U.N. Day Poster #16: Sowing Seeds of Peace in Human Hearts, 1953 US poster: A photograph of a barefoot man in a turban

U.N. Day Poster #16: Sowing Seeds of Peace in Human Hearts (Japanese poster distributed in Asia)

A photograph of a barefoot man in a turban and loose clothing standing in a stubble field with a cloth bundle at his shoulder. Japanese text says sowing the seeds of peace in human hearts is one aim of technical assistance, that peace can be kept only when people have food and clothing, and that the UN programme seeks to lighten unhappiness, want and overwork. The tell is glittering-generalities: peace, dignity and satisfaction are linked to the programme through a sowing metaphor.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Glittering generalities

Date: September 14, 1953
Period: Cold War
Made by: U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Eisenhower Administration
Leader: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Theme: Economy and finance
Event: Cold War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, c. 1953. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5730118, 306-PPA-218).

Text on the object

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

又人間の心に平和の種子を播くことも、技術援助の目的の一つである。

衣食が足りてこそ、平和が維持出来る。人類の不幸と欠乏と、過労の重荷を軽くしようと云うのが国連技術援助計画の下で協力する国々の目的である。何んとなれば、芽は太陽の光りの下で、のびるように平和は人間としての満足感と威厳の中でのみ育つものである。

16

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

Sowing the seeds of peace in human hearts is also one of the aims of technical assistance.

Peace can be maintained only when there is enough food and clothing. The aim of the countries cooperating under the UN technical assistance programme is to lighten the burden of human unhappiness, want and overwork. For, just as a sprout stretches out in the light of the sun, peace grows only in human satisfaction and dignity.

16

The character read as 芽 (sprout) in the last sentence is unclear in the scan (it resembles 春); the sense 'sprout' is assumed from context.