Content note: Racial caricature of a fanged Japanese figure with a bloodied dagger, ethnic slur ('Jap') and mock-pidgin speech. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Tokio Kid Say: If Not Working Hard for "E's" (poster no. 714)
Under 'Tokio Kid say-', a fanged, bespectacled caricature in a rising-sun cap grips a bloodied dagger beside the speech 'If not working hard for "E's" making Jap so happy please thank you'; a card behind him reads 'Earn your E for victory.' Slack production is pinned on the enemy's pleasure, with the production award as the remedy.
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- 'Tokio Kid' plant-poster series (Douglas Aircraft Company character); small 'War Production Drive' emblem; issuer not otherwise printed
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Themes
- Labor, Home front, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 534594, local id 179-WP-743), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain in the US (published 1942 without a copyright notice); NARA: No Copyright - United States
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 534594, 179-WP-743)
Text on the object
TOKIO KID SAY- IF NOT WORKING HARD FOR "E'S" MAKING JAP- SO HAPPY PLEASE THANK YOU EARN YOU[R] E FOR V[ICTORY] POSTER NO. 714
The 'Earn your E for victory' card is partly hidden behind the figure, so the bracketed letters are inferred; a small emblem at the lower left and a small mark at the lower right are [illegible].
