WWII – Animation, Race and Progress

Black and Native American representation in cartoons during war time played into a nostalgic desire for a time of peace and simplicity, making them incredibly popular with audiences and taken for the most part without criticism. Since these cartoons were a nostalgic view of history, not a realistic one, they reflected little to no historical accuracy even when they addressed historical settings and stories like Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Pocahontas. By glorifying American history, cartoons could instil a sense of national pride in its viewers and inspire them to take greater action in the war effort.

Black representation, at least for African Americans, grew more sophisticated throughout this era, since sound now gave black characters a (stereotypical) voice, and they began to appear in new locations such as rural towns or ghettos. Native Americans, however, were still portrayed as existing solely on the reservation or in tribes. Black and Native characters had to be portrayed as happy in these ‘natural’ settings since whites had to compete with them for jobs in the Depression. Black and native characters were thus portrayed with intensely racist visual stereotyping, and always were servile to whites or existed on the perimeters as savages. The white ‘heroic’ characters in these cartoons were always represented as forces of law and order by maintaining the status quo by suppressing these forces of ‘evil and chaos’.

There is a great wealth of examples of this type of racialized content, so here I can only mention a few prominent examples. In both Pop-pie a la Mode (1945), and Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (1938), the natives of the country the white protagonists find themselves in are depicted as primitive savages. In the former, black natives try to cook and eat a shipwrecked Popeye and in the latter Native Americans attack the colonialists coming from the Mayflower. While both differ slightly, such as the latter jokingly portraying the Native tribe like a city, they are all ultimately defeated by the white protagonists. These narratives are the same for all depictions of Africans and Native Americans – they are nothing but savages to be put down in the quest for white civilisation.

Black cannibal stereotype in *Pop-pie a la Mode*

Ultimately, these depictions remained a mainstay throughout the war as a source of comfort for white America, reinforcing racial trends that began in the 1900s and modifying them into a form that would continue to permeate representations in later eras of animation.

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.

Bugs Bunny paints Japanese flags on palm trees indicating how many Japanese soldiers he had killed throughout the episode in *Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips*

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.

Typical stereotypical Japanese depiction – glasses and buck teeth. From *Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips*

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.

Tag: WWII

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