Content note: Ethnic slur ('Japs') in the text and a small caricature of a fleeing Japanese figure. This object is shown as it was published. Why

Ouch! The Japs Don't Like Mosquitoes

A Navy recruiting poster sets a speech bubble beside a portrait of a decorated lieutenant and a PT boat at speed: 'Ouch! The Japs don't like mosquitoes, especially the PT variety.' A small cartoon in the bubble shows a spectacled figure fleeing a mosquito in a cap. The slur and the insect metaphor stand in for the enemy, and the officer's portrait and ribbons lend the recruiting appeal his standing.

Date: 1942
Period: Second World War
Made by: U.S. Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel (recruiting poster no. 441, printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Military
Regime: Roosevelt Administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Recruit
Themes: War and the military, Race and ethnicity
Event: World War II
Techniques: Name-calling Transfer
Regime: Roosevelt administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Northwestern University Libraries, World War II Poster Collection (object no. IX.30), retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government publication; Northwestern: No Copyright - United States)
Northwestern University Libraries, World War II Poster Collection (Government & Geographic Information Collection); the Libraries ask that users cite the item URL and Northwestern University Libraries.

Text on the object

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

Ouch! The Japs don't like mosquitoes —
especially the PT variety, with men like Lieutenant Bulkeley
at the wheel and a picked crew shooting "stingers" into the
sides of their warships and merchantmen.
If you like to be where the attack starts — there's a place for
you right now in the U. S. Navy. Go to your nearest Navy
Recruiting Station today!

No. 441
NRB—32682—6-13-42—10M.

'you' is italic in the original. A faint pencil annotation at the lower right is a library note, not printed text, and is not transcribed.