This is an image of the cover of "Know your Enemy Japan" which was a propaganda pamphlet written by Anthony Jenkinson. This pamphlet provided Americans with some background information on Japan including an anaylsis of it's "strengths and weaknesses" of Japan.

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(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Edwin L Peterson World War II Propaganda, MSS 274, Box 2, Fd. 4)

These images are from the U.S. booklet "The Jap Soldier." This book takes a very negative approach on the Japanese and provides some insight into how Americans viewed the Japanese during World War II. The book begins with pictures of Japanese children and describes how even children were the "enemy."

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(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Edwin L Peterson World War II Propaganda, MSS 274, Box 5, No. 2)

On December 8, 1941, only ten hours after Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor, Japan launched an attack on the Philippines. Japanese forces bombed American aircraft bases, destroying a large portion of the U.S. Airforce in the Philippines. By April of 1942, Japan controlled the bulk of Filipino city and industrial centers, including the capital Manilla.

This colored postcard depicts a agricultural area in the Philippines. This postcard is a "Color Card, Kodachrome Reproduction" by Mike Roberts Studios in Berkeley, California. The caption reads "Harvesting tobacco in the Cagayan Valley, Luzon."

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(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Ellsworth Family photograph collection, P0142, Box 9, Folder 13, Image 7)

This is an excerpt from "Asia's Captive Colonies" which was a pamphlet that was widely available in World War II. This particular excerpt discusses the Philippines, which before World War II was a U.S. territory. "The Philippines in Transition" discusses how the United States was planning on giving the Philippines its own autonomous government, but Japan captured the Philippines before the U.S. could grant the Philippines its own autonomy.

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(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Edwin L Peterson World War II Propaganda, MSS 274, Box 2, Fd. 4)

Japan invaded the Philippines for a variety of reasons. First, the Philippines was a U.S. territory and the United States major foothold in the Pacific. To the Japanese, taking the Philippines was not only a strategic decision in making it harder for the U.S. to launch a counterattack, but also because the Japanese could use the Philippines for resource production.

Japan’s invasion of the Philippines mimicked an earlier pattern of Japanese military movements. In September of 1931, Japanese forces invaded Manchuria, eight years before World War II began in Europe with Germany’s invasion of Poland. Not only that, but Japan also occupied Korea and Taiwan, both of which Japan used for labor hands and resources. In the course of fifty years, Japan had established itself as a colonial power in the Pacific, and the Philippines was another addition to Japan’s holdings.