An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood

An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood
W. ANTHONY SHEPPARD

This article describes ways in which Japanese citizens and Japanese-American citizens were stereotyped and mistreated during the World War II era. Countless songs came out of the Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley composers derogatorily referring to the Japanese as "Japs," yellow rats, and other names of the sort. Songs, films, and television programs would make fun of and ridicule the way that Japanese speaking individuals pronounce the English language. Japanese children were stereotyped as squinty-eyed, buck-toothed, and unintelligent.

Film music is an incredibly useful tool for propaganda. By thematically presenting different nationalities through inaccurate (in most cases) and generalized modes and motifs, images and thoughts are immediately conjured up that shade a watcher's disposition.

Many times if the intent of the score is to stereotype, it is not very subtle at all. Sheppard compares it with a derogatory phrase, such as "dirty Jap." In these cases, the tone of voice plays a huge part in the insult. His analogy matches the inflection in the voice with the less than subtle moments in a score. This propaganda dehumanizes individuals and nations and shapes the views of it's audience.

One of the biggest problems with film scores of this era (and later), is the lack of authenticity in the music. Most scores borrow from other sources that sound like one thing or another (or at least what the composer thinks it should sound like). Many times, the music is composed to sound "Japanese," but actually just sounds like a horrible Hollywood stereotype involving an amalgamation of several pseudo-cultures. Although somewhat inevitable, this really is a bad thing, because it gives us a false view of other cultures and institutions.

Sheppard's focus was on the effectiveness of film propaganda. Film was the most effective medium for anti-Japanese propaganda during World War II. The musical scores that accompanied these films did much to assist the stereotyping and profiling.


This article was taken from JSTOR Archive:

Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Summer, 2001), pp. 303-357
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society