Dr. Seuss Goes to War

[Jim O]

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991) was a life-long cartoonist: in high school in Springfield, Massachusetts; in college at Dartmouth (Class of 1925); as an adman in New York City before World War II; in his many children's books, beginning with To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937). Because of the fame of his children's books (and because we often misunderstand these books) and because his political cartoons have remained largely unknown, we do not think of Dr. Seuss as a political cartoonist. But for two years, 1941-1943, he was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM (1940-1948), and for that journal he drew over 400 editorial cartoons.

The Dr. Seuss Collection in the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego, contains the original drawings and/or newspaper clippings of all of these cartoons.

Some samples:


December 8, 1941. One day after Pearl Harbor



June 2, 1941



September 18, 1941. Dr. Seuss clearly did not care much for Charles Lindbergh.



June 20, 1941, ironically two days before Barbarossa. Note the spelling of Tojo.

[Jim O]

I can go on and on with these:


February 16, 1942



November 30, 1941



June 22, 1942, one year after the commencement of Barbarossa




May 20, 1941

[Klaus]

Dr. Seuss is pretty unknown in Germany and Austria. But he is the writer of "The Grinch", isn't he? I have some of these cartoons myself, but didn't know that they were from Seuss.

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Klaus

Dr. Seuss is pretty unknown in Germany and Austria. But he is the writer of "The Grinch", isn't he? I have some of these cartoons myself, but didn't know that they were from Seuss.

Klaus,

Yes, he wrote "The Grinch" and many children's books. Many, however, had underlying adult messages. In "Yertle the Turtle" there is a very obvious message. It's about a dictatorial "king" turtle named Yurtle and the little turtle Mack who was his eventual undoing. It ends with

And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.

You can read the full text (without the pics) at Poetry in Revolt- Yertle the Turtle and actually hear it read (along with the text) through links at "Yertle the Turtle" read by Chuck Wagner.

According to Wikipedia

It is said by Dr. Seuss himself that "Yertle the Turtle" was modeled after the rise of Hitler. The book explained his feelings about fascism, and Nazis in particular.

[Klaus]

He was a very political man, he was.
And not very much fond of wars.

[Jim O]

Time for a few more:


March 18, 1942



July 20, 1942



June 10, 1942



March 24, 1942

[temujin77]

Here's a biography of Giesel that my colleague Bryan Hiatt wrote WW2DB: Theodor Geisel

That should add some more insight to the real Dr. Seuss' life as well.

[Ingsoc]

16 December 1942



13 February 1942

[temujin77]

Originally Posted by Ingsoc

13 February 1942

Attachment 280

It was cartoons such as this one that made Geisel rather controversial. Was it an indication of his gross prejudice toward Japanese people? Or was it merely Geisel's parody of society? University of Massachusetts History professor Richard H. Minear writes "Perhaps it is no surprise that American cartoonists during the Pacific War painted Japan in overtly racist ways. However, it is a surprise that a person who denounces anti-black racism and anti-Semitism so eloquently can be oblivious of his own racist treatment of Japanese and Japanese Americans."

I can't claim to be an expert of Geisel, so if anyone has any additional info on him, particularly on the issue of racism, please do share.

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by temujin77

It was cartoons such as this one that made Geisel rather controversial. Was it an indication of his gross prejudice toward Japanese people? Or was it merely Geisel's parody of society? University of Massachusetts History professor Richard H. Minear writes "Perhaps it is no surprise that American cartoonists during the Pacific War painted Japan in overtly racist ways. However, it is a surprise that a person who denounces anti-black racism and anti-Semitism so eloquently can be oblivious of his own racist treatment of Japanese and Japanese Americans."

I can't claim to be an expert of Geisel, so if anyone has any additional info on him, particularly on the issue of racism, please do share.

In looking through the cartoons I was also struck by this issue. I can't know what he was thinking but as much as Japanese thought themselves superior and their land sacred, common American sentiment of the time saw them as inferior. As is well known, small numbers of German- and Italian-Americans were interned during the war, but large numbers of Japanese-Americans were held.

To see more of the cartoons and read more of Minear's comments, see Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel.