Election posters from socialist and working class parties from the February 1928 Japanese general election, the first one after the introduction of universal suffrage. These parties ranged from “the moderate Social Democratic Party (Shakai Minshūtō) to the centrist Japan Labor-Farmer Party (Nihon Rōnōtō) to the rurally based Japan Farmers’ Party (Nihon Nōmintō) to the decidedly communist Labor-Farmer Party (Rōdō Nōmintō).” The captions, quoted material, and information for each poster comes from MIT’s excellent Visualizing Cultures website and their article on political protest in 1920s and 1930s Japan, written by Christopher Gerteis.
1) Masculine imagery was a common visual signifier of political strength. This 1928 poster portrays five male workers stridently expressing their support for five leftist parties running in prefectural assembly elections, and extols workers to “Come under the banner of the United Front.” (1928) [PA0646]
2) This avant-garde poster, produced by the Japan Labor-Farmer Party during the lead-up to the 1928 election, portrays a double-stacked factory chained to a pick and hoe—obvious symbols of the worker-farmer alliance envisioned by party organizers. Red stacks and smoke convey the leftist origins of the movement; the crossed hoe and shovel resemble the communist hammer and sickle. The chains seem symbolic of the idea that farmers and workers had reason to vote as a bloc—despite facing different social and economic problems—and suggest the leftist call for workers and peasants to throw off political, economic, and societal chains. (1928) [PA0623]
3) The main text reads:
Ōhashi Harufusa Official candidate for the Labor-Farmer Party Principles of the Labor-Farmer Party: Give the workers food and work! Guarantee land for the cultivators! Liberty for all the people!
1928 [PA0322]
4) This poster lays out the three pillars of the Japan Labor-Farmer Party platform: “Bread, Justice, and Liberty.” It was produced for Asō Hisashi, party chairman and candidate for parliament in the constituency that included the Ashio Copper Mine, where worker unrest had precipitated many of the government’s labor and policing policies. (1928) [PA0002]
5) In this 1928 poster, candidate Taman Kiyoomi of the Social Democratic Party bluntly declares that “In order to secure the livelihood of the working masses I need your vote.” (1928) [PA0623]
6) Although produced by one of the leftwing parties, this 1928 poster does not feature the party’s name, but rather concentrates on promoting candidate Imai Kakō as “the ‘number one’ [first] vote under universal suffrage.” A masculine figure is posed holding a placard with Imai’s name up to the sun (labeled “general election”). To the left, Imai’s name is printed in large, formal Chinese characters (kanji); the name on the placard contains simplified script (katakana), used to assist the less-literate. This was important—the official ballots used kanji, and it was uncertain whether the newly-enfranchised men could read them. (1928) [PA0084]
