The Role of the Cartoons in The Propaganda Wars in The Second World War: An Examination on Nazi Germany and The United States of America

Cartoons served as an important propaganda tool in World War II. Especially, the United States of America tried to get the support of the American public for war via propaganda cartoons against Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. The USA published a propaganda cartoon called The Spirit Of ‘43 in order to obtain financial support for the military mobilization from the American people before The Invasion of Normandy in 1944. The Nazis also made a cartoon called Nimbus Libéré, which was intended to spread propaganda against The Spirit Of ‘43before the expected attackvia France. Thus, the Nazis aimed to find anti-US support in Vichy France with the film. In this study, the 1943 US-made The Spirit Of ‘43and the 1944 German-made Nimbus Libéré were discussed in the light of the semiotic method analysis, which is in the qualitative research methods. The use of cartoons for propaganda purposes was examined in the light of French Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss' semiotic analysis. In addition, it was tried to explain the propagandistic myths which were tried to be constructed by both countries in the scope of the study. As a result of the study, the cartoons were used by both countries for propaganda purposes in the hate speech.