiming rifles at the viewer; ethnic slur ('Japs') in the text. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Murder in Cold Blood: Let's Force the Japs to Pay (TCOP Poster Studio)
Three soldiers in Japanese-style caps and puttees, drawn with yellow-green faces and squinting eyes, aim rifles straight at the viewer in front of a wrecked aircraft carrying a white star under the headline 'Murder in cold blood.' The base line reads 'Let's force the Japs to pay. Make every bullet grade A.' The guns are pointed at the audience, and the remedy offered is better ammunition production.
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- TCOP Poster Studio (credit as printed); war-plant ammunition-quality poster, sponsor not otherwise stated
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-callingFear appeal
- 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 534789, local id 179-WP-938), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain in the US (published 1942 without a copyright notice); NARA: No Copyright - United States
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 534789, 179-WP-938)
Text on the object
MURDER IN COLD BLOOD LET'S FORCE THE JAPS TO PAY. MAKE EVERY BULLET GRADE 'A' TCOP POSTER STUDIO
Capitalisation follows the printed lines; 'EVERY' is underlined on the poster.
