---
title: 'U.N. Day Poster #12: Knowledge Promotes the Growth of a Nation''s Spirit and Material Life (Japanese poster distributed in Asia)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-12-knowledge-promotes-growth-japanese-1953/
description: A photograph of three children in hats at a wall bearing a hand-lettered Spanish word list; one child writes on a sheet.
section: Collection
---

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3. U.N. Day Poster #12: Knowledge Promotes the Growth of a Nation's

[![U.N. Day Poster #12: Knowledge Promotes the Growth of a Nation's Spirit and Material Life, 1953 US poster: A photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/un-day-poster-12-knowledge-promotes-growth-japanese-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/un-day-poster-12-knowledge-promotes-growth-japanese-1953.jpg)

# U.N. Day Poster #12: Knowledge Promotes the Growth of a Nation's Spirit and Material Life (Japanese poster distributed in Asia)

A photograph of three children in hats at a wall bearing a hand-lettered Spanish word list; one child writes on a sheet. Japanese text says knowledge promotes a nation's spiritual and material growth, that education underlies all human progress, and that UNESCO and the ILO are raising the intellectual level of backward countries. The tell is glittering-generalities: education, progress and growth are broad approved values attached to the UN agencies named.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
知識は国民の精神、物質両方面の成長を促進させる。

教育は、人類のあらゆる進歩の基礎である。初等教育は読み書き算術を教え、基礎教育は我々にその環境を克服する智恵を授ける。又技術教育、高等教育は技術者、教育者及び行政官を養成する。ユネスコ並びにILO(国際労働機構)は、後進国の知的水準を引上げる役割を果しつつある。

12
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Knowledge promotes the growth of a nation's spirit and material side alike.

Education is the foundation of all human progress. Primary education teaches reading, writing and arithmetic; basic education gives us the wisdom to overcome our environment. Technical education and higher education train technicians, educators and administrators. UNESCO and the ILO (International Labour Organization) are playing a role in raising the intellectual level of backward (late-advancing) countries.

12
```

[← よりよい方法で病気と戦うために、現地の人々を訓練する事が出来る。 (To fight disease by better methods, local people can be trained) (Japanese poster distributed in Asia, U.N. Day Poster #11)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-11-training-local-health-staff-japanese-1953/) [U.N. Day Poster #13: UN Technical Assistance Is Sometimes Extremely Simple (Japanese poster distributed in Asia) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-13-simple-technical-assistance-scythe-japanese-1953/)

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