Tojo a Rat in Puyallup Evacuee's War-Bond Poster

Tojo, to the Japanese at Camp Harmony, is a rat, and the young artists of the evacuation center draw him like a rat.

Hitler and Mussolini are rats, too, because the evacuees blame them as much as Tojo for getting them out of their homes and normal life into a center of 7,200 persons on the outskirts of Puyallup.

So well did Keith Oka, former Edison Vocational School student in Seattle, portray the three Axis partners as vermin that his poster on the subject was displayed in a recent Victory Parade in Puyallup, was shown in the window of a Puyallup store and now is in a Camp Harmony art exhibit.

To Be Stamped Out.

Oka painted a war-bond poster showing Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini as three rats about to be stamped out with a huge foot. On the sole of the foot is a war stamp.

Another effective poster by Oka shows an American soldier lying dead, with this legend:

"This boy gave ... will you lend?"

Sho Kaneku and Mas Tsutakawa, former fine-arts students in the University of Washington; Hisashi Hirai, former Seattle commercial artist, and Motoi Naito, Tsutomu Saito, Sadao Nakagawa and Paul Hiyama, also from Seattle, are others at Camp Harmony who have been making war-bond posters.

"We want to get rid of this war, and the men who started it," Oka said yesterday. "That's why we do these posters and will do anything we think will help the United States -- our country."

From the date of internment in mid-May to July 1, evacuees at Puyallup have purchased $8,250 in war bonds and stamps. George Minato, who directed a war-bond drive in Seattle before evacuation for the Seattle chapter of the Japanese-American Citizens' League, is in charge of bond and stamp sales at Camp Harmony.

Blood-Bank Drive Planned

In another demonstration of loyalty, Camp Harmony residents plan to take part in a blood-bank drive sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce County civilian-defense organization.

Besides the war bond posters, the art department headed by Oka turns out scores of other posters for the camp, the Army and civilian uses.

And there's nothing Japanese about the evacuees' art room -- the typical American girl whose face and figure are on the wall is Betty Grable, and the biggest poster in the place is one advertising a "hillbilly" dance for the camp's young folks.

JAPANESE POSTER APPEALS TO U.S.

[Photo caption]: Standing at the side of these two vigorous war-bond posters is Keith Oka, Japanese evacuee from Seattle, who runs the art department at Camp Harmony, Puyallup, and clearly visualizes a Jap warlord as a rat. His poster also shows he visualizes Hitler and Mussolini as the same kind of vermin. The poster of the prone American soldier with its effective "THIS BOY GAVE -- will you lend?" also is Oka's.

[Photo caption]: Sho Kaneku, left, and Mas Tsutakawa, former University of Washington students, also are turning out war-bond posters, which have been on public display in Puyallup. They are standing beside their posters, which show they think of tanks, guns and ammunition as the result of war-bond sales.