The image of Japan in the Soviet caricature during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in the early 1930s (based on the materials of the “Soviet Siberia” newspaper)

Abstract

Political caricature is one of the most interesting historical sources for studying the formation of the image of an event or a nation. It is often in the caricature that one can trace the process of visualizing the “image of the enemy” in a particular state, which is deliberately constructed under the influence of various external and internal factors. A striking example is the Soviet political cartoon. The article is devoted to the study of the formation of the image of Japan in the political caricature of the Soviet Union on the example of the newspaper “Soviet Siberia” during the Manchurian crisis. The author insists that, in order to form the negative image of Japan by the means of caricature, old stereotypes about Japan which had emerged during the Russo-Japanese and the Russian Civil wars were used, including mass representations of the Japanese as carriers of such traits as belligerence, cruelty, cunning, and unpredictability. The study concludes that Japan was represented as an aggressor country, which, under the pretext of “self-defense”, invaded the neighboring state in order to seize its territories, as well as an exploiter of the masses. Eventually, this formed the reader’s image of Japan as an enemy state, conditioned a negative attitude towards the Far Eastern neighbor on the level of mass consciousness, and gave impetus to further anti-Japanese propaganda, which received special development in the USSR since 1933.

Keywords

• image of japan
• political caricature
• newspaper “soviet siberia”
• manchurian crisis