Japan – Vulgar Army

Last few minutes of “Victory Through Air Power” Disney made WWII propaganda film that shows Japanese octopus being attacked by American eagle. (Trying to get hold of a copy of this.)

Japan Menances World Trade pamplet (1944) The following very pretty pamphlet cover was printed in 1944 by the ‘Ministry Of Information’. It shows a black Japanese octopus with rising sun behind it with the caption: “Japan Menaces World Trade”. The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives list it as a “leaflet on raw materials made unobtainable […]

Tako No Asirai (Octopus Treading) by Kobayashi Kiyochika. (1904) One of those rare examples where the octopus is pro-cause 1. Japanese officer sitting on an octopus that is capturing ships disguised fish. Russo-Japanese War. Part of a series: Nihonbanzai hyakusen hyakusho (Long live Japan: one hundred victories, one hundred laughs). Image source and information: Library of […]

US Marines vs Japanese Octopus (Wise, 1944) Where pulp meets propaganda. United States Marines No. 3. (1944) published by William H Wise featuring a US Marine using a flame thrower to fight a buck-tooth Japanese octopus (Tojo)1. In a related note: The United States Marines did use flame throwers against the Japanese at the Battle of […]

Octopus-Samurai and Farmer (Hokusai, ~1839) One of the earlier octopus political cartoons/caricature comes from Japan by Katsushika Hokusai. It depicts an octopus dressed as a samurai sitting on a pile of potatoes. It is in a pulling competition with a farmer over a mattock. The Pacific Asia Museum (2006) summarised the context in which this painting […]