Content note: Racial caricature of a Japanese officer with exaggerated lips and teeth, shown as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Our next boss? Not if we keep 'em firing!
Corporate war-production poster: a caricatured Japanese general with exaggerated lips and teeth, sword drawn, stands beside the U.S. Capitol flying a rising-sun flag, under the headline 'Our next boss?' and the line 'Not if we keep 'em firing!'. A tank and a fighter plane sit in the foot band. The enemy is drawn as a racial caricature and the image implies occupation of Washington, a fear-appeal that asks workers to keep up output.
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-1486 (NAID 515151).
Text on the object
- OUR NEXT BOSS? NOT IF WE KEEP 'EM FIRING! [imprint: COPYRIGHT, 1942 - OLDSMOBILE DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, LANSING, MICHIGAN] [imprint: LITHO. IN U.S.A. -18-]
