Content note: Animated caricature of a Japanese soldier with exaggerated buck teeth and squint, holding a sword. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Private Snafu: Operation Snafu, frame of a sword-carrying Japanese soldier caricature
Black-and-white animated frame: a short figure in a peaked cap and dark tunic, with round glasses, a toothbrush moustache, a squint and large protruding buck teeth, grins and holds a drawn sword in front of a painted view of Mount Fuji. The face is drawn as a caricature of a Japanese soldier; the exaggerated teeth and eyes do the labelling (name-calling by image).
- Date
- December 22, 1945
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. War Department (Army First Motion Picture Unit); animated by Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Friz Freleng
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Film stills
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Internet Archive collection 'private-snafu-collection' (Operation Snafu, 1945), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- U.S. federal work (War Dept film); Internet Archive Public Domain Mark 1.0
U.S. War Department (First Motion Picture Unit), animated by Warner Bros. Cartoons; Internet Archive collection 'private-snafu-collection'
Text on the object
No legible text on this object.
A hanging scroll at the left edge carries a column of Japanese calligraphy that is too small and stylised to read; no other lettering is present.
