---
title: 'Nap and Help a Jap: ''Careless Carl'' Greases His Truck'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nap-and-help-a-jap-careless-carl-1943/
description: A heavyset driver in blue overalls dozes against a tree with a straw in his mouth while an oil can and grease gun lie beside him and his truck waits on…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Ethnic slur in the slogan; the figure shown is an American driver. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Nap and Help a Jap: 'Careless Carl' Greases His Truck](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nap-and-help-a-jap-careless-carl-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nap-and-help-a-jap-careless-carl-1943.jpg)

# Nap and Help a Jap: 'Careless Carl' Greases His Truck

A heavyset driver in blue overalls dozes against a tree with a straw in his mouth while an oil can and grease gun lie beside him and his truck waits on the slope. The slogan 'Nap and help a Jap' uses the slur as a rhyme with 'nap' and turns a routine break into assistance to the enemy.

## Text on the object

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

```
NAP and
help a JAP

"CARELESS CARL"
greases his truck
```

No imprint or signature found on the scan; the date is undetermined (NARA: 1941-1945).

[← The More Women at Work the Sooner We Win!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/more-women-at-work-sooner-we-win-1943/) [Navy Men Who Buy War Bonds Help Break the Japs (Admiral Halsey) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/navy-men-war-bonds-halsey-1943/)

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- [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)