A Visual Analysis of a World War II Poster

"Keep this Horror from Your Home," an American propaganda poster produced during World War II, uses many visual and textual elements to encourage Americans to buy war bonds by portraying the Japanese as rapists. The author of the piece is unknown, but it is obvious that the creator of the poster carefully chooses the color, patterns, scale, text, and representation of the piece to send a very strong social and political message. There is little doubt that the underlying message was directed towards all Americans during World War II, and not towards a single community or group of people. …