Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan, Great Britain, and America during the Greater East Asian War, 1931–45

Abstract

Textiles and clothing, although not normally thought of as vehicles for propaganda, can provide excellent public and personal canvases for the expression of patriotic and nationalistic ideas and feelings, serving as visible markers of national unity and support for military and political goals. The textiles to be examined in this article, unknown by many today but fashionable in their time, played just such a role during the Greater East Asian War (1931-45), first in Japan, and later in Great Britain and America. Made for civilian use and patterned with wartime motifs (e.g. battleships, bombers, and children dressed as soldiers) and slogans (V for Victory), the fabrics are provocative records both of the patriotic fervor of the period and the civilian support in all three countries of the national mission of “total war.”