The Dr. Seuss Anti-Japanese War Bond Cartoons

Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Kids around the country will be reading The Cat in the Hat and other fabulous rhyming books. They will dress up for Wacky Wednesday and count all the places they might go.

But you may not know that in the 1940s, Dr. Seuss drew overtly racist cartoons in support of US war bonds. UC San Diego has an online collection of the cartoons.

At least one biographer has said that Dr. Seuss regretted his anti-Japanese stance during the war. His famous tale Horton Hears a Who was dedicated to “My Great Friend, Mitsugi Nakamura of Kyoto, Japan.” The book is, apparently, about the post-war occupation of Japan by the US.

-KitJ