---
title: 'Title card from a captured Japanese newsreel: the Emperor commends the Xuzhou campaign (May 1938)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xuzhou-imperial-commendation-newsreel-card-1938/
description: 'White vertical Japanese lettering on a dark ground, five columns: a date, then the announcement that the Emperor, as supreme commander, commends the…'
section: Collection
---

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

[![Title card from a captured Japanese newsreel: the Emperor commends the Xuzhou campaign (May 1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/xuzhou-imperial-commendation-newsreel-card-1938.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/xuzhou-imperial-commendation-newsreel-card-1938.jpg)

# Title card from a captured Japanese newsreel: the Emperor commends the Xuzhou campaign (May 1938)

White vertical Japanese lettering on a dark ground, five columns: a date, then the announcement that the Emperor, as supreme commander, commends the Xuzhou battle and gives words to the officers and men. The card announces the sovereign's praise as the news item itself (testimonial: the highest authority's approval is offered as the validation of the campaign).

## Text on the object

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

```
五月二十五日
大元帥陛下
徐州戦を御嘉賞
將兵に
御言葉を賜ふ
```

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

```
25 May. His Majesty the Generalissimo commends the Xuzhou battle and bestows words upon the officers and men.
```

Five vertical columns, read right to left. The last-column reading 御言葉 is from a blurred frame and is the likely reading; 大元帥 is the Emperor's title as supreme commander.

[← Bank Melli Iran 500 rials (five Pahlavi) note with Reza Shah, 1317 (1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bank-melli-500-rials-reza-shah-1938/) ['Askari wetu washinda Wajapani / Smash the Japs!' (British poster for East Africa) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/askari-wetu-smash-the-japs-1939/)

## Using the same techniques

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- [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/) (Great Seljuk Empire · 1099 · Testimonial)
- [J'Accuse...! Lettre au Président de la République (J'Accuse...! Letter to the President of the Republic), L'Aurore, 13 January 1898](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jaccuse-laurore-front-page-1898/) (France · Jan 13, 1898 · Testimonial). Content note: Newspaper page about a wrongful-conviction controversy; the letter text refers to a prisoner held in torture-like conditions on Devil's Island; no graphic imagery.
- [The Speaker, front page 'The Week', 22 June 1901: Hobhouse report and 'methods of barbarism'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/speaker-hobhouse-camps-methods-of-barbarism-1901/) (United Kingdom · Jun 22, 1901 · Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Text on deaths of women and children in British camps in South Africa, with mortality rates.
- ["The War with Japan" (Puck cover, 23 October 1907)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/puck-the-war-with-japan-1907/) (United States · Oct 23, 1907 · Testimonial, Scapegoating)
- [Bande Mataram (Paris), memorial page to Madan Lal Dhingra, 17 August 1909](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bande-mataram-paris-dhingra-memorial-1909/) (France · Aug 17, 1909 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Indian Opinion (Phoenix, Natal), page 266: 'Natal Mercury's Comments' and 'The Durban Conference' during the coal-mine strike, 29 October 1913](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/indian-opinion-natal-mercury-durban-conference-1913/) (Union of South Africa · Oct 29, 1913 · Testimonial)
- ['Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.' Lord Kitchener postcard (about 1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kitchener-duty-bravely-postcard/) (United Kingdom · 1914 · Testimonial, Transfer)