Purpose: The serial was designed to sell tickets and make involved parties money, which it did to a degree of success that inspired a television show in later years.
This artifact, unlike others, was neither propaganda nor news, but fictional entertainment. This allows it to reflect the mood of the American people, as the creators wanted to sell their product they would craft it in a way that would be appealing to their customers and in this case align with their ideology. While not as extremely racist as many other things at the time, racism obviously bleeds through. The villain, Dr. Daka, is Japanese and is characterized by an accent, thin slits for eyes, and his offering of many praises to the emperor Hirohito as well as his overall evilness. In this serial Batman is also a US agent, so it puts an American icon up against what is seen as a Japanese power to show the American superiority. Batman also refers to Daka derogatorily as a “murdering Jap”. Daka is also seen at the end of the serial raising a knife to stab a woman in the back much like another one of our sources. The overall anti-Japanese feel to the movie portrays the average American feeling relatively well, and is echoed by the success of the film.
