'保障海洋自由' [Ensuring Freedom of the Seas], 1942 US poster: A photograph of a US battleship firing its main guns, with smoke

'保障海洋自由' [Ensuring Freedom of the Seas] (Ensuring Freedom of the Seas [Chinese])

A photograph of a US battleship firing its main guns, with smoke and crew in the foreground, sits above a Chinese text block, a US flag and a portrait of President Roosevelt, inside a blue border of stars. The headline puts the virtue phrase 'freedom of the seas' over a warship firing (glittering generalities), the flag and portrait lend authority (transfer), and the text gives only US ship counts and costs (card-stacking).

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer Card stacking Glittering generalities

Date: 1942
Period: Second World War
Made by: Office of War Information (OWI), U.S. Government (attributed from the NARA RG 44 series; no issuer imprint printed on the sheet)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Roosevelt Administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Theme: 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 and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work, NARA RG 44 OWI series)
Office of War Information, 1942-1945. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44 (NAID 44268445, 44-PF-R-5d).

Text on the object

Original (Chinese (traditional characters)) · read from the image, not independently checked

保障海洋自由

剛加入服務的美海軍無畏艦。 圖示她十六寸口大砲
轟發,砲彈每個一噸重,射程二十六里。 這是剛造成的
同等級無畏艦五艘之一,每船需費六千五百萬元,是世界
設備最好,戰鬥力最強的戰船。 美海軍現有戰船三百四
十三艘,再加上趕造中的三百四十五艘,任何封鎖海洋的
野心可以休矣!

羅斯福總統

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

Ensuring Freedom of the Seas

A battleship of the US Navy that has just entered service. The picture shows her 16-inch guns firing; each shell weighs one ton and the range is twenty-six li. She is one of five newly built ships of the same class, each costing 65 million dollars, the best-equipped and most powerful fighting ships in the world. The US Navy now has 343 warships, with 345 more being rushed to completion; any ambition to blockade the seas can be given up!

President Roosevelt