---
title: '''We''ll take care of the Japs, mates, if you''ll take care of our food'' (Australian food-hygiene poster)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/well-take-care-of-the-japs-mates-australia-1943/
description: A slouch-hatted Australian soldier in jungle green with fixed bayonet stands in tall grass under a red banner reading "We'll take care of the Japs…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Ethnic slur ('Japs') in the slogan. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!['We'll take care of the Japs, mates, if you'll take care of our food' (Australian food-hygiene poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/well-take-care-of-the-japs-mates-australia-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/well-take-care-of-the-japs-mates-australia-1943.jpg)

# 'We'll take care of the Japs, mates, if you'll take care of our food' (Australian food-hygiene poster)

A slouch-hatted Australian soldier in jungle green with fixed bayonet stands in tall grass under a red banner reading "We'll take care of the Japs, mates, if you'll take care of our food". The colloquial 'mates' and the infantryman's voice speak to food handlers as equals, and the soldier's role is lent to a message about clean food.

## Text on the object

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

```
We'll take care
of the Japs, mates,
if you'll take care
of our food
Dirt can be deadlier
than bullets –
It's up to us to send
the fighting men
WHOLESOME
FOOD
```

Marks in the margins (a small printed mark at top left and lower right, and the artist's mark at lower left) are illegible. The caption bar 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and the accession number at the foot are the museum's.

[← "We'll Lick 'Em - Just Give Us the Stuff!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/well-lick-em-give-us-the-stuff-1943/) ['Wer hatte recht?' ('Who was right?') (Allied leaflet to Germany) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/wer-hatte-recht-raf-leaflet-1943/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (France · 1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- ['Frohe Weihnachten und glückliches Neujahr' Austro-Hungarian Christmas postcard (1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/frohe-weihnachten-kriegsjahr-postcard-1914/) (Austria Hungary · 1914 · Plain folks)
- ['Get a move on old man!' (Harry J. Weston, Sydney)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/australia-get-a-move-on-1915/) (Australia · 1915 · Plain folks)
- [Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917/) (Austria Hungary · 1917 · Plain folks)
- ["Mora Dravca vsahniti" plebiscite postcard no. 9 (The Drava Must Dry Up)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mora-dravca-vsahniti-plebiscite-postcard-1920/) (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes · 1920 · Plain folks)
- [Город — мануфактуру, деревня — хлеб (Town: Manufactured Goods; Village: Bread)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kustodiev-city-manufactures-village-bread-1925/) (Soviet Union · 1925 · Plain folks)
- [l'Unità, January 1928: 'Resistere alla seconda ondata di riduzione dei salari! SCIOPERATE!' (front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/l-unita-sciopero-salari-1928/) (Fascist Italy · Jan 1928 · Plain folks, Name-calling). Content note: Clandestine Communist front page whose strike slogan uses a vulgar word ('A salario di merda, lavoro di merda!'), shown as printed.
- [Gandhi spins while addressing a crowd (1930)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gandhi-spinning-1930/) (British India · 1930 · Plain folks, Transfer)