--- title: Then and now:national and ethnic labels for an enemy or a disease (US 1942, US 2020) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/ description: in both wartime America and pandemic America, a harm that came from abroad was given a national or ethnic label, and in both periods Americans of Asian… section: Then and now --- ![Illustration: a pre-1914 imperial intelligence-dossier collage of colonial telegraph logs, sepia field photography and empire maps.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-pre1914.jpg) [Then and now](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/) # Then and now:national and ethnic labels for an enemy or a disease (US 1942, US 2020) At a glance In both wartime America and pandemic America, a harm that came from abroad was given a national or ethnic label… - **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) - **Regime:** [Trump administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/trump-administration/), [Roosevelt administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/roosevelt-administration/) On this page - [Then: *All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!* (U.S., World War II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#then-all-the-ear-marks-of-a-sneaky-jap-u-s-world-war-ii) - [Now: "Chinese virus" and "Kung flu" (U.S., 2020)](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#now-chinese-virus-and-kung-flu-u-s-2020) - [Where they are alike](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#where-they-are-alike) - [Where they differ](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#where-they-differ) - [Positions on the record](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#positions-on-the-record) - [Same-method test](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#same-method-test) - [How to spot it](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#how-to-spot-it) - [Sources](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#sources) - [Images](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#images) - [Image gaps](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/ethnic-labels/#image-gaps) On this page > **Content note.** This page shows a World War II poster with an ethnic slur in its headline and quotes 2020 terms many Asian Americans found offensive. They are shown as they were, as evidence of the method. **In one line:** in both wartime America and pandemic America, a harm that came from abroad was given a national or ethnic label, and in both periods Americans of Asian descent who had nothing to do with the harm faced hostility. In 1942 that hostility became government policy; for 2020 the research shows an association in time with the label, not proof that the label caused it. The 1940s poster used an ethnic slur; the 2020 terms named a country of origin, and whether that is descriptive or stigmatising is itself disputed (see below). **The shared technique:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/). The archive's definition: "Attach a loaded label so the audience rejects the target without checking the claim." Both cases also carry a [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) element: the label reaches people far beyond the government or event it was aimed at. | | Then | Now | | --- | --- | --- | | **The item** | Poster, *All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!* | The terms "Chinese virus" (tweets, briefings) and "Kung flu" (rally speech) | | **When** | World War II; NARA dates it 1941–45 | 16 March 2020 onward | | **Who issued it** | A U.S. wartime plant-security poster, held in the Office of War Information's poster files | President Donald Trump | | **Government at the time** | President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) | President Donald Trump (Republican) | | **What was going on** | War with Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor | The first wave of COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China | | **What the state did next** | Executive Order 9066: forced removal and incarceration of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry | No state action against Asian Americans | ## Then: *All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!* (U.S., World War II) **Content note:** Ethnic slur against Japanese people in the headline. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap! (NARA 513778)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/all-the-earmarks-of-a-sneaky-jap-1943.jpg) *[All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/all-the-earmarks-of-a-sneaky-jap-1943/). U.S. wartime poster, 1941–45. Public domain.* A giant ear, drawn as the Japanese rising-sun flag, hangs over a shipyard. One worker starts to talk about his section; another hushes him. The instruction at the bottom is ordinary security advice: "Don't discuss your job!" The headline attaches a slur and the trait "sneaky" to a whole nationality. **What was going on.** Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. On 19 February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It led to the forced removal and incarceration of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of them U.S. citizens. Posters and films of the period often depicted Japanese people as a race rather than as an enemy government. ![Civilian exclusion order posted in 1942](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/exclusion-order-japanese-ancestry-1942.jpg) *['Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry' (exclusion order posted in San Francisco)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exclusion-order-japanese-ancestry-1942/). A U.S. Army exclusion order directing "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien" to report for removal, April 1942. Public domain.* ![Store window in Oakland with a large sign reading "I am an American", March 1942](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/images/then-now-ethnic-labels-lange-i-am-an-american-1942.jpg) *The closed Wanto Co. grocery at Eighth and Franklin Streets, Oakland, California, March 1942, with a sign reading "I am an American" that the owner, Tatsuro Matsuda, had put up on 8 December 1941. Photograph: Dorothea Lange, for the War Relocation Authority; Library of Congress. Public domain (U.S. government work).* **How the technique shows.** The poster's advice does not depend on who is listening, yet the label does the persuading. In 1983 a federal commission concluded that the incarceration was caused by "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership," not military necessity. In 1988 Congress apologised and paid each survivor $20,000. ## Now: "Chinese virus" and "Kung flu" (U.S., 2020) ![Vice President Pence speaking at the coronavirus task force briefing of 18 March 2020, with President Trump standing at left](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/images/then-now-ethnic-labels-white-house-briefing-2020-03-18.jpg) *Vice President Mike Pence speaking at the White House coronavirus task force briefing of 18 March 2020, holding the "15 Days to Slow the Spread" guidance, with President Trump standing at left. Trump defended the term "Chinese virus" the same day (quoted below). Official White House photograph by Shealah Craighead. Public domain (U.S. government work).* *Image gap: the tweets, the briefing photograph of the President's notes and the rally footage are copyrighted or third-party. They are described and linked instead.* On 16 March 2020, President Trump used the term "Chinese Virus" on Twitter. A photograph from a 19 March briefing showed "Corona" crossed out in his notes and "Chinese" written in by hand ([NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/photo-trump-remarks-shows-corona-crossed-out-replaced-chinese-virus-n1164111)). At a rally in Tulsa on 20 June 2020 he said "Kung flu". **What was going on.** The virus was first identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. In March 2020 the United States was entering its first lockdowns. At the same time, a Chinese government spokesman was promoting the claim that the U.S. Army had brought the virus to Wuhan (see [Then and now: "the Americans made it" (Soviet AIDS story 1983, Chinese Fort Detrick claim 2020)](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/lab-origin-stories/)), so the naming fight ran in both directions. **What followed.** - A study in the *American Journal of Public Health* (Hswen et al., 2021) found that about half of tweets using #chinesevirus contained anti-Asian language, against about a fifth of tweets using #covid19, in 9–23 March 2020. It shows an association, not proof of cause. - Corrected FBI figures show anti-Asian hate crimes rose from 161 in 2019 to 279 in 2020, about 73%. All hate crimes rose about 13%. FBI reporting is voluntary and known to undercount. - Stop AAPI Hate received 10,905 self-reported incidents from 19 March 2020 to 31 December 2021. The reports were not independently verified. ## Where they are alike - A harm from abroad (a war attack, a virus) is given a national or ethnic label: a slur on a whole nationality in the 1940s, a country-of-origin name in 2020. - The label reached Americans who had nothing to do with the harm. - Recorded hostility towards Asian Americans rose in the same period. For 2020 the studies cited show an association in time, not a proven cause. ## Where they differ - **State action.** In 1942 the label came with a government policy of mass incarceration. In 2020 there was no war and no state action against Asian Americans. - **The words.** The 1940s poster uses an ethnic slur and a trait ("sneaky"). "Chinese virus" is a place-of-origin label, which its defenders call descriptive. "Kung flu" was a play on words, which critics called a slur. - **Contest.** In 1942 there was little public objection. In 2020 the terms were openly contested by the press, public-health bodies and some members of the President's own administration. - **Medium.** A government poster programme then; a President's own tweets and speeches now. ## Positions on the record - **President Trump** said on 18 March 2020: "It's not racist at all, no, not at all. It comes from China, that's why. ... I want to be accurate." ([CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-criticism-trump-defends-saying-chinese-virus.html)) - **Critics**, including Asian American groups and the World Health Organization's 2015 naming guidance, say diseases should not be named after places or peoples because of the stigma it creates. - **Place-name disease labels** have a long history ("Spanish flu", "Ebola", "MERS"), which the term's defenders point to. ## Same-method test A label that ties any nationality or ethnicity to a harm, from any party or country, would be scored the same way here. The companion page [Then and now: "the Americans made it" (Soviet AIDS story 1983, Chinese Fort Detrick claim 2020)](https://propagandaarchive.org/then-and-now/lab-origin-stories/) shows the Chinese and Soviet governments pinning disease origins on the United States. ## How to spot it - Ask whether the label names a government, an event, or a whole people. - Notice whether the practical message (keep quiet, wash your hands) would work just as well without the label. - Look at who faced hostility afterwards, and whether they had any connection to the harm. ## Sources - NARA 513778, *All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!*, via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22All_the_earmarks_of_a_sneaky_jap%22_-_NARA_-_513778.jpg). - National Archives, [Executive Order 9066](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066). - Densho Encyclopedia, [*Personal Justice Denied*](https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Personal_Justice_Denied_(book)/) (Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, 1983). - Hswen, Y. et al., [Association of "#covid19" Versus "#chinesevirus" With Anti-Asian Sentiments on Twitter](https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306154), *American Journal of Public Health* 111(5), 2021. - NBC News, [Anti-Asian hate crimes rose 73% last year, updated FBI data says](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-rose-73-last-year-updated-fbi-data-says-rcna3741), October 2021. - Stop AAPI Hate, [National Report through 31 December 2021](https://stopaapihate.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/22-SAH-NationalReport-3.1.22-v9.pdf). - CNBC, [Trump defends calling coronavirus 'Chinese virus'](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-criticism-trump-defends-saying-chinese-virus.html), 18 March 2020. - Miller Center, [Campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 20 June 2020](https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-20-2020-campaign-rally-tulsa-oklahoma) (transcript). - World Health Organization, *Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases*, May 2015. ## Images | Image | Source | Licence | | --- | --- | --- | | *All the Ear-Marks of a Sneaky Jap!* | FRAME gallery, from NARA via Wikimedia Commons | Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons) | | Civilian exclusion order, April 1942 | FRAME gallery | Public domain (U.S. government work) | | "I am an American" store sign, Oakland, March 1942 | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese-American_owned_grocery_store,_Oakland,_California,_March_1942_-_3a24566v.jpg), from Library of Congress | Public domain (U.S. government work) | | Coronavirus task force briefing, 18 March 2020 | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_House_Press_Briefing_(49675673928).jpg), official White House photograph | Public domain (U.S. government work) | ## Image gaps - **The 2020 tweets, the annotated briefing notes and the Tulsa footage.** Copyrighted or third-party. Linked instead.