Dr. Seuss Sucks: 7 Racist Cartoons From the Doctor
July 2, 2007 | by Jefferson | Filed Under History, People |
Note: Dr. Seuss had an IQ of 117. Are you smarter than him? Take this IQ test and find out!
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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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…
child french learn spanish…
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.
oh how the times have changed. well… not in this country anyway.
lmao those cartoons were fuckin hilarious
How come nothing is mentioned about the way he portrayed Hitler?
How come you didn’t point out that he’s trying to say that all German’s have small mustaches, defined chins and dark hair?
What made you focus on JUST the Japanese characters?
Do I sense a bit of Japanese racism in the fact that you are trying so hard to point out his “racism”?
I don’t think he was racist at all. I merely think he was proving a point and trying to make both characters look recognizable to anyone who saw the picture.
dear The Lord[ess],
from comment 35: “it’s not racist against hitler, because 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?”
it doesn’t seem like seuss gets that the actual carvings on mount rushmore can be seen as offensive also.
Is it wrong if these don’t offend me?
I AM SO disappointed in Dr. Seuss! What a shame.
Dr. Seuss was not racist. For proof check out these cartoons he drew in the 1940s:
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/Racism.html
drawing cartoons against one form of racism while propagating another form in other cartoons doesn’t make you ‘not racist’. thinking racist things about asian people and not black people doesn’t make you not racist. it’s not an all or nothing situation.
Anyone old enough to actually remember the reasons for isolationism in America during the Great Depression, and all the pre-World War Two years, an America between two oceans when air travel was practically impossible except for a very few, and radio-telephone connections were not too reliable, knows better than to dwell too much on this “racism” thing. Don’t judge these cartoons by today’s standards. That’s much too easy.
America in 1941 was in a very vulnerable, militarily unprepared, financially weak position. Certainly there was a racist background.
But, remember context, read history. The early months after the Japanese attack on America’s Hawaiian Islands were fearful, and the future in doubt. Read about the era, and remember the importance of context. Don’t jump to conclusions.
Dr. Seuss would probably say the same thing.
Additionally (to #45), look up “East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” and “Japanese Racism” for the pre-World War II period which is more specific. Look up “Yasukuni” war shrine. Racism is apparent today in modern Japan, in their more quietly promoted xenophobia. This originates from the sense of entitlement and superiority in the Japanese mythological past. Here will be seen part of the “context” of that era.
unfortunately, charles, a lot of americans who are old enough to remember that period are of japanese descent, and maybe don’t remember it quite how our white authored history books explain it.
as for japanese xenophobia, that is totally irrelevant. an irish person (from ireland i mean) could hold horribly racist beliefs and that wouldn’t change the fact that the irish suffered under the british for centuries. and i’d also posit that it’s irrelevant because japanese people in japan are -not- americans of japanese descent and to conflate the two is in itself problematic.
you can judge history from our perspective for several reasons, not the least of which is that people -at that time- thought it was racist and unfair. japanese-american people suffered because of the ideas being endorsed here, and you are naive to think that people at that time didn’t know that. especially when you include japanese-americans in your definition of “people”. besides, if it was so hard to communicate, how were the (stereotypically drawn) people in panel 6 supposed to be receiving their “signal”?
You still have cartoonist with seeming good set of morals and then something happens and they are convinced that a little racism is OK.
In 2005 Danzinger created an editorial cartoon showing scientist unearthing a roulette wheel at an Abenaki archaeological site. Examining the “artwork” carefully one finds in very small print “Sweat Lodge Casino.” This racist portrayal of Indians heritage as casino operators outraged Native Americans across the country. Previously a respected editorialist, he currently is seldom featured in any of Vermont’s newspapers.
Being a little bit racist is like being a little bit pregnant
I don’t find these racist. They are out of taste and style now. The US was at war… with Japan… Hello why would there not be unflattering caricatures of Japanese people. It is like all the cartoons that came out after 911 about middle eastern people. I’m not saying it is right but since it was published in a paper it couldn’t have been that controversial at the time. I think that pulling it out of context is wrong and it is intentionally making it look racist. Everything you read about the late Dr. Suess says that he was against racism. Even cartoon number six if put back in context of time and event that was the feeling of most americans.
brtjson: you can’t be serious? those caricatures of middle eastern people are -also- racist. and the US was -not- at war with japan during this time. somehow the pictures of german people actually -look- like the people they are portraying. again i have to ask, have you ever seen hirohito? the pictures of hitler are recognizable as hitler, no matter what context you put it in or whether you say who is in the picture. if you saw that racist caricature of hirohito and it said ‘jackie chan’, you’d think it looked like jackie chan. if you just saw it with no caption, you wouldn’t guess it was anyone in particular.
I am deeply offended by these cartoons, as I do not believe they are insulting enough of Japanese people. The caricatures appear to only depict Hirohito, when in fact they should have been directed towards all Japanese people! And, not just during the war, but the Japanese today!
I think it’s almost quaint how many people on here bend over backwards to cry these pictures of the Japanese aren’t racist, or at least “racialist,”–giving the most bizarre apologist defenses. Look, Dr. Seuss was a man of his time. He did not live in some magical bubble. During his era, it was rather mainstream to draw upon racial caricatures to depict non-white (or at least non Anglo Saxon) peoples—blacks, Jews, Asians, Irish, etc. He was no more immune from that than anyone else. Does that make him a card carrying member of the Aryan Brotherhood? Doubtful. JRR Tolkien hated Aryanism, yet his works are filled with dubious references with “racialist” (perhaps not *racist*) overtones. For Dr. Seuss, these cartoons simply make him a complicated figure who, despite a genius with cartooning and numerous social issues, was affected by “whiteness” and the every day racism that was part of mainstream Americana culture–just like the rest of us. Perhaps instead of telling others to “get over it” we should just accept his complications and (judging from the comments on this board) deal with our own.
amen, #52.
While obviously these cartoons are racist and this is a bad thing (not only for the dehumanization of the enemy but also in distracting from the real reasons to fight way) I believe them to be largely forgivable in light of the context. All except for #6, that is. With that cartoon Geisel was betraying American people and making the battle one of racial, rather than national or political lines. Unforgivable, considering the appalling treatment of Japanese Americans that Geisel and his ilk helped legitimize.
As much as I would like to believe that Dr. Seuss was not a racist, he was. All those people who keep on saying that it is simply a sketch of Hirohito are full of it. Look at a picture of Hirohito during WW2, he looked nothing like what Dr. Seuss has drawn.
While the California cartoon could be racist, it’s just as racist as the actual internment policy–therefore nearly everyone in the US Government was a villain. The other cartoons are caricatures of the enemy and they’re meant to be insulting. They’re offensive to the rest of us now..not then. If we were at war with Sweden, you can bet hot looking blondes would have been turned into caricatures and fifty years after we pulverized them we’d be embarrassed by our insensitivity. We were at war, the Japanese were the bad guys. In modern America the sensitivty pendulum has swung so far the other way that few if any would make a cartoon depicting a terrorist for fear of offending the non-terrorist members of the same religion or background. And there are plenty of organizations that make a business out of being perpetually offended.
frank, you obviously haven’t seen a satirical political cartoon in the past 10 years. there is so much overt racism against arab people. the ’sensitivity pendulum?’ yeah, god forbid we (and your we is clearly white folks, i mean, you do know that japanese americans existed during world war 2 right? you do realize that they found that shit offensive -at the time-. does it not count because they’re “japanese”?) anyway, our own freaking president was portrayed as a muslim terrorist (and his wife as a ‘miltant black person’, which reads as terrorist to most folks). god forbid we should pay any attention to how innocent people feel about being caricatured as terrorists and spies just because of their ethnicity. how ’sensitive’.
my favorite part of your comment was “Therefore nearly everyone in the US Government was a villain”. on the nose! and entirely the point.
Listen! You ignorant people, if he was trying to be racially incorrect and mean he would’ve come straight out and yelled profanities at them. These were difficult times and people needed a nicer way of getting the news on what really was happening. Seuss provided a favor for the american public, not a racial indignity.
josh - what? they needed a nicer way of getting the news? how are racist caricatures (and again, have you ever -seen- hirohito? i bet a person who saw only this cartoon could not pick him out of a line up, because the cartoon looks nothing like him. while hitler looks like hitler for sure). how is that a nice way to get news? japanese-americans were -NOT- spying on the US, or at least no one ever found any evidence that they were. and it’s been almost 70 years. so that cartoon isn’t news. it’s unfounded, racist lies. you do know that japanese americans in the US were interned for simply being of japanese descent. seuss justified that treatment (which is otherwise unjustifiable) with this shit. that is not ok. we live in difficult times now, but aren’t we allowed to call out racism when we see it now?
oh wait, we aren’t.
[…] asymptote? me: It’s so fucking hilarious in how everyone is so fearful of the smart asian It’s sickening on a dr. seussian level 9:08 PM NO SERENA don’t go down this road BARTENDERS OF NEW YORK, YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR […]
It doesn’t matter whether they were actually spying or not. What matters is that they could’ve been. What matters is that there was no way to tell to which side they would be loyal.
In a war, you don’t take chances. In a war, “civil rights” take a backseat to national security.
I don’t buy into the myth of WWII as a “good war” or even a necessary one, but judging the security precautions taken by the U.S. government of that time by the multicult PC morality of our day is ridiculous. Do you think whites in Asia were treated any better by the Japanese? Read J. G. Ballard’s autobiographical Empire of the Sun for a firsthand account of how a British boy was put in an internment camp by the Japanese, and the types of horrific sights he saw during those years.
I’m not saying it’s right, but hey, in wartime sh*t happens. Grow up and accept it.
If WWIII ever breaks out, believe me, they’ll set up internment camps just like they did in WWII (and I’ll probably be in one).
we can accept that it happened -and- accept that it’s racist. do you think it’s ok to intern muslim people now?
how did they know if german people would have loyalties in the US or germany?
7 Racist Cartoons From the Doctor.
[…] Master [Cartoon]. (1941, December 5). Retrieved November 10, 2009, from: http://www.who-sucks.com/people/dr-seuss-sucks-7-racist-cartoons-from-the-doctor […]
[…] What have you done today [Cartoon]. (1942, March 5). Retrieved November 9, 2009, from: http://www.who-sucks.com/people/dr-seuss-sucks-7-racist-cartoons-from-the-doctor […]
Dr. Seuss has really very strong racial intention toward Japanese, anyway the cartoons are quite creative.
Anyway these are very cute cartoons, although there are something regarding racism, they are very impressive.
you gotta say these are funny cartoons,but i totally agree with learn speak Chinese. it was a little bit of racism if not a lot.it was his job back then anyway.
OK, at first I thought “Well, the reason the pictures all look the same is because they’re all of the same person, ?? ?? (Tojo Hideki, or Hideki Tojo in English, the Japanese prime minister at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor).” The caricature is kind of racist, but it’s a caricature, and let’s face it, Tojo was one ugly-looking dude IRL. Even though I’m Asian and a bit hypersensitive at times, it didn’t really bother me; war and all that.
Then I got to picture #6.
Wow.
Oh Wow.
Holy sh**.
That’s possibly the most racist cartoon I’ve ever seen.
Lampooning, even demonizing, the leader of an enemy nation during wartime is one thing. Accusing an entire ethnic group of fellow Americans of treason… Sure, I know there were others who said the same thing at the time, and worse, but that doesn’t make it forgivable.
I don’t think I’ll be able to read One Fish, Two Fish to my kids again without some serious misgivings.
I think I lost another little bit of my childhood from reading that.
haha you guys fail the one with the plastic surgery is number 5, not number 6
You people are stupid, do you remember those Japanese and nazis were our enemies? You people are soft skinned pantie wastes.
How is #5 [(April 23, 1942) Whites who support the Japanese ask for “slant-eye” plastic surgery] NOT racist?
As a Vietnamese-American, I find this a prime example of stereotyping and racism.
Certainly got us thinking here are work, expect a few replies later.
it seems al won’t be happy till he shoves what he thinks down your throat. hHe is just like the racists he cries about, yes he is racist against your thinking. This same guy would run a cartoon of ex-pres Bush as a monkey and think nothing of it. He is too busy just like Obama and the rest of the ultra liberal left apologising for America who really deep inside hate the USA.. too bad he cannot extrapolate or keep things in context, it was a different time.. you should see the Chinese cartoons of USA, something tells me al would say we deserved it.
hey al… germans were looked down upon here in America My whole family is german. My grandfather told of how he couldn’t get a job because he was german do some homework for once instead of eating off the liberal tree. the fact is they didn’t know asi just showed. al is talking out his ass cause he hates America.
Frank makes a great point, there are groups who are perpetually offended no matter what….take the American Indians and their disdain for Christopher Columbus…. saying they brought disease and such… are they implying that no one would have come to this country from Europe.. ever? in 200 years no one would ever come here or explore? that’s totally ridiculous. Is every county or land owner to give it back to the original owners? how would this all work? it makes no logical sense. Hindsight is truly 20/20.
I don’t have slanted eyes, but Seuss implied that it’s a bad thing. The fact that he didn’t talk bad about Germans’ “big” eyes or nose shows that he has a biased and racist slant, no pun intended.
Poor tim, awww still angry huh? as I stated before it seems some people can’t function unless they are involved in some controversy. I am confidant if it wern’t this… it would be something else. I bet if we looked back in your history we would find some chilling things to get very very angry about. And i guarentee you won’t want to be judged on it, and I bet you would make some excuse or blame someone or something. get a life it’s over it’s the past.
Indeed britannicaontheholocaust makes a great point. America or Dr. Seus did not torture enemy combatants. But we know all too well that Japan did. It was WAR….
These queery ultra liberal pretentious elitist creeps will have us believe that they are the most loving people that ever existed, yet read their hatred for others who disagree with them, people they look down upon as lowly peasants who are not worthy to walk the same ground as they.
I love the fact that it’s only a minority that feels that Dr. Seus is some horrible racist… in fact “The Lorax” gets more votes for being offensive.. and the Lorax was a tree-hugger!
david, how about I say your mom’s an ugly, dumb slut who gave birth to an idiot and then say, “Poor david, awww still angry huh? as I stated before it seems some people can’t function unless they are involved in some controversy. I am confidant if it wern’t this… it would be something else. I bet if we looked back in your history we would find some chilling things to get very very angry about. And i guarentee you won’t want to be judged on it, and I bet you would make some excuse or blame someone or something. get a life it’s over it’s the past.”
Also if I use your excuses for racism, I can also say the white colonists and slave-owners are big nosed albino monkeys.
[…] Check out some of his lovely cartoons here – most people don’t know that during the Second World War Dr. Seuss made political cartoons that were not only flat out anti-Japanese, but anti-Japanese American. I get the anti-Japanese sentiment; we were at war with the country of Japan. (I don’t think it was right, but I get that.) What I can’t forgive though is his anti-Japanese American cartoons. He — like too many people of his day — didn’t understand that there was a fundamental difference between those from Japan and those that were born and living in the United States. The most offensive cartoon shows Japanese Americans waiting in line to get instructions from Japan; the idea, of course, being that our loyalties were in question. Needless to say, he did not make similar cartoons for people of Italian or German descent. I wonder why. […]
Tim.. typical… call me names… don’t stick to the subject… liberals make me laugh, and thank you for proving my point.. boy are you angry. you complain so much you have run out of ways to do it, so you just paste my own words after you use vulgar words..(which is odd cause you’re also saying using hurtfull words is wrong) but that won’t stop a flaming angry liberal, because you have so-called “good intentions” and as we all know with liberals… the ends justifies the means.
ahem.. guess what I found, a cartoon from Dr. Sues about Germans…. looks like you people were so very wrong. I await the excuses to why and how from Tim and other hate loving liberals trying to save face. Also… everyone here seems to “generalize” Implying that each and every Japanese in America was loyal…. I say and by Tims own words that of “the ends justifies the means” that it was nessasary, Tim couldn’t wait to use the very words (and had no problem using them)he says are very wrong. Obviously Tim thought they had some good use, just as Dr. Sues thought so too. And Tim smiles after using those words ….. wow
man he is gay thats why he is dead
You just burnt my childhood to the ground.
April 9, 1942, the infamous “Death March” 6 days, 90 miles, began at the Mariveles terminating at Camp O’Donnell and later moved to Camp Cabanatuan. According to Japanese Plans these P.O.W’s were to be moved by foot, carrying their own rations to the border of Bataan and Pampango. The main stage of the Death March was set at Mariveles, at the southern tip of Bataan Peninsula. Troops started to march in a long column on a dusty road without food and water. For many of the Bloody, frail men, this was the last march. One man fell from exhaustion and was then flatten by a tank, as all the other troops witnessed this horrible action, other soldiers were hit by Japanese trucks passing by. The P.O.W’s were forced to stand next to a fresh stream but weren’t allowed to drink from it, even though they were exhausted and dehydrated , after a while one soldier could not take it any more, he ran to the stream and fell in, face first, to drink. Immediately one of the Japanese guards ran over, pulled his sword out and cut his head off. A great many men reached the end of their endurance. The dropouts became numerous. They fell on the roadside, some making no effort to rise. Groaning and weeping, some succeeded while others fell back helplessly. As the march continued, the diseased, starving men staggered up the dusty road, prodded by the Japanese guards to keep moving. As one soldier was dying, he cried for water. He died on the dusty road. The heat of the day was so intense that they were half crazy from thirst. They arrived at a small stream that was contaminated with filthy water, a bloated corpse filled with maggots, this filthy stream the P.O.W’s were allowed to drink from , as the Japanese guards laughed at them. Death March ended after 6 days, where the P.O.W’s boarded a train to the Death Camp.
[…] given Dr. Seuss’ history of drawing racist propaganda in his early years. For more on that, click HERE. However, as one Professor just noted to me, “it seems anyone in tune enough to know the history of […]
[…] given Dr. Seuss’ history of drawing racist propaganda in his early years. For more on that, click HERE. However, as one Professor just noted to me, “it seems anyone in tune enough to know the history of […]
Everytime I look at one of these sites where some intellectual has posted his version of history I realize how doomed we are as a country. I am sure according to you every man and woman who served during WWII was also a racist as they also used slang names and spewed hatred towards those we were at war with.
Give me a break! Find something productive to do with your time instead of trying to drag down one of the greatest children’s book authors of all time.
There sure are a lot of asinine comments here about Seuss caricaturing “only” our political enemies. Did any of you geniuses understand what cartoon #6 was about? Seuss portrayed ALL Japanese people, including American citizens loyal to the Constitution, as buck-toothed slant-eyes. That’s a textbook example of racism.
Every American who wanted to imprison these loyal Japanese Americans, up to and including Franklin Delano Roosevelt, WAS a racist. They discriminated on the basis of race, which is the textbook definition of racism.
poor rob… just like every other liberal here… if you want to apologise for your racist history fine.. but to say you know exactly what or why this was done by Dr. Sues shows your extreme bias. Just as our so-called president “Obummer” goes abroad to apologise for America at every speech, he does so under the guise he cares,,, no so.. this is all done to make it appear that he cares. the biggest racists in our countries history were all liberals…senator Byrd Dem, was an imperial wizard in the KKK…. remember Wallace and his stand against segregation?… DEM again…how about ex-pres Clinton noting that “obummer” would have been serving him a few years back…. these are the people who cry foul.. as they sock another home run to separatism and fascism. it’s too bad you don’t try and better yourself other than pointing out how superior you are others you want to tear down.
All this to hide the fact, this is who they really are.
So Ron… it’s clear to see how you even enjoy saying,”Seuss portrayed ALL Japanese people, including American citizens loyal to the Constitution, as buck-toothed slant-eyes”
Look through these posts.. the only people who write or repeat any slander here are the ones who say they are against it. I find this the stranger than anything else discussed here
you guys are stupid he was just paid to do this also if you say that #6 is the worst then well that’s wrong. Sure there were some japenese americans rooting for us to lose, but that doesn’t mean that they were going to do something. You should a little more reasearch before you make some uninformed comment also you really are discrimanating more than 35% of americans from different disents.
why has nobody made mention of the history of ‘white’ america? power differentials? racist immigration policies? these events all recorded. for reading. these cartoons were in context to the INTERMENT of AMERICANS. none of whom were SPIES. many of whom served our country, many of whom were HONORABLY discharged–while their families remained behind BARS. the american government needed a supposedly liberal anti-racist public figure to support their unethical and radical stance–then it would have to be ‘okay.’ sheesh, talk about context. it. is. racist. and give me a break. you mean to say that THAT caricature LOOKS like the emperor of the time? no, it looks like a very general, purposefully more-ugly-than-usual (given the nature of caricatures), exaggerated racist depiction of an asian person…with one cartoon likening an asian face to a sneer (hence, making fun of and generalizing asian features). talk about the psychology of prejudice. and take your crap about other white ‘minorities’ of the time as a parallel example of ‘mistreatment’ somewhere where dumb asses who have never picked up a history book will read it.
people who cry foul here are doing it all under the guise of caring.. not one of these so-called liberals cares at all…. it’s just something to hate America with. that’s all.
“no one on” is spot on here…. he was paid, times were different…. this was all done to strengthen our resolve against japan in the war…sure it looks racist now.
But people like shawna would have you believe that they are so righteous and good and clean..as I stated earlier if we saw into shawna’s past we would see such evil.. it would make us sick. and that goes for everyone.
Look how we build up people just to tear them down… shawna should be ashamed to call someone who cannot defend themselves a racist… and she cannot know what goes on back then..she cannot know at all, the best she can do is make up something that fits for her idea of Dr. Suess.
Too accuse someone and not have every bit of info needed to make a SOUND judgement is just hackneyed kneejerk reaction. Be disgusted at you rown ugliness, IN OTHER WORDS: REMOVE THE SHAFT FROM YOUR EYE, BEFORE YOU TRY AND REMOVE THE SPLINTER FROM MINE!
…he-he I guarantee if the world was perfect tomorrow and no one ever died and all was paradise and death and sorrow were gone… there would be people lined up around the block to write paragraph after paragraph about how terrible certain people appeared to be in the past….
I think everyone who is bashing Dr. Seuss should be held to every single misgiving and misdeed including everything they never told anyone or got caught doing.(don’t lie people we all have)… and you all will have it better than Dr. Seuss.. you will be able to respond and apologise and whatever (unlike our dear Doctor) and this brings up a great point, does this all mean that Dr. Seuss never made amends or repented? …..ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Does everyone remember the Dr. Seuss story of the “Star bellied Sneeches”? This story was against racism….do your homework people!!!!