Content note: US wartime poster in Spanish with a racial caricature of a Japanese soldier and vignettes of violence, including a woman seized by a soldier, shown as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
![El Enemigo de la Humanidad [The Enemy of Humanity], 1941 US poster: A snarling, shirtless soldier with a blood-streaked](../images/us-ociaa-el-enemigo-de-la-humanidad-spanish-1941.jpg)
El Enemigo de la Humanidad [The Enemy of Humanity]
A snarling, shirtless soldier with a blood-streaked bayonet dominates the sheet, beside four vignettes (Formosa 1895, Korea 1910, China 1937, United States 1941) each labelled with a single charge: tyranny, aggression, terror, treachery. The tell: the headline labels a whole enemy as humanity's enemy (name-calling), the burning-town scenes aim at fear, and a hand-picked list of Japanese actions stands for the whole record (card-stacking).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Washington, D.C.
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- 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, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (US federal government work)
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. National Archives and Records Administration, NAID 44268151, local identifier 44-PF-826.
Text on the object
EL ENEMIGO DE LA HUMANIDAD FORMOSA—1895 TIRANÍA . . . El gobierno japonés dió aquí una muestra de usurpación esclavizando al pueblo indefenso mediante su poderío militar. COREA—1910 AGRESIÓN . . . Aquí, los caciques militares japoneses emplearon nuevamente la fuerza bruta como instrumento de política nacional para anexarse territorio. CHINA—1937 TERROR . . . La soldadesca japonesa desbordó su crueldad en la violación y ultraje de Nanking, el incidente más oprobioso de la guerra contra China. ESTADOS UNIDOS—1941 TRAICIÓN . . . El Japón se lanza nuevamente a la guerra, pero no con lealtad, sino con alevosía, atacando a la flota de los Estados Unidos en Pearl Harbor. Publicada por el Coordinador de Asuntos Interamericanos, Washington, E. U. A.
THE ENEMY OF HUMANITY FORMOSA—1895 TYRANNY . . . The Japanese government here gave a demonstration of usurpation, enslaving the defenseless people through its military power. KOREA—1910 AGGRESSION . . . Here, the Japanese military chiefs again used brute force as an instrument of national policy to annex territory. CHINA—1937 TERROR . . . The Japanese soldiery gave full vent to its cruelty in the rape and outrage of Nanking, the most opprobrious incident of the war against China. UNITED STATES—1941 TREACHERY . . . Japan hurls itself once more into war, but not with loyalty, rather with treachery, attacking the fleet of the United States at Pearl Harbor. Published by the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Washington, U.S.A.
