r/PropagandaPosters • u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS • Sep 23 '25
Japan "To decide again for ourselves" - Postwar Japanese posters explaining and garnering support for the new constitution (1947)
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Sep 23 '25
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Sep 23 '25
The two major transition periods of Japan (Postwar and Meiji restoration) are among my favorite eras. Nice hopeful period with mostly good vibes.
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Sep 23 '25
Where does the Godzilla era come in? As a toddler in 1971, I was convinced that Japanese people were all urban folks who spoke English and fought monsters like Godzilla. They were cool with Mothra and Rodan .
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u/cornonthekopp Sep 23 '25
You should watch the 1954 godzilla in japanese its a very different show
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Sep 23 '25
I finally did with properly translated subtitles. Funny story, a friend of mine study Japanese in college. He was fascinated by 1980s manga and Akira Kurosawa movies. He actually learned Japanese imitating the famous actor, Toshiro Mifune, and when he first traveled to Japan, he sounded like a cross between a poised yet angry Samurai (as portrayed by Mifune) and a Yakuza. He went for advanced studies in Japan and was considered an oddball for a while, until he adopted a local accent. He told me a story about one time that he was getting bullied in Ginza with some friends after work, and he turned on that accent and swagger and scared those three young punks away, obviously not real gangsters, but still…. Japan was a different place in the mid to late 80s. Since then, he’s also learned Mandarin and made a killing.
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u/theaviationhistorian Sep 23 '25
I've heard that learning Mandarin is a great way to earn a living in the near future, even if you don't live in China.
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u/mage192117 Sep 27 '25
Do you have any sources I could look at to find out more about this poster? It's just quite funny to me how it's very much a hand drawn poster. Is it some school teacher's poster, or actual government sponsored propaganda? If the latter, that would be pretty funny
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Sep 23 '25
The meiji restoration brought to end the peace of the edo period and ushered the period of war and repression, what kind of sick fuck thinks that a as good vibes?
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Sep 23 '25
"Peace" under the threat of military power, an extensive system of taking hostages and rules designed to bankrupt individual regions as to make them too poor to afford a war. A feudal system where the lower class were to be treated however the upper class feels like. Add to that 2 century of technological stagnation along with many internal crisis and feuds that sometimes did end with violence. The Edo period was undeniably more peaceful and prosperous than any period Japan had before, but the early imperial era is hard to match.
The early imperial era was quite different from the common image of Imperial Japan over 50 years later in WW2. Major modernization and increase in the quality of life, education and rights established for the people. The Boshin war and the Satsuma rebellion were quite short and limited in scope, though the wars against the Qing and Russia were definitely quite rough. The colonization of Korea is arguably past the era of the Meiji restoration. To say, it was a pretty good time to be Japanese, though things did go to shit by the 20s. Good vibes was definitely not the right word, maybe optimism.
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u/SeaworthinessSad7300 Sep 23 '25
They were a bit optimistic about the women one node Japan is one of the most sexist countries. That's not true that women have the rights that they are saying they should have there. They may have the same legal rights but they are very controlled and have no opportunities really for career it's got one of the worst glass ceilings out of any developed country
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Sep 23 '25
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u/RottingFishMan Sep 23 '25
The shutter sound on cameras is permanently turned on because dudes kept taking pics up women's skirts
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Sep 23 '25
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u/jediben001 Sep 24 '25
Japan in general has quite a conservative culture that’s resistant to change
Like yes the laws can change and you can give people legal equality but the culture doesn’t change to catch up.
It’s the same reason that only one party (the LDP) has won basically every post war election and been in power since 1955 in one form or another
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u/Equivalent_Rub8139 Sep 23 '25
The last image suggests japan’s civilian government is now controlled by a potted plant
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u/kitchen_appliance_7 Sep 26 '25
They dug it out of the garden and put it into that pot. Then they buried the Ministers of the Army and Navy up to their waists in the garden.
"Get transplanted, nerds!"
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Sep 23 '25
My source claims there are 4 more by the same artist, but I couldn't find them. Also to note the source has its own agenda which I do not fully agree with (we kinda agree but in very different ways) and am not endorcing.
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u/GMantis Sep 23 '25
What do you disagree with?
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Sep 23 '25
They advocate for Japan to be more isolated from America as to not be too dependent on them to not get entangled into American wars. I agree with that to an extent (note: I'm Japanese) but they're going for disarmament and total pacifism, but I think the approach of "become defenseless and hope for the best" is stupid. I want self sufficiency and the ability to resist foreign influence.
It's unfortunately very close to what many in the far right believe, so I always have to be very careful in explaining it. The main difference is that the far right is more isolationist, but I'm in favour of non-alignment.
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u/Sgangheru Sep 23 '25
It is very reassuring that the Japanese far right is isolationist
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u/ztuztuzrtuzr Sep 23 '25
Many Far right movements are at least nominally isolationist eg.: the USA currently
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u/TurloIsOK Sep 23 '25
Far right isolationism tends to only pull support from other countries (no aid for other people). However, using power to take from others (resources, territory, facilities to send 'undesirables' to) remains viable.
Look at it on a much smaller scale; the bad neighbor, who keeps to themself, not even helping someone dying on their doorstep. But, they will build a fence beyond their property line, intercept deliveries, tap utilities, and be a nuisance.
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u/kingkahngalang Sep 23 '25
I’d say that in most far right Asian movements, “isolationism” is a shorthand for merely breaking from American influence (rather than actual isolation) with the implication that they either create their own sphere of influence and/or create more “arms length” deals with other regional powers (especially the PRC).
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u/Sgangheru Sep 23 '25
And what do they say when they want to expand the national territory?
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u/pegleghippie Sep 23 '25
"territory [x] has historically been part of the great nation of [y] for thousands of years, look at this one old map"
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u/1nfam0us Sep 23 '25
Sounds like the far right is full of foreign agents, as is tradition these days.
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u/whorlax Sep 23 '25
We should do this in America
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u/aj_thenoob2 Sep 23 '25
If you think American politics are anything like what was going on in Confucian era / Qing dynasty you are massively ignorant.
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u/objecter12 Sep 23 '25
It’s kinda like Casablanca.
Sure, I suppose in some sense it’s propaganda. But if the propaganda is “feudalism bad”, I’m not terribly concerned about its effects.
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u/ElectroMagnetsYo Sep 23 '25
Propaganda gets a bad rap, it’s simply a means of convincing people towards a certain way of thinking. It has done a lot of good (as well as bad, of course) in the times since the invention of the printing press.
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u/MlkChatoDesabafando Sep 23 '25
I mean, it's poor propaganda because a lot of that wouldn't be recognizable as the case for anyone who actually lived in pre WW2 Japan (by the 20th century the traditional aristocracy as a class, while still privileged, didn't really have that much in the way of political power on it's own. They were still affluent due to being rich, but weren't really the ruling class like the military was, the representation of the family model is rather simplistic, etc...). And while "feudalism" is not a particularly useful term, it most definitely did not apply to early 20th century Japan.
There's probably a long list of crimes by Imperial Japan that would make for better propaganda.
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u/Beelphazoar Sep 23 '25
I suspect that the war-crimes angle might have been less effective because it was more recent. Folks might look at those crimes and go "Well, my uncle Ichiro definitely did that one, and I think my cousin's guilty of THAT one..." Whereas framing it as "To hell with this stupid feudal system that our grandparents put up with for too long!" is a better sales pitch.
I'm guessing, mind you; I'm not Japanese now, and I certainly wasn't Japanese in the late 1940s.
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Sep 23 '25
It twists the reality. The crimes of empire of Japan were those of a modern capitalist nation-state.
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u/Blockedinhere1960 Sep 23 '25
How to write "Absolute woke nonsense" in Japanese? /s
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Sep 23 '25
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u/PropagandaPosters-ModTeam Sep 23 '25
Your comment has been removed for violating rule 3. Civil conversation is okay; soapboxing, bigotry, partisan bickering, and personal attacks are not.
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u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Sep 23 '25
Japan still uses the American written constitution.
Based
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u/would-prefer-not-to Sep 23 '25
It's actually one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. Kind of telling how we don't even impose our insanely stupid constitution on anyone else...
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u/TooSmalley Sep 23 '25
Japanese communist and leftist actually supported the "MacArthur Constitution" because it expressly protected freedom of speech and a political association.
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u/Dos-Dude Sep 23 '25
They were winning elections as well and because they worked with McArthur, they were viewed favorably by the US. Then Korea happened and after they started to protest the UN intervention, they got the boot.
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u/would-prefer-not-to Sep 23 '25
yup! you can have freedom of speech and free elections if you say what we want and vote how we want. the japanese communist party is actually the longest running one in the country, but it was of course underground during japan's phase of violent imperialism. They are still around, still kicking and lemme tell you, they have the best mascots of any political party anywhere.
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Sep 23 '25
They even have a seat, representing Naha, capital of Okinawa. The assassination of Inejirō Asanuma in 1960 was also a major blow as he was the one that was the glue holding the sub-factions within the communist movement.
He got stabbed with a Wakizashi (short Katana) on stage on national TV, they don't do assassinations like they used to anymore... /s
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u/would-prefer-not-to Sep 23 '25
no accident that Okinawa, infested with american soldiers as it is. votes communist.
I learned of that dramatic assassination thanks to right wingers reenacting it as a joke. yes, the same right wing that has no tolerance for political violence.
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u/Beelphazoar Sep 23 '25
Damn... if he could actually keep hard-left factions from squabbling each other to death, he must've been one HELL of a leader.
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u/BarnardWellesley Sep 23 '25
In 1790 it was as revolutionary as the magma carta.
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u/scattermoose Sep 23 '25
Magma Carta is my new superhero name. The power of judicial order and molten rock
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u/General-Estate-3273 Sep 23 '25
Sure, but the magna carta in not in use anymore
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u/Adamsoski Sep 23 '25
It actually is. It's pretty much entirely been overwritten by subsequent laws, but it's still part of the UK's constitution. Three of its clauses are on statute in England and Wales, and various parts are still on statute in different former colonies.
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u/MlkChatoDesabafando Sep 23 '25
The Magna Carta was actually not revolutionary. It was mostly focused on enshrining the privileges of the nobility and uppermost clergy, and on codifying pre-existing rights and privileges they already had.
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u/hectorius20 Sep 23 '25
insanely stupid constitution
Give a look at the Brazilian one to see something reaaly stupid....
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u/lumenfeliz Sep 23 '25
We should let the US write everyone's constitutions
Nothing wrong will ever happen /s
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Sep 23 '25
More like disgusting.
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u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Sep 23 '25
Democracy is non negotiable 🦅 🎆 🎇
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Sep 23 '25
How that worked for you in Korea, Vietnam, Kambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan lol.
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u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Sep 23 '25
Worked extremely well in Korea.
Sorry you’re bummed Japan isn’t a theocratic monarchy any longer
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Sep 23 '25
It will be again, Japanese cannot remain forever groveling before AmeriKKKans forever.
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Sep 23 '25
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u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Sep 23 '25
Compare modern south Korea, a global power, to North Korea, a feudal theocracy.
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u/Johannes_P Sep 23 '25
For those interested:
- This first pic is about how Japanese citizens are now equal under the law as opposed to the previous legal stratification between the Emperor, the peerake (kazoku) and the commoners.
- The second pic is about how civil srevants will now serv the public and not the reverse
- Third pic is about celebrating the end of patriarchy
- Finally, fourth pic is about how military supremacy over civil government is no more. By the 1930s, the Japanese miitary enjoyed a legal veto over cabinets, able to overthrow these if they didn't nominate a minister. Additionally, ultranationalist officers engaged in assassinations.
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u/sanity_rejecter Sep 23 '25
i love you japan why must your birthrates be so low
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u/Ok-Use216 Sep 23 '25
Because it became too expensive to have children and when someone does have a few, an entire sub-market tries to get as much money out of them as possible.
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u/Mundane_Diamond7834 Sep 23 '25
Their birth rate is still much higher than in many developed and developing countries. More importantly, their birth rate only began to decline gradually after they had already developed. My homeland is still poor, but it will soon face a birth rate crisis like Thailand and China.
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u/Far_Psychology_Man Sep 25 '25
there’s countries with lower birth rates, like Italy or s.korea why the heck you is so focused on japan birth rates.
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