Anti-Japanese Propaganda by Dr. Seuss

How could the author of Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish have created such ugly caricatures? Well, given the size of WWII, everybody who could contribute something did, including Theodor Seuss Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss.
While Dr. Seuss created propaganda against every enemy of the US (including a lot of quality Hitler caricatures), his propaganda against the Japanese really stands out. Unlike his propaganda against Nazi Germany, Dr. Seuss’s anti-Japanese propaganda had a racist element behind it. All of the nasty racist stereotypes you’ve ever seen- buck teeth, slanty eyes, replacing Rs with Ls – Dr. Seuss included in his drawings:

During the war, Dr. Seuss dutifully cranked out drawing after drawing for his country, trying to turn his fellow citizens against the enemy. But eventually the war ended, and things changed. After the war, Dr. Seuss began to question his beliefs about the Japanese. He’d created anti-Japanese propaganda for the US and had supported Japanese internment, but was it all justified?
Not one Japanese-American or Canadian had been convicted for any sort of sabotage or treason, and the evil monsters that Dr. Seuss had drawn in his wartime propaganda turned out to be much different that he’d imagined. So how did Dr. Seuss apologize? By writing a children’s book, of course!

Dr. Seuss wrote Horton Hears a Who!, in part, as an apology to the Japanese that he’d demonized during the war with his propaganda. Published in 1954, Horton Hears a Who! was dedicated to a Japanese friend of Dr. Seuss.The tiny Whos are believed to represent the minority groups who’s lives should be equally valued and respected.