---
title: 'Show-down: only work can make US strong!'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/showdown-only-work-can-make-us-strong-1942/
description: 'Home-front work-incentive poster: caricatured figures of a Japanese officer (buck teeth, rising-sun cap badge) and a German officer (swastika armband.'
section: Collection
---

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2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Show-down: only work can make US strong!

**Content note:** Caricature of a Japanese officer (exaggerated teeth and features) and a German officer, both shown whipping workers; printed as issued. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Show-down: only work can make US strong!, 1942 US poster: Home-front work-incentive poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/showdown-only-work-can-make-us-strong-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/showdown-only-work-can-make-us-strong-1942.jpg)

# Show-down: only work can make US strong!

Home-front work-incentive poster: caricatured figures of a Japanese officer (buck teeth, rising-sun cap badge) and a German officer (swastika armband, toothbrush moustache) crack whips over a line of bent workers in front of a factory. Below, text asks whether the two leaders can drive their people harder than Americans will work. The enemy is drawn as an overseer; the slogan puns 'US' on an Uncle Sam hat.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
SHOW-
DOWN
HERE IS THE SHOWDOWN:
Can Hitler and Hirohito drive their people to work harder than
we are willing to work?
There is no one in America to drive us. We must drive ourselves.
What is your answer, fellow workers?
-only Work
can make
US
STRONG !
[imprint: COPYRIGHT 1942 BY THE GRISWOLD-ESHLEMAN CO. LITHO U.S.A.]
```

[← Show your muscle! More production](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/show-your-muscle-more-production-1942/) [Produce for Victory: We're doing it →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/showing-the-cockeyed-world-produce-for-victory-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)