Propaganda from China and Japan: A Case Study in Propaganda Analysis

Another important thing to consider is that each person receives information and then filters that information through their own way of looking at things, and that is determined by how they were brought up, what kinds of influences they were subjected to, and how they then look at the world and things going on in it. In today's terms, that would mean that someone brought up in a house that the parents showed strong prejudices against blacks, for example, and who had bad experiences with blacks would look at blacks, and racism in general, in a very different way than someone who was brought up in a house where racism was shown to be the folly it really is. If the person then went on to have good experiences with blacks, for example, then their way of looking at things would be totally different than the first person's.

It can be very hard to look inside oneself and determine just why you have a particular way of looking at people or events, but it is something that can be very important to do, particularly in trying to judge events going on at that time.

A good historical examine of this was the case of persons of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. The attitudes towards PJAs (Persons of Japanese Ancestry, 2/3rds of which were actually American citizens) was incredibly different on the West Coast of the U.S. prior to World War II then it was, say, east of the Mississippi river. California and its associated states were filled with people who hated the PJAs, and this helped greatly in the effort to forcibly 'evacuate' all of them once the war started.

Other parts of the country did not have the same view, though, and so the PJAs from those parts were not forcibly evacuated to internment camps.

Appeals to Material Interests

One of the things propaganda does is appeal to one's own material interests. As the author notes, the U.S. didn't have a whole lot of those in China at the time, though. There was more U.S. trade with Japan at the time, though, so propagandists from Japan had the advantage in this particular approach to propaganda.

Appeals to Political Interests

This is a second form of propaganda approach that the author discusses. One advantage for the Chinese is that the U.S. attitude was against settling international disagreements by force, and this is something the Chinese could play to in their propaganda. Japan's answer was that China violated treaties.

Communism: Another topic the author discusses which was more important at the time than it is now was the spectre of communism. China was not only being contested between Japan and China, but between Nationalist China and communists. This gave an advantage to the Japanese propagandist who said that what Japan was doing was helping protect the area against Communist takeover.

Identification with American policies: This was another approach to propaganda. Japan could say that it's approach to the area around Japan was similar to the Monroe Doctrine that the U.S. had adopted.

Appeals to Fear

This examines briefly both the Japanese and the Chinese approaches. The Japanese one tends to be somewhat threatening; that, if the U.S. doesn't go along with what Japan wants, then Japan might end up having to fight the U.S. (which is, exactly, what happened.) In today's world, the situation with North Korea and Iran would be considered appeals to fear.

Appeals to Hope

Usually appeals to fear are more effective than appeals to hope, but not always, says the author.

The Chinese have the advantage as far as this form of appeal goes.

Appeals to Elementary Social Attitudes

As I noted earlier, people have already developed ways of looking at things, and this holds true for nations themselves.

Conciliation versus use of Force: Both sides want to make it appear that they are essentially peaceful people, and it's the other side that's the aggressor.

Order and Progress: Japan, as noted in the quote, tries to make China look like it's in chaos. To a degree that was actually try, what with the Nationalist Chinese versus the Communist Chinese problem.

Justice and Legality: Americans have, in general, a strong sense of justice and legality. The Chinese tried to take advantage of that by showing the Japanese were violating international laws in their actions. The Japanese tried to counter this, but their argument was less effective since there were far more serious incidents of the Japanese violating laws (and the rules of war) than the Chinese violating them.

Humanity: The Chinese side had the better argument in relation to humanity. They were not the ones that had done the invading; the Japanese had. Related to this is the following argument.

Atrocities Charged and Denied: This is one area where time becomes an important factor. Although some Japanese atrocities were already known, it wasn't until after the war ended that the full range of Japanese atrocities became evident, including such things as Unit 731 and the mistreatment of POWs. There was no way that the Japanese could make anything the Chinese did look as bad as what they did. The Japanese could deny that they committed atrocities and, even today, that is something that is relevant as there are still on-going arguments about what Japan did and did not do during this time, with Japanese historical revisionists trying to downplay anything that happened.

Social Problems: This one definitely favors the Chinese, as they could show the terrible suffering of the Chinese people. Japan could only reply about how the Chinese attitude was interfering with its own economic growth which is a very, very poor argument in return.

Culture: The Japanese were trying to make their incursion into China appear to be a matter of culture, a Japanese equivalent of the concept of the 'White Man's Burden' that had dominated Western colonialism for so long, an advanced country trying to civilize a primitive country for its own good.

The author goes on to elaborate on his examination of this issue.

Then there's a chapter devoted to the aim of all the propaganda; what do China and Japan want the Americans to do about their claims? One aim was to get the Americans to take political action, apply pressure to their own government to support one side or the other. This could result in political pressure, or in more concrete terms like shipments of supplies to the Chinese, for example, which is exactly what happened once the second world war actually got started.

Economic action can be undertaken; for example, give the Chinese money, boycott Japanese goods, etc. In the end the American decision to stop selling certain things to Japan played a role in tipping the balance of Japan's thinking into going to war to get the oil they needed to carry on their war (which they shouldn't have started in the first place, though.)

Another form of action would be relief aid. Just as today, this would be shipment of supplies and medicines to those suffering because of the war.

The author also discusses the differences between propaganda issued in peace time, and propaganda issued in times of war.

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