# Navy Men Who Buy War Bonds Help Break the Japs (1943), a pun under Halsey's name

Navy men who buy War Bonds help break the Japs today without being broke tomorrow is a 1943 bond poster that sets the line under a charcoal-style portrait of Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. and signs it with his rank and name. The portrait is signed White (NARA 515048).

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      Navy Men Who Buy War Bonds Help Break the Japs (Admiral Halsey)

      Navy Men Who Buy War Bonds Help Break the Japs (1943), a pun under Halsey's name
      A 1943 Navy bond poster puts Admiral Halsey's portrait over "Navy men who buy War Bonds help break the Japs today without being broke tomorrow." NARA

## Techniques named on the archive record

TestimonialName-calling
      Date1943Made byU.S. Navy war-bond appeal, attributed to Admiral W. F. Halsey Jr.; artist signed White; no sponsor otherwise legibleMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANARA 515048SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 515048, local id 44-PA-1389), via Wikimedia Commons , retrieved October 2, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. federal work; NARA-held; Commons tag PD-USGov-Treasury) U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 515048, 44-PA-1389)
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  Navy men who buy War Bonds help break the Japs today without being broke tomorrow is a 1943 bond poster that sets the line under a charcoal-style portrait of Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. and signs it with his rank and name. The portrait is signed White (NARA 515048).

## The line and the name under it

Content note: the slogan uses the ethnic slur "Japs." It is quoted as printed.

The picture is a charcoal-style portrait of an admiral in a garrison cap, and the slogan runs beneath it, followed by his rank and name. The record identifies him as William F. Halsey Jr. No enemy figure is drawn; the slur in the text carries the enemy by itself.

Navy men who buy War Bonds help

break the Japs today without being

broke tomorrow.

Admiral W. F. Halsey, Jr.

Transcription in the FRAME record; the artist's signature on the portrait reads White, and a small printer's imprint is illegible. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NARA 515048, local id 44-PA-1389.

## Who it spoke to

The archive files the sheet as a Navy war-bond appeal attributed to Halsey, with no other sponsor legible. Its audience field reads "Own forces" and its purpose field "Fundraise": this is a bond poster for sailors, not for the public at large. The record does not say when or where Halsey said or wrote the line, and none is supplied here.

The archive tags two techniques. The testimonial is the admiral himself, whose name stands in for any argument about the bonds. The name-calling is the second line.

## A pun and a slur in one sentence

The sentence turns on "break" and "broke": buying bonds both damages the enemy and keeps the buyer solvent after the war. That second half is a fair point about saving, and it is the honest part of the pitch. The first half names the enemy by an ethnic slur instead of by a state or an armed force, and it comes over a senior officer's printed name. A commander's word carries weight with the men under him. Spent on a slur, it tells them the enemy is a people.

The sheet is in this site's anti-Japanese poster gallery, under the anti-Japanese propaganda hub. Another admiral's bond appeal, Admiral King's 1943 payroll-savings poster, asks for money without naming an enemy at all. The wider Treasury campaign is on the World War II war bonds hub.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Navy Men Who Buy War Bonds Help Break the Japs (Admiral Halsey), 1943. U.S. Navy war-bond appeal attributed to Admiral W. F. Halsey Jr.; artist signed White.

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, NARA 515048, local id 44-PA-1389, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. federal work; NARA-held; Commons tag PD-USGov-Treasury).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/navy-men-war-bonds-halsey-1943/