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During a time of war, it is usually a period filled with feelings of fear and confusion. Not only does the general public fear for their safety in their homeland, but they also fear the unknown, not knowing when, where, and why the enemy is attacking. In order to lighten the panic among the people, the government tends to censor particular information from the public. Since the public wants retaliation on their enemy after a home front attack, the government tends to play on the public’s emotion and manipulate their thinking through the use of various media, such as a film, in order to gain their support. During the World War II, government endorsed propaganda was all over the United States in order to boost patriotism. One film, directed and written by Frank Capra, effectively shows how the United States purposefully portrays the Japanese in an exaggerated and dehumanizing fashion in order to boost patriotism among its audience. Even though Capra gave some misconstrued information about the Japanese by focusing on the evils of Japanese’s desire for world dominion under their Co-Prosperity Sphere plan, Capra still considered his work a success because it fulfill its purpose of boosting up the American soldiers confidence. Capra’s film, Know Your Enemy: Japan, was such a success because of his informative excerpt of the Japanese culture, quotes and images to dehumanize the Japanese, and footage of United States’ army small victories within the war to encourage other soldiers to continue the fighting.
Unlike Italy and Germany, who were also part of the Axis power, the Japanese had some distinct differences. Based on the Japanese differences in religion, skin color, appearance, living style, and culture, the American citizens already had a difficulty in understanding and relating to them. Based on this factor, Capra used the lack of understanding of the Japanese culture to create a film that depicted the Japanese as power hungry, mindless robots. In the...