Content note: Caricatured Japanese, Italian and German leaders; the Japanese figure has racialised features. This object is shown as it was published. Why
The Jig is Up If You Keep Buying War Bonds
U.S. war bonds poster: the letters J, I and G carry the rest of the names of Japan, Italy and Germany ('APAN', 'TALY', 'ERMANY'), under caricatured heads of a Japanese officer (round glasses, bared teeth), a scowling Mussolini-type figure and a Hitler-type figure in a swastika cap. Text: 'The Jig is up! If you keep buying war bonds'. The leaders are reduced to grotesques (name-calling), the Japanese one with racialised features.
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Treasury Department campaign
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Text on the object
The JIG IS UP! IF YOU KEEP Buying WAR BONDS...- (inside the letters:) APAN / TALY / ERMANY 2nd Prize Suggested By J.L. Callahan Dept. 430 Hodgins (signature, lower right)
The J, I and G each contain the remainder of a country name, so the letter itself is the initial (J-APAN, I-TALY, G-ERMANY). 'Buying' is in outlined script. The signature is handwritten and uncertain.
