Content note: Racial caricature: a yellow-skinned, slit-eyed Japanese face crushed in an industrial press. This object is shown as it was published. Why
'Put the squeeze on the Japanese' (Australian industrial-effort poster, General Motors Holden)
A yellow-skinned, slit-eyed face with a wide-open mouth and a white cap is caught in the jaws of a black industrial press, with the words 'PUT THE SQUEEZE ON THE JAPANESE' in white block letters. The enemy is reduced to a grimacing mask and set under a machine, so factory output stands in for violence.
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- General Motors-Holden's, Melbourne (maker unknown)
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Curtin Government
- Leader
- John Curtin
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Australian War Memorial, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (AWM: 'Copyright expired - public domain'; Public Domain Mark)
General Motors-Holden's, Melbourne, 1939-45 (maker unknown). Australian War Memorial, ARTV00050.
Text on the object
PUT THE SQUEEZE ON THE JAPANESE
A small printer's or series mark at top left is illegible. The caption bar 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and the accession number at the foot are the museum's.
