Content note: A cartoon in which a giant boot descends on three caricatured Axis figures, including one with a swastika armband and one drawn with exaggerated caricatured features, as published. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Your Shoes Have Gone to War"
A giant booted foot descends on three tumbling caricatured Axis figures, one with a toothbrush moustache, forelock and swastika armband. A printed news item above reads that shoe rationing is necessary to guarantee adequate supplies for the armed forces. The tell is identity-fusion: the civilian's own shoes are cast as the weapon, tying a rationing rule to the war's outcome, while the enemy is rendered as ridiculous.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information (cartoon artwork; artist Charles Alston)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- 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 (NARA), RG 208, OWI Cartoon Artworks and Mockups (NAID 535594), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-41 (NAID 535611).
Text on the object
"SHOE RATIONING NECESSARY TO GUARANTEE ADEQUATE SUPPLIES FOR OUR ARMED FORCES"......NEWS ITEM "YOUR SHOES HAVE GONE TO WAR" alston for OWI 515022
