Japan Rules the Ocean

This 1942 wartime propaganda poster proclaims “Nippon mengoeasai laoetan”, “Japan rules the ocean.” Published during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, it glorified Japan’s naval power and dominance across the Pacific. Such imagery was used to assert Japan’s military superiority and reinforce the ideology of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, portraying Japan as the rightful leader of Asia’s liberation from Western colonial rule.