JF Ptak Science Books Post 2832
This piece of propaganda from Italy in 1944 made the case for a gangster-like bloodthirsty U.S. Soldier being deployed to an immoral imperialist war in a place of ancient culture and high morals. The example it uses is LIFE magazine, which after tongue-in-cheek praise is established as a mirror of its readers' mentality, feelings, desires, and passions, offering congratulations to Mr. Luce for establishing such a magazine that so deeply displayed the character of the United States. After this follows the propaganda rain, and the horrors that were in the pages of LIFE.
The Italian reader is then introduced to a quick succession of stories that evidently displayed the building blocks of American culture, with LIFE focusing on vainglory, false culture, sex appeal (the main ingredient), and malignant ruthlessness.
In getting to this last part the writer of this pamphlet uses a story that appeared in LIFE on 22 March 1944--the reader warned of the horrifying nature of the photographs to follow “(ueste fotografie vi fanno orrore”)--which graphically displayed in a studio setting the stealthy killing method of the U.S. Soldier at war.
The pamphlet makes the point along the “this is your enemy” lines, that this is what the U.S. was all about. And if the reader was surprised by the images, then they had no idea of what the “Ameriucan mentality” was. (“Ma se queste illustrazioni vi stupiscono, allora — vogliate scusare — finora avete avuto ben poca nozione della mentalità americana!” “But if these illustrations amaze you, then - please excuse - so far you have had very little notion of the American mentality!”)
The short (14pp) pamphlet ends with a full page picture of American “gangsters and life prisoners” in prison, training to fight for the “imperialist war of Franklin”.
The work is certainly provocative —whether or not it was believed is unknown to me. I do know that U.S. Marines were depicted as baby murderers and baby rapists to Imperial troops, scaring the hell out of soldiers and civilians (re the native population on Okinawa) alike, further enforcing the belief and demand of a fight-to-the-death mentality because not only was this the codified way to behave, but the shame of surrender would be worsened by the treatment and torture they would receive in captivity. The results of this propaganda was horrific for the soldiers and for thousands of Okinawans. As I said, I don't know anything at all of the effectiveness of this Italian effort, though my best guess is that the reader would've thought this to be bullshit inaccurate.
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