In this section of my blog I will be focusing on animation produced during the war. Animation was strongly influenced by the Depression and the outbreak of World War II, which prompted a renewed focus on national history and nostalgia due to rapid economic and societal change raising national anxiety. This in turn led people to yearn for ‘simpler’ and more prosperous times, where ethnic minorities were in their place. Studios made use of these desires in their cartoons to raise national feeling through shared history and struggle. Hence, racial stereotypes were present in a great number of cartoons in this time.
The central goal of many wartime cartoons was to emphasise the importance of civilian patriotism and sacrifice, or inform the public about the war and inspire racial hatred of the Japanese. Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck grew to be the most popular cartoon characters of this era due to their cocky and feisty personalities which were deemed traits vital for American victory in the war. Both of these characters, especially Bugs Bunny, carry vestigial minstrel traits from the previous era in their trickster behaviour and, in Bugs’ case, gloved hands. What made them different was that they were much more aggressive and violent than their older counterparts, with them both killing soldiers in their cartoons.
Unfortunately, the war was what really catalysed Japanese racist representation in cartoons. American cartoons favoured depictions of the Japanese as violent beasts, complete with buck teeth and glasses which implied that, due to the shape of their eyes, they could not see as clearly as Americans. Japanese and Germans were portrayed as a threat to American values since they were people who would not hesitate to destroy the American Dream. By dehumanising the Japanese people in this propaganda, cultural and racial hatred was instilled within audiences, leading them to support the war effort by buying war bonds, paying taxes, or joining the war itself, driven by a desire to ‘destroy the Japs’. Thus, the war in the Pacific is considered by some scholars as a race war.
Ultimately, war animation used its minstrel characters to inspire racial animosity against Germany and Japan as to gain the American public’s aid in supplying funding and raw materials to the war. Animation was utilised as a violent, racial weapon and was an important source of morale for soldiers, solidifying trends in representation that were to persist for decades more.
Animation, Race and Progress 