The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 15 | Issue 16 | Number 3 | Article ID 5063 | Aug 15, 2017

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The Dr. Seuss Museum and His Wartime Cartoons about Japanand Japanese Americans

Richard Minear, Sopan Deb

Abstract: This two-part article reconsiders thelegacy of Dr. Seuss as presented in the new Dr.Seuss Museum in Springfield, against theauthor’s little known wartime cartoonrepresentations of the Japanese. It representsimportant questions about the representationof writers, heroes, even the beloved, in theirfinest and least memorable moments.

Keywords: Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss Museum, PMnewspaper, World War II propaganda,cartoons, wartime representations of the“Japs”.

Dr. Seuss, 1940-47, and2017

Richard H. Minear

The opening of the new Dr. Seuss museum inSpringfield—rather, the rededication of one offour buildings in the Museum Quadrangle toDr. Seuss—has drawn as much attention forwhat isn’t there as for what is. What isn’tthere? Dr. Seuss’s World War II editorialcartoons in the New York newspaper PM,1 hiswork with Frank Capra on the Why We Fightseries, the film Our Job in Japan (1945-6) thatwas intended to prepare U. S. soldiers for theirrole in the Occupation of Japan, and his twoOscar-winning documentaries shortly after thewar—one on Germany, one on Japan (Designfor Death, 1947). Particularly in the editorialcartoons but also in the documentary on Japan,Dr. Seuss descends to racist characterizationand analysis.

Most notorious is his cartoon of February 13,1942. It is titled “Waiting for the Signal FromHome…,” and it depicts a mass of stereotyped“Japs” marching from Washington and Oregonand California to pick up blocks of TNT from astructure labeled “Honorable 5th Column.” Onthe roof another “Jap” with a telescope peersout across the ocean.

Unlike Dr. Seuss’s Hitler, the “Jap” stereotypethat appears, cookie-cutter style, on all thesefaces was not based on a historical figure—itisn’t Tōjō or the emperor. It may owe as muchto Gilbert and Sullivan as to the 1930s. Thiscartoon appeared days before the Rooseveltadministration issued the order to round up all“Japanese” living on the west coast. Manypeople in audiences to whom I have showedthis cartoon start out hoping that it is tongue-in-cheek, but by the time they’ve seen Dr.Seuss’s other cartoons dealing with Japan, mosthave accepted that this cartoon is what itappears to be.

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I mention other cartoons. Consider this cartoonof December 9, 1941, just days after PearlHarbor.

Or consider this cartoon of October 23, 1942.

Here Dr. Seuss’s stereotyped “Jap” has armsthat end in claws and feet that end in paws.The immediate stimulus was Japan’s executionof three of the airmen it captured fromDoolittle’s 1942 bombing raid on Japan.

Why does the new museum omit all this?Reporters noticed at once. Here is one account:“Examples of Geisel’s early advertising workand World War II-era propaganda and politicalillustrations, many of which critics considerracist, are conspicuously absent, but that’s

because the museum is aimed primarily atchildren, said Kay Simpson, president of theSpringfield Museums complex.”2 But here iswhat Dr. Seuss himself said about his intendedaudience for the Butter Battle Book, and byextension for all his books: “Practically all mybooks have been written for every age. Outsideof my beginner books, I never write forchildren. I write for people.”3 What betterexplanation of the enduring appeal of thebooks? And of the narrowness of the museum’sfocus on chi ldren? A second reason,presumably, is that the PM cartoons and thedocumentaries complicate the loveablenarrative of Dr. Seuss.

Why not show that material and inviteviewers—people of all ages, includingchildren—to deal with the fact that a man asforward-looking as Dr. Seuss could also havethese feet of clay? Forward-looking he was.During the war he took on issues like Black-White racism, and later on he addressed theenvironment (The Lorax), the Cold War (TheButter Battle Book), commercialism (How theGrinch Stole Christmas), reading for children(The Cat in the Hat, et al.). Even Horton Hearsa Who is an allegory on the U. S. Occupation ofJapan (Horton=the U.S., Vlad Vladikoff=theSoviet Union, Whoville=Japan) that treats theJapanese with a good deal more sympathy thandid the wartime cartoons (much of thecondescension, however, remains). But racistagainst Japanese and Japanese Americans healso was.

Dr. Seuss rarely stepped out from behind hiseasel to address such issues. But he did so ontwo occasions that bear on our presentconcern. One was in early 1942. On January 13he published the fourth in a series of heavilyironic “War Monuments.” It showed a statuededicated to John Haynes Holmes “who spokethe beautiful words ‘The unhappy people ofJapan are our brothers. ’” Dr. Seuss’sstereotyped “Jap” has a fake halo and holds inhis right hand a wicked-looking knife and the

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severed head of a victim. (John Haynes Holmeswas a prominent Protestant pacifist minister.)

Readers of PM wrote in to protest—more thetreatment of Holmes than of Japan. Wrote one:“I protest the Dr. Seuss cartoon on JohnHaynes Holmes…. Beyond the sheer bad tasteis something even deeper. That is, the impliedrejection of the basic Christian principle of theuniversal brotherhood of man.” Another wroteof “PM’s grotesque incitement to hatred. It’sOK to remember Pearl Harbor; why notremember our war aims, too?”

O n J a n u a r y 2 1 D r . S e u s sresponded in his own letter to theeditor, which I reproduce here inits entirety:

In response to the l e t te rsd e f e n d i n g J o h n H a y n e sHolmes…sure, I believe in love,brotherhood and a cooing whitepigeon on every man’s roof. I eventhink it’s nice to have pacifists andstrawberry festivals…in betweenwars.

But right now, when the Japs areplanting their hatchets in ourskulls, it seems like a hell of a time

for us to smi le and warb le“Brothers!” It is a rather flabbybattlecry.

If we want to win, we’ve got to killJaps, whether it depressed JohnHaynes Holmes or not. We can getpalsy-walsy afterward with thosethat are left.

--Dr. Seuss

Contrast that blast with a hand-written follow-up to an interview for the Dartmouth alumnimagazine 34 years later, in 1976 (Dr. Seusswas a Dartmouth alumnus). It didn’t becomepublic until an exhibit I organized in the early2000s at the same building that is now the Dr.Seuss Museum. (Rauner Special CollectionsLibrary, Dartmouth College.)

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This is Dr. Seuss’s sole late reference to the PMcartoons. He died in 1991. It was only later inthat decade that I began to look into the PMcartoons; my Dr. Seuss Goes to War waspublished in 1999. So I never had theopportunity to ask him specifically about hiswartime depictions of Japan and JapaneseAmericans.

At the Dr. Seuss Museum:Oh, the Places They Don’tGo!

Sopan Deb

An exhibition inside the Amazing World ofDr. Seuss Museum, which just opened.Credit: Tony Luong for The New YorkTimes

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Through the front doorof the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum(https://springfieldmuseums.org/about/dr-seuss-museum/) in Springfield, Mass., the mind ofthe beloved children’s book author TheodorSeuss Geisel springs to life. The new three-floormuseum is lush with murals, including one witha proo, a nerkle, a nerd and a seersucker, too.Around one corner, visitors will find animmense sculpture of Horton the Elephant from“Horton Hears a Who!”

But the museum, which opened on June 3,displays a bit of amnesia about the formativeexperiences that led to Mr. Geisel’s best-knownbody of work. It completely overlooks Mr.Geisel’s anti-Japanese cartoons from World WarII, which he later regretted.

Far from the whimsy of “Fox in Socks” (1965),Mr. Geisel drew hundreds of political cartoonsfor a liberal newspaper, “PM,” from 1941 to1943, a little-known but pivotal chapter of hiscareer before he became a giant of children’sliterature. Many of the cartoons were critical ofsome of history’s most reviled figures, such asHitler and Mussolini.

But others are now considered blatantly racist.

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Shortly before the forced mass incarceration ofJapanese-Americans, Mr. Geisel drew cartoonsthat were harshly anti-Japanese and anti-Japanese-American, using offensive stereotypesto caricature them.

While President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s libraryhas put his role in Japanese internment on fulldisplay (https://fdrlibrary.org/exhibitions), thismuseum glosses over Mr. Geisel’s early work asa prolific political cartoonist, opting instead forcrowd-pleasing sculptures of the Cat in the Hatand other characters, and a replica of theGeisel family bakery.

But scholars and those who were close to Mr.Geisel note that this work was essential tounderstanding Dr. Seuss, and the museum isnow grappling with criticism that it doesn’tpaint a full picture of an author whose workpermeates American culture, from theubiquitous holiday Grinch to Supreme Courtopinions (Justice Elena Kagan once cited(https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/us/justices-overturn-a-fishermans-conviction-for-tossing-undersize-catch.html?_r=0) “One Fish Two FishRed Fish Blue Fish”).

“I think it’s irresponsible,” said Philip Nel, achildren’s literature scholar at Kansas StateUniversity and the author of “Dr. Seuss:American Icon.” “I think to understand Seussfully, you need to understand the complexity ofhis career. You need to understand that he’sinvolved in both anti-racism and racism, and Idon’t think you get that if you omit the politicalwork.”

One cartoon from October 1941, whichresurfaced during the most recent presidentialc a m p a i g n , d e p i c t s a w o m a n(https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb4642496p) wearing an “America First” shirt reading“Adolf the Wolf” to horrified children with thecaption, “… and the Wolf chewed up thechildren and spit out their bones … but thosewere Foreign Children and it didn’t reallymatter.” The cartoon was a warning against

isolationism, which was juxtaposed with DonaldJ. Trump, a candidate at the time, using thephrase as a rallying cry.

In another cartoon, from October 1942(http://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/index.html#ark:bb6792686z), Emperor Hirohito,the leader of Japan during World War II, isdepicted as having squinted eyes and a goofysmile. Mr. Geisel’s caption reads, “Wipe ThatSneer Off His Face!”

Perhaps the most controversial is fromF e b r u a r y 1 9 4 2(http://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/index.html#ark:bb5222708w), when he drew acrowd of Japanese-Americans waiting in line tobuy explosives with the caption, “Waiting forthe Signal From Home …” Six days later, Mr.Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, whichpaved the way for the roundup of more than110,000 Japanese-Americans.

Mia Wenjen, a third-generation Japanese-American who runs a children’s literary blogcalled PragmaticMom, has written critically(http://www.pragmaticmom.com/2017/05/examining-dr-seuss-racism/) of Mr. Geisel’s cartoonsand blasted the museum for leaving them out.

“Dr. Seuss owes it to Japanese-Americans andto the American people to acknowledge the rolethat his racist political cartoons played, so thatthis atrocity doesn’t happen to minority groupsagain,” Ms. Wenjen wrote in an email.

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An exhibition inside the Amazing World ofDr. Seuss Museum, which just opened.Credit: Tony Luong for The New YorkTimes

One of Mr. Geisel’s own family members, whohelped curate an exhibit for the museum, saidthat Mr. Geisel would agree.

“I think he would find it a legitimate criticism,because I remember talking to him about it atleast once and him saying that things weredone a certain way back then,” said TedOwens, a great-nephew of Mr. Geisel.“Characterizations were done, and he was acartoonist and he tended to adopt those. And Iknow later in his life he was not proud of thoseat all.”

Mr. Geisel suggested this himself decades afterthe war. In a 1976 interview, he said of his“PM” cartoons: “When I look at them now,they’re hurriedly and embarrassingly badlydrawn. And they’re full of snap judgments thatevery political cartoonist has to make.”

He also tried to make amends — in his ownway.

“Horton Hears a Who!,” from 1954, is widelyseen as an apology of sorts from Mr. Geisel,attempting to promote equal treatment withthe famous line “A person’s a person no matterhow small.”

At the museum, located amid a complex ofother museums in Springfield, where Mr.Geisel grew up, the first floor is geared towardyoung children. Aside from the murals, thereare mock-ups of Springfield landmarks thatinspired Mr. Geisel’s illustrations, such as thecastle-like Howard Street Armory. The top floorfeatures artifacts like letters, sketches, thedesk at which Mr. Geisel drew and the bifocalshe wore.

Kay Simpson, president of SpringfieldMuseums, who runs the complex, and herhusband, John, the museum’s project directorof exhibitions, defended the decision to leaveout the cartoons, saying that the museum wasprimarily designed for children.

“We really wanted to make it a children’sexperience on the first floor, and we’reshowcasing the family collections on the secondfloor,” Ms. Simpson said. She said Mr. Geisel’squestionable work would fit better in one of theadjacent history museums, where it has beendisplayed before.

Susan Brandt, the president of Dr. SeussEnterprises, which oversees Mr. Geisel’s brand(a brand he resisted commercializing(https://mobile.nytimes.com/1997/02/13/movies/the-creatures-of-a-purist-go-commercial.html)),argued that the museum’s critical distinction isbetween Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel.

Asked why the cartoons aren’t included, Ms.Brandt, who consulted with Ms. Simpson on themuseum, replied: “Those cartoons are aproduct of their time. They reflect a way ofthinking during that time period. And that’shistory. We would never edit history. But thereason why is that this is a Dr. Seuss museum.”She added, “Those are Ted Geisel, the man,which we are separating for this museum only.”

The museum does, however, have references tosome of Mr. Geisel’s early professional work.There is a serving tray on display that Mr.Geisel designed for the Narragansett Brewing

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Company in 1941 from his days in advertising,for example, and sculptures from the 1930s.

Soon after the opening, the museum expresseda willingness to display the cartoons, perhapssensitive to criticism that it was presenting aone-sided version of Mr. Geisel, who died in1991. It invited Mr. Nel to a symposium this fallto discuss Mr. Geisel’s political ideology andMs. Wenjen to the museum for a visit,something she skeptically referred to as

“damage control.”

After all, contrary to Ms. Brandt’s view, thecritics argue that it was the work of Mr. Geisel— the man and the political cartoonist — thatinspired Dr. Seuss.

“That is the work that made him an activistchildren’s writer,” Mr. Nel said.

This article, slightly adapted here, appeared inthe New York Times on June 21, 2017.

Richard H. Minear is Professor of History emeritus, University of MassachusettsAmherst. He is the author of Victors' Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1929280068/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (1971) and Dr. Seuss Goesto War (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1565847040/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (1999) and theeditor of Through Japanese Eyes(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0938960539/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (4th edition 2007). He istranslator of Requiem for Battleship Yamato(http://amzn.com/1557505446/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (1985), Hiroshima: Three Witnesses(http://amzn.com/B00866INBI/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (1990), Black Eggs(http://amzn.com/0939512637/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (1994), the autobiographies of IenagaSaburo (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0742509885/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (2001), NakazawaKeiji (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1442207477/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (2010), and Ō(http://amzn.com/0824835573/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)ishi Matashichi(http://amzn.com/0824835573/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (2011), and writings of TakeyamaMichio (http://amzn.com/B009CPVZN0/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (2007) and Nambara Shigeru(http://www.amazon.com/dp/074256813X/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (2010). He is a Japan Focusassociate.

Sopan Deb is a culture reporter for The New York Times, writing about the intersection ofpolitics and culture, among other topics. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J.Trump's presidential campaign for CBS News.

Notes1 Richard H. Minear, Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of TheodorSeuss Geisel (New York: The New Press, 1999) includes two hundred cartoons; for theroughly two hundred cartoons I did not include, see here

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(http://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/index.html).2 Mark Pratt, “’Oh the Places You’ll Go’ inside the Dr. Seuss museum,” Concord Monitor , June6, 2017.3 Interview by Jonathan Cott, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn (New York: Random House, 1983).