The following contains wartime
propaganda images. Readers are warned that these images can be offensive to view.

请注意以下内容含有战时宣传图像,
浏览时或许会给您带来心理不适感。

この章では戦時中のプロパガンダの
画像が含まれてい ます。不快に感じ
るような表 現もありますので、
先に 進む前にご注意ください。



Warning: On viewing images of
a potentially disturbing nature


請注意:圖片或許會為帶來心理不適
The Devil in the Details


A few war prints portray heroic Chinese, and some battle scenes depict the Japanese and Chinese adversaries in relatively equitable ways—apart from the fact that the Japanese are always victorious. More than a few prints focus exclusively on “our heroes”—that is, Japanese fighting men alone. This is typical in war propaganda.

At the same time, disdain for the Chinese enemy is pervasive throughout these war prints and frequently carries both a harsh racist charge and an undisguised edge of pure sadism. As the gruesome details isolated here reveal, the Chinese are slashed with swords, skewered with bayonets, shot at close range, beaten down with rifle butts, strangled, crushed with boulders, pounded with oars while floundering in the sea.

It is particularly sobering to keep in mind that this was not on-the-scene “realism.” The woodblock artists worked largely out of their own imaginations, tailoring this to news reports from the front. They were commercial artists catering to a home-front audience responsive to images of glory and gore alike.

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Visual Narratives
Visual Narratives
Sequences from the Essay

The Second Army Attacking and Occupying Port Arthur

The Predictable Pose of the Hero

The Compassionate Hero

The War at Sea

Mirror of Army and Navy Heroes

Kiyochika’s Manga

The Devil in the Details

Orientalism

MIT Visualizing Cultures
Making a Woodblock Print
Sequences from the Essay

The Second Army Attacking and Occupying Port Arthur

The Predictable Pose of the Hero

The Compassionate Hero

The War at Sea

Mirror of Army and Navy Heroes

Kiyochika’s Manga

The Devil in the Details

Orientalism

MIT Visualizing Cultures
Making a Woodblock Print
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Throwing Off Asia II
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