People always affect by Propaganda

The messages that propaganda gives to people are always wanted by the government. Propaganda is sometimes effective to achieve the mind-changing goal that governments assume by using obviously and understandable phrasing, images, and media to invade the common sense or judgment that people already have and convert ideas to what they expect citizens would have. Publics becomes either the rebels or slaves of propaganda, mostly slaves according to history records. Take World War II as an example, the United States citizens was originally wanted to be the outsider of war, but it turns out they become a non-negligible part of the war, even end the war. Propaganda by the United States government played an essential role by concentrating people together and encouraging them to join World War II. The message's propaganda irresistibly invaded publics’ lives and let the concept of government become the mainstream ideology for the society.

 

The first primary source is a poster from the United States created between 1941 to1943. The background of the poster is during World War II when the Japanese planned to attack Alaska in the United States. Use the mouse as a symbol to represent Japanese. In people's common sense, rats are creatures that hide in the darkness and pick up other people's leftover garbage to eat. It lives in the dark world, is disgusting, insidious and cunning. This undoubtedly discredits the image of the Japanese to a large extent in front of American citizens. Also, the creator of this poster uses the metaphor that Alaska is a mousetrap specifically aimed at the mouse – Japan. Also, there are three words on the mousetrap, which are Army, Navy and Civilian. It not only shows the sense of security that this country has a strong Army and Navy to protect civilians, but also the Civilian itself is put in the same important position as military power. It shows the government wants citizens to feel a sense of participation, which makes the idea of Japanese hate become more acceptable to civilians. The poster wants to express the message that Army, Navy and Civilian are on the same boat, they should concrete together against Japanese, then will be the mousetrap. The main idea the poster is trying to tell people is that Alaska is a trap that the United States can easily take Japan. This piece of propaganda could let citizens get the preview that they will win the war and get ready for it with a more comfortable emotion towards it. The message the public gets from the poster is that the Japanese attack on Alaska will be a piece of cake, and they will win this fight without doubt.

 

The second primary source was created by the United States federal government between 1941 to 1945. Further, it contains propaganda for World War II. The poster depicts a large caricature face of a demonic monster creature that may be based on a caricature of the 40th Prime Minister of Japan, Hideki Tōjō.  The character's appearance is horrifying, hideous, and frightening from the poster. Same as the previous primary source, the government uses metaphors like this one to dispel Americans' perceptions of Japanese people because the figures shown are not Americans. Japanese political leaders have qualities that are not humane, they are demons that are holding a bleeding knife. The government wants to make viewers uncomfortable with this image so that Japanese people will feel the same way. I think the best explanation of purpose for the propaganda poster is, “This poster is example of Anti-Japanese sentiment and nationalist caricature employed during the war. It is one of many such racist pieces intended for domestic consumption to raise morale.”

 

If people get the message, the government goal is already achieved, it is a latent idea which is already out inside people’s minds. Based on psychologist Fechner’s mere exposure effect, that is a psychological phenomenon that refers to the fact that we prefer things that we are familiar with. The mere exposure effect is useful in advertising and in propaganda. Thus, if the propaganda poster appears more frequently in people’s life, even if they refuse to accept the concept from the poster in the first place, the scales of their cognition will fall to the side of propaganda over time.

 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the early days of the one-child policy, the Chinese government adopted an overwhelming Propaganda to infiltrate the concept of one-child families into people's lives. Large-character posters, propaganda graffiti, film and television productions, and images of film and television characters about the one-child policy were everywhere in the daily life of Chinese people. Since China is still a socialist country, the one-child policy is strictly enforced from within the system before spreading to the public. At the same time, the propaganda includes how the one-child policy benefits a family, what benefits are available, etc.

 

About the third primary source, it is a documentary propaganda video from 1984 in China. In this video it talks about the cruel side and the happiness side. Firstly, the documentary shows a scene of people’s daily life, always a parent or parents with one child. It is a video from the audience's daily life and the government wants to let audiences more into this video and have more emotional resonance with it. Then the video uses an interview of a woman to illustrate the cruel side. The interview is mainly telling people the truth that the One Child Policy exists without mercy, the government will force women to give up their second baby. Then the government records some scenes from hospitals where nurses take care of those little babies. At the same time to use a graph to show the decline of the birth rate. Which could be the evidence of the success of One Child Policy in China. After that, they show how people's lives are happy, the interaction among families and families which only have one child each. On Dec.2, I interviewed 3 women aged from 40 to 75 years old from different provinces in China, they were all through the period of One Child Policy. They are Wei Lian, Tina, and Gui Xiang. They all agree that they feel the contrast of the negative side to the positive side. They felt kind of desperate by seeing the mandatory one child policy, then they saw how happy that one child families’ lives are, they felt they truly prefer to only have one child. Because most women like Wei Lian, Tina, and Gui Xiang, they don’t have the capability to leave the country that they live in the 80s. What they can do is accept the positive messages from propaganda.

 

The year 1984 is the transition from the first stage to the middle stage of One Child Policy In China. At this time the concept of only one child per family is stuck in people’s minds, especially people who live in the city. According to my interview, their answers prove scenes that the documentary shows. They reflect that they didn’t have the cognition of propaganda when they were young. They just see posters of One Child Policy everywhere in their community, in their workplace, even in the bathroom. China is very successful in developing and executing propaganda. Still based on the mere exposure effect, people remember one child policy and obey it in their life. In an interesting coincidence, the 1984 one-child documentary coincides with the title of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell, and both are products of Propaganda. The Chinese government is doing exactly what the big brother in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is doing.

 

In a nutshell, propaganda is a powerful tool used by governments to persuade citizens. Although it is not always successful, communist nations have a relatively high success rate. One good example is the "one child" policy. People follow and trust the government because they think the encouraging messages propagated by propaganda are true and will occur in the future. In the meantime, propaganda during World War II incited animosity toward Japan in the capitalist United States. Although propaganda did not totally change people's perspectives, it subtly increased Americans' hatred of Japan and caused them to stop protesting the government's use of force against the country. People unwittingly obey to propaganda.

 

Source:

Primary sources：

Japanese hate during WWII, Posters from United states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment#/media/File:Alaska_Death_Trap.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment#/media/File:Tokio_Kid_Say.png

A Documentary of One Child Policy in China which get a good result that the government wanted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BFdybdkwbc

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlannedBirthCeramicPaintings-Xinhui.jpg

Secondary source

https://www.britannica.com/topic/one-child-policy/Consequences-of-Chinas-one-child-policy

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell