Propaganda is usually defined as an attempt to influence public opinion and public behavior through specialized techniques. Blum notes that propaganda in World War II was used by the U.s. government on several fronts, including the home front where efforts were made to engender support for the war effort. Blum notes how writers, playwrights, and copy writers alike demonized the enemy more and more as the war progressed and so increased war fervor among the people at home and among the soldiers fighting the war. some of this propaganda came from the Office of War information, but this agency was not seen as key or important by Roosevelt and others. Foreign policy was set by the President, and all information disseminated was to bolster whatever he decided. Radio shows, movies, newspaper articles, and other forms of communication served the cause by suggesting that the enemy was devious and demoniacal while all allies were on the side of the angels. The American public accepted these verdicts and agreed with FDR that it was necessary to serve the war effort and unpatriotic not to do so.
There was a racial and ethnic component to these depictions, though it was complex. Blum notes that Americans surveyed in 1942 saw the Chinese as intelligent, brave, and religious and the Japanese as devious and sly, though in truth most Americans could not tell one from the other if shown a picture (46). Germans were also demonized with images in the media, but there was less immediate animosity to German people, perhaps because they had an appearance much like Americans (47). Films presented Germans in a bad light, and novelists also wrote books in which German actions past and present were called into question (47-52).
In some degree, war fervor generated a good deal of xenophobia directed at anything or anyone not American. Blum notes that Americans had long been suspicious of some immigrant groups, and these prejudices receded only...