Content note: Caricature of a Japanese soldier disguised as a fisherman (1912 cartoon). This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Keep off! Monroe doctrine" (T. E. Powers, 1912)
Uncle Sam lifts the sombrero off a squatting "fisherman" at Magdalena Bay and finds a Japanese soldier with a bayonetted rifle, a line hung in the water and a can of cartridges labelled "Bait", and orders him off with "Git!". Fishing is drawn as a cover for a military landing, the claim that drove the 1912 scare.
- Date
- 1912
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Thomas E. Powers, newspaper cartoonist (publishing paper not stated in the LOC record)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Taft Administration
- Leader
- William Howard Taft
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published in the U.S. in 1912; LOC: no known restrictions on publication, no renewal in Copyright Office)
T. E. Powers, "Keep off! Monroe doctrine", 1912; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon; LC-USZ62-85448
Text on the object
[speech balloon, inset circle at upper left, Uncle Sam speaking] A FISHERMAN, I WONDER IF HE KNOWS THIS LAND IS POSTED [inset ground] MEXICO [speech balloon, upper right, Uncle Sam] GIT! [sign] KEEP OFF! MUNROE DOCTRINE [water] MAGDALENA BAY [can of cartridges] BAIT [signature, lower left] T.E. POWERS
Read from the 1085 x 1536 px Library of Congress master (a film-copy negative scan). The sign reads "MUNROE" as printed, a variant spelling kept as drawn.
