Dr. Seuss Sucks: 7 Racist Cartoons From the Doctor
July 2, 2007 | by Jefferson | Filed Under History, People |
You all know Dr. Seuss for his beloved children’s books such as Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs & Ham. But did you know about Seuss’ activities during World War II? From 1941 until 1943, Dr. Seuss worked as a political cartoonist for the socialist New York newspaper PM, producing cartoons in favor of the American war effort. During that period, Dr. Seuss was a very liberal opponent of racism in America, particularly racism towards African Americans. However, racism towards the Japanese was an entirely different matter, as these disgusting cartoons demonstrate:
1. (October 13, 1942) A pretty straightforward racial caricature of a Japanese person:
2. (December 5, 1941) A pre-Pearl Harbor cartoon featuring Japanese as monkeys:
3. (December 12, 1941) If we don’t win the war, an ugly racial caricature of a Japanese man will be carved on Mt. Rushmore:
4. (March 5, 1942) More of Seuss’ slant-eyed Jap character:
5. (April 23, 1942) Whites who support the Japanese ask for “slant-eye” plastic surgery:
6. (February 13, 1942) Questioning the loyalty of Japanese Americans just weeks before internment was announced:
7. (June 11, 1942) Uncle Sam removes the “racial prejudice bug” from the head of Americans (hypocrisy, anyone?):
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dear friends!
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Dr. Seuss was not racist. Those are political caricatures of Hirohito. Are you telling me that every political cartoonist is racist because they all do caricatures? That’s how you tell who is being represented. Get a life or read a biography you morons.
I was with you Montague Richards until I looked at cartoon #6. If you can somehow manage to pull the wool over your eyes and not find that one any way offense, then more power to you. As for me, no fucking thanks.
Put this all in the context of history and what life was like then. Maybe you would not judge so quickly.
lr
I am amused that you called a political caricature of Emperor Hirohito, “A pretty straightforward racial caricature of a Japanese person.” It’s wonderfully egalitarian of you to refer to His Majesty The Emperor as simply “a Japanese person.” If only we could all be so guileless and see the world as through the eyes of a child.
You can EASILY tell he was racist:
Look at number (2). He’s clearly stereotyping Americans as being storks. That long-held “stork stereotype”. Damn racism! Every time I travel overseas, people point at me and whisper “stork-y American!” Yeah. It hurts my feelings.
Lets all grow up now.
- Theodore Geisel’s country had just been attacked.
- Most of these are merely caricatures of a particular person (Hirohito), not stereotypes of a whole race.
- Japanese often *do* have smaller eyes than whites (though not always)… is it racist to draw blacks as having darker skin? Clearly not. Then why are other physiological features “out of bounds”?
- As for #6, Seuss probably DID believe in a 5th column. Look around and you’ll find surveys showing an astonishingly large number of Americans believed in it back then. Some still believe that it was there to this day. There’s some racism to that. But a lot of people also believed that there was a German 5th column operating in the United States, too. Were those people “racist” against WHITES?
The chronology says it all:
—first—
Up until Panel 6, they are clearly just jabs at Emperor Hirohito himself. Not racist, but rather “anti-Hirohito”. Directed at a person, not a group.
—next—
I find it interesting that in February 1942, Seuss says: “[Beware of a possible fifth column attack … possible spies within the United States.]” (PANEL 6)
—next—
Then the Japanese internment announcement comes out, and the U.S. government starts to lock up ALL Japanese, even little kids, rather than just investigating which ones might possibly be spies.
—next—
THEN, in response, in summer of 1942, Dr. Seuss is saying: “We need to get rid of these racist ideas, and eradicate racism.” (PANEL 7)
Panels 6 & 7 seem to clearly indicate that Seuss was worried about the military ramifications of a “second surprise attack”. But when he sees his government over-react with racist policies, he quickly changes course, as if to say “I worry for my country. I, too, am scared, but all of this has gone too far! We can’t treat people this way.”
When read in chronological order, and when examined closely, I find his views to be alarmist, but clearly not racist.
[…] beloved cultural figures. Take for instance these WWII political cartoons by socialist illustrator Dr. Seuss or the oft mentioned racism of Walt Disney . Should we hold these men and women responsible for […]
You’ve got to watch these things embedded in history. Since you seem to be so young you know little of it, they will always catch you out.
[…] You can see the other cartoons in the set at Who Sucks. […]
This guy was not a racist.The only reason he made these pics was
because Hirohito was allied with Hitler.He hated the the bad apples in the basket,not all apples.
I definatly think he wasn’t racis at all, you have got to think about life at the time, the word racist is over used these days.
Good sentiments in the comments, but bad history-those are not caricatures of Emperor Hirohito, but of then Prime Minster Hideki Tojo.
These and racist cartoons by other respected people of the time are especially funny in hindsight with all we know now about the so-called Pearl Harbor ‘attacks.’
It all goes to show that inciting bloodlust in a nation through propaganda, whether it’s done by ‘our side’ or ‘their side’ makes people show the worst of themselves and their culture.
haha im chinese n i love this. hahah
did you forget that there was a world war going on
[…] You can see the other cartoons in the set at Who Sucks. […]
oh no, being racist agaisnt someone who attacks you how wrong u are just a bunch of sissies that really wish the whole world would walk all over the US. At least no one would get offended that way. Ill bet the pictures of us over in Japan were 100x worse back then. We gotta stop worrying about offending every single little culture especially when theyre are enemies and thats why well lose the war on terrorism if it stays like it is today, we fight them and support them
what the hell - saying these arent racist??? Just because they were drawn/written in a period of history where tension was high it doesnt make them any less racist. yes its easy to look back and wag the finger now, but thats the point, we have progressed and come on as people. Racial stereotypes ARE racist, in their very nature, thats the point of them.
Propoganda byt both sides was appaling, so im not here to say the US was bad and the Japanese were guilt free. It happened everywhere and te fact of the matter is it shouldnt have, except you still see propoganda today, and it still streams out of the US, unfortunately affecting more people than some people realise.
They’re caricatures - they’re not as racist as this page makes out! Look in any satirical paper, or even in the editorial of papers like the Times and you’ll see similar caricatures of our own politicians - they are supposed to be grotesque representations of someone’s facial features - Hideki Tojo in this case.
It’s not a portrait, but that doesn’t make it racist!
Also, the cartoons are regarding a war in Japan, hence the Japanese appearing in them. Do cartoons about terrorists go down as being racist today? Just as terrorists are the enemy of the US today, the Japanese were the enemy of the US then. We can’t judge these cartoons on today’s standards.
I don’t think these caricatures are racist. They seems rather mild even in comparison with our current political cartoons. Many Americans were much more prejudiced against Japanese even years after WWII, angered by Pearl Harbor and the nation’s traditional anti-Caucasian prejudice.
The only cartoons that gave me pause were those about a fifth column. I wonder if he did anything about the German-American Bund who was supportive of Germany.
The 5th cartoon I believe referred to the French Nazi collaborator Laval who had French Vichy troops fight a Brith led action against Madagascar that was designed to prevent a strategic port use by Japanese submarins. (Based on a little web research–I’m not sure on this).
The only one that would be offensive is the 6th one, accusing Japanese Americans of being spies. I don’t see why its alright to caricaturize hitler and the Germans but not the Japanese. Both were our enemies, so I think its perfectly fine to draw them in an unpleasant manner.
#6 is the only offensive one. The rest are political caricatures.
#6 was drinking the Liberal Kool Aid.
Wedding Portrait Photographers International…
A true professional in any field will be the first to admit that there…
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As Guy Canivet, first president of the Court of Cassation, wrote about the management of prisons Freedom is the rule, and its restriction…
These comics aren’t about race, theyre about pointing fingers at political “enemies” (you political views may differ, but this is the perceived enemy the artist wished to portray) in caricature style. In this case, one of the opponents happens to be Japanese, so the result of the caricature will obviously include an exaggeration of his eyes, as well as the rest of his features.
The bottom line is that caricatures are MEANT to exaggerate human facial features. Would anyone accuse this caricature of Nicole Kidman as being racist towards Australians? (http://www.hemmy.net/images/celebrities/celebritycaricatures01.jpg) No one would say so, because she happens to be white, and it’s rendered in the conventions of the style. It’s not fair to claim racism just because the person characterized in this example happens to be Japanese. Throwing out the race card at any available opportunity (even when it doesn’t apply, like in this case) will not alleviate racial inequalities. It will only cause more divide.
However, I DO agree that comic #5 shows questionable taste…
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C’mon guys look at every single CURRENT Japanese anime out there, all Anglo persons are portrayed with eyes as big as saucers! OOOOOH so should I, as an Anglo be all upset, and cry out racism??? NO!!! Get over it. The guy drew cartoons to make a living, it was his job. Have you ever had to do anything for your job that you didn’t neccesarily agree with, or enjoy? I know I have. My family immigrated from Ireland, my forefathers were forced to fight in the civil war, was that racism?? NO!!! By the way, my kids can’t get funding from the “United Negro College fund”, should I cry out racism??? No!!! Get over yourself you bleeding heart, whiny, little pissant. It’s history, you can’t change it. Why don’t you concentrate on doing something to change the future!!! If you’re always looking back at things that happened behind you, you may stumble, and fall over what’s right in front of you.
#1 is the most offensive because government bonds have a terrible return on equity - often less than real inflation!
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Considering that the World was at war,I think the governments and propogandists of Axis or Allied countries would have used every trick in the book to influence their own people.Dr Seuss was only doing his duty for his country during a tumultuous period of world history. It is easy to look back and criticise their actions in times like ours when the majority of nations are not being threatened by large scale offensive actions.
I would like to add that dr seuss is not refering to the Japanese as monkeys but as being bossed around by the Germans. Second of all the person that made this article should find a better hobb and learn about a thing called context.
well, this is a year old, but since there are recent comments, i’ll comment anyway:
anyone who thinks these representations aren’t racist are not japanese. neither am i, but i do know that for one, emperor hirohito DIDN’T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THAT. if you think that he does look ‘kinda’ like that, you aren’t seeing his face, but only his japanese-ness. and hey, that is what (one particularl form) of racism is.
historical racism is still racism. if you look into the history of it, americans were interred for being of japanese descent. so tell me, commenters, if you were jailed here for having an irish grandma, or a german father, would that be racist? and isn’t it interesting that people of german descent were largely -not- interred during world war 2? history my ass. people -at the time- thought this shit was racist. because it -is-. i mean really, if we were talking about the racist depictions of jews in german propaganda of the time, would you be saying ‘well, you have to think of the historical context’? uhuh.
and 5 and 6 have nothing to do with hirohito and only to do with a- the idea that if you think japanese people shouldn’t be interred you must want to be japanese (and not just, you know, stand for social justice) and b- racist logic.
no japanese americans were found spying for japan during world war 2. if dr. seuss thought they were all ‘awaiting orders from home’, that was racist. because that wasn’t home. they were americans. just like my mom, who was alive during world war 2, and had 2 immigrant parents (who, luckily for her, weren’t japanese).
and additionally, you might notice that -all- of the japanese people depicted in look not only the same as eachother, but specifically look like -the- standard prevalent racist caricature of asian people and oh, look, exactly like seuss’s take on emperor hirohito.
This is a perfect example of the softness that this country has evolved into in the last 60-70 years. Do you remember Pearl Harbor? Wasn’t it them that attacked us? Why no Hitler racism remarks if you want to be fair about it? Take your soft ass to Japan
and leave this country that so many have given their lives for so you didn’t have to learn Japanese or German. Fuck you !!
34: really? did you even read any of the comments here? it’s not racist against hitler, becuase those caricatures -look- like hitler. have you ever seen hirohito? and can you explain the one where it has all the same face on japanese AMERICANS and implies (or explies) that they are waiting for orders from japan to move against their own country? you are aware that many japanese americans gave THEIR lives so you could be free to spew stupid (and i mean that literally, because you are not intelligently racist) racist shit in these comments?
and by the way, who died so so all the native americans would have to learn english? oh, right native americans did.
japan did horrible things during that war. horrible. the very very least of which were perpetrated on americans. calling out racism is very different than forgiving horrible shit. you of course can’t tell the difference because you are stubbornly ignorant.