<sigh> It's true, heroes really do have feet of clay, this WWII cartoon made me sad

[Fumesucker]

Until just a few minutes ago I had no idea one of my favorite children's authors would do something so.. so.. I really don't want to use the words.

[Marrah_G]

1. Sadly it was a different time

And what was considered acceptable and funny is very different from how things are now.

Really sad to see who drew that

[Hanzip]

17. Not really at all

Put cartoon turbans on those chaps and give them beards and that cartoon could have been drawn yesterday.

[Marrah_G]

23. You are right

Sadly, you are right

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

31. The difference is....

....a cartoon like the one you mentioned would not get published in a major legitimate news publication. At least not one that wasn't a bit more subtle about it.

And there would at least be an outcry. Back then, these things got printed and no one said a thing in opposition. God forbid if you did. I think it's one area we've improved.

[lunatica]

36. Sadly you're right on the mark

Welcome to DU.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. I would judge him in the context of his era, not in the context of ours.

[Fumesucker]

3. I know the era better than many and I was trying not to be judgmental

Which is why I didn't want to use the words that came to mind.

[tabasco]

10. It doesn't seem that way to me. n/t

[Fumesucker]

13. Trying and succeeding are two different things unfortunately n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. Agreed...I love this "Judge in terms of the era" nonsense, the assumption being that everyone

was simply a bigot, oh well.

Nonsense. People who actually study the 1930's and 40's know far better than that. This cartoon is indeed a disgrace, regardless of the "era." People weren't fucking stupid in the 1940's. They knew what they were doing when they made stuff like this.

[lunatica]

37. Calling them Japs and making fun of them went on well after the war was over

I remember hearing that word well into the 50s. I remember watching movies and cartoons depicting them as toothy and stupid.

[jzola]

27. I know

that era too. You are right about the words that come to mind.

[narnian60]

8. Absolutely, Cooley.

It really bugs me when people hate on some old movies or cartoons because of what they consider racist material. I am just glad we now realize by today's standards it is very wrong.

[Hanzip]

18. It's the same simply substitute Japanese with Arab

It's actually worst today than "back then"

[Fumesucker]

21. I don't disagree with that

By now you'd hope we would know better.

Then I read about the woman who pushed the Hindu man under the train in NY.

[Brickbat]

4. Have you seen "Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel"?

He is much more than just the Cat in the Hat.

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/10/dr-seusss-wartime-propaganda-cartoons/

[Fumesucker]

7. I just heard of it a little while ago and don't really want to look at any more than this one

I appreciate the link but I don't think I'm going to click on it.

[handmade34]

11. history is difficult to digest sometimes

"...The UMass Magazine explains, “As a scholar of modern Japan, Richard Minear notes Dr. Seuss’s greater harshness with Japanese, as compared with German, subjects. But taken as a whole and with the exceptions he remarks upon, he finds the characterizations ‘remarkably gentle.’” And, by 1954, Geisel had a change of heart, writing “Horton Hears a Who!” as an allegory for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the U.S. occupation of Japan after the war. He concludes that “a person’s a person,” and even dedicated the book to a Japanese friend..."

[Fumesucker]

25. I've seen quite a bit of WWII propaganda cartoons, posters and so forth

And I know the purpose of them but seeing Dr Seuss' name on that one was still a bit shocking to me, I'd never seen his war art before, didn't realize he went that far back.

[Walk away]

5. It just goes to show how far and intelligent person can evolve.

Some people stay racists forever.

[AverageJoe90]

6. He, like many others, probably got caught up in the hysteria of the times.

I can still remember the weeks & months immediately following 9/11. There was panic everywhere; in the minds of many, myself included, it was something along the lines of, "If terrorists living in caves were able to hijack a whole set of four airliners and successfully ploughed all but one of 'em into the WTCs and the Pentagon, then who knows what more sophisticated outfits could be capable of? And who knows how many secret cells are out there ready to strike at a moment's noticed?"

[deutsey]

9. I'm also a big fan of Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, etc.

of Bugs Bunny fame and remember some similar caricatures in their wartime cartoons.

It was the times, I guess.

[sir pball]

33. Bugs went way beyond caricatures..

Warning: the more sensitive here may very well never want anything to do with Warner Brothers again if they watch this. If you're easily offended, or carry a grudge, you've been warned:

[deutsey]

35. I think this was the one I was thinking of...

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. There are fewer and fewer people remaining that can even begin to understand the depth of hatred

that was fostered in order to get us into that war. Prior to Pearl Harbor, even FDR couldn't garner enough popular support among the people to involve us in "Europe's war".

We were familiar with the endless wars in Europe and wanted nothing to do with them, and the atrocities in Asia were far away and of no consequence to us as we were still digging our way out of the Great Depression.

[Fumesucker]

16. I would say the reaction to 9/11 was pretty close in terms of hatred

My father was an immigrant from Europe after WWII and his hatred for Germans was remarkable so I know a bit about that too.

[Egalitarian Thug]

29. Sounds familair, I was partially raised by my great grandmother, she lived through it all*, and so I

got those stories from that first-person perspective as well. While it is certainly the closest contemporary comparison, I don't think 9/11 was all that similar. We had already been softened by a couple of decades worth of propaganda and, frankly, we were/are a much more cynical people. As ineffective as it was (or effectively ignored), there was quite a bit of pushback after that attack, whereas in 1941 the outrage was nearly universal.




*It all being from coming west as an infant in a covered wagon, electricity, flight, etc.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. FDR's entire record on race is not pretty

Had FDR gotten behind even the fairly popular anti-lynching campaigns of his time, the civil rights era would have kicked off 20 years earlier. His policy of look away on Costigan-Wagner is the single monumental disgrace of his Presidency to this day, though long forgotten and covered up now. Ironically, I think of FDR on Costigan-Wagner whenever people accuse Obama of "caving." FDR's behavior was far more egregious and craven, and yet he gets a pass. There's no doubt that the good of his Presidency mitigates his cowardice vis-a-vis the Southern senators, but still. You want a cave? Look at that.

[Egalitarian Thug]

30. There's a lot to be criticized about the man and his administration. But he did accomplish so much

that turned out to be better than horrible that we all tend to ignore the copious warts.

Personally, I think his saving the capitalist system from itself was a terrible injustice.

[alcibiades_mystery]

34. I'm there with you on that

There were plenty of strong alternatives with good support in the 1930's.

The stuff the Left said about FDR before the '36 election would make even our Sarcastic Third Wayers blush.

[hootinholler]

14. Not exactly sneetches, eh? n/t

[madfloridian]

15. That cartoon, that thinking, led to Manzanar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar

Find the music to a song by Tom Russell. Here's a link to a sample....

http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/album/tom-russell/veterans-day-the-tom-russell-anthology/11314213/

I feel sad about that cartoon also.

We took their homes and put them here.

[surrealAmerican]

19. I don't think there are any people who spend their whole lives ...

... only doing great and admirable things. Once he learned better, he did some great work. Isn't that good enough for you?

[Fumesucker]

20. Evidently you missed the part where I called him one of my favorite children's authors

My reaction is one of sadness, not hatred.

[alphafemale]

26. Paranoid and Racist.

Propaganda.

They didn't portray westerners positively, either. Or treat them justly. That would go for anyone who was NOT Japanese.

Chinese and Korean people old enough to remember can tell you that.

Some of the most racist people on the planet ever are Japanese.

[Fumesucker]

28. I know that too

Grew up in a time and place where racism was the norm although my parents were relatively enlightened by the then and there standards.

[lynne]

32. It does no good to judge people of yesteryear by the standards of today -

- we weren't there and can't walk in their shoes. Life was very different then and their life experience and knowledge at that time very different from what we know today.

None of us would want our actions of today judged by the standards and morals of an unknown future time.

[lunatica]

38. Well there are some of us who actually think in those terms

When you can pretty much figure out that future generations are going to judge everything we do, it gets easier to figure out what to do. Think of the legacy you're leaving them.