Panels from Chu F Hing’s Green Turtle.

Propaganda Trope: The enemy does not value life. While it is true that the Japanese military stressed fighting to the last man and had certain suicide mission units, this is not actually specific to the Japanese the American army had a similar fight to the last rhetoric, and there were militaries in Europe considering their own variety of suicide pilots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_torpedo

The Green Turtle never shows his face in the comic. The main theory that I’ve heard for this (unsubstantiated) is that Chu would have liked to make The Green Turtle the first Chinese American super hero comic, but would not have been allowed to at the time. So instead of making him white Chu made his race a secret. Instead of showing his face the green turtle expresses himself through his shadow, which takes the form of a giant turtle with a face. (grain of salt: Wikipedia says that “In China, the tortoise was also called the Black warrior, standing as a symbol of power, tenacity, and longevity, as well as that of north and winter” a symbol that might have have felt inspiring during Japanese occupation of China. it’s possible that is what Chu is referencing with his character, but honestly it could just be a coincidence.)

 

Talking Points: The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R. R. Co.

  1. Railroad Standard Time
    • The long paragraphs and poetic style really makes the story read like reaching back into your mind to retrieve memories.
    • It’s interesting how Frank interweaves many deaths with the death of his mother in this story. One being the death of Chinatown (with it’s “dead lettuce and trampled carrots”)
    • “It’s that get-outta-town beat and tune that makes me go.” Jab at Chinese people getting chased out of cities?

Source List: In progress

1: Library of Congress interview with historian Paul Hirsch whose focus seems to be the history of propaganda comics in the united states:

https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2015/11/war-and-superheroes-how-the-writers-war-board-used-comics-to-spread-its-message-in-wwii/

2: Biography of Chinese american artist Chu f. Hing and some of his work on the blog “Chinese American Eyes” suggested by Gene Luen Yang in an interview.

http://chimericaneyes.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-art-of-chu-f-hing-part-4.html

http://chimericaneyes.blogspot.com/2014/01/about-artist-chu-f-hing.html

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the world war. A massive military draft was underway; a draft registration card for Hing has not been found. As the draft enlisted more comics artists, replacements were needed. In 1943, Hing found work at Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies Inc.[48] In an interview conducted by Jim Amash for Alter Ego, Leonard Starr, who was also at Funnies, Inc., said: “…Chu Hing, who did nice work and boasted he had studied with Harvey Dunn—but his characters’ eyes always looked Oriental when he drew them, no matter who they were…He was very, very proud of himself…”[49] Later, Hing was on staff at Timely Publications, which would evolve into Marvel Comics. Artist Pierce Rice joined Timely in 1948 and recalled how the bullpen operated:

…“One of the mistakes Stan [Lee] made is whenever a penciler finished a job, he’d have him hand it to an inker.” Rice said. “Whichever inker was free. No partnerships developed, and no continuity.” He lived in fear of two inkers on the staff: Hing Chu and Fred Eng. “I used to dread the thought of something falling into Fred’s hands, but we had no choice in the matter.”[50]

Hing was part of a small group of Asian Americans working on comic books. Ben Oda was lettering for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Early in his career Bob Fujitani worked at Eisner & Iger, Hillman, and MLJ.[51] Min Matsuda, Irving Watanabe and John Yakata were on the staff at the Biro-Wood shop.[52] Helen Chou, Fred Eng, Morrie Kuramoto, Tsung Li, and Kaem Wong were contributors at various publishers.[53] Syndicated comic strip artist Paul Fungproduced art for National Comics’ All Funny Comics among others.[54]

 

3: The Book “War Without Mercy” by John Dower.

documentation on the racial nature of the ww2 conflict. with a focus on the pacific theatre.

4. Summited and waiting for this bookImage result for Yellow peril! : an archive of anti-Asian fear

5. Waiting for a translated version of this comic

Image result for japanese propaganda comicImage result for japanese propaganda comic

a translated version is in Kramer’s Ergot 6

6. “This Is Our Enemy” The Writers’ War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books,
1942–1945
Author(s): Paul Hirsch
Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Aug., 2014), pp. 448-486
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2014.83.3.448
Accessed: 25-04-2019 22:10 UTC

7. “How to spot a Jap” strip by Milton Caniff in the standard issue “pocket guide to china” booklet given to US servicemen stationed in china. Photos courtesy of the blog of collector Ethan Persoff  

8. “Black Skins” and White Masks: Comic Books and the Secret of Race
Author(s): Marc Singer
Source: African American Review, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 107-119
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of African American Review
(St. Louis University)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2903369
Accessed: 25-04-2019 21:46 UTC

9. Chapter Title: Race, War and Apocalypse before 1945
Book Title: Race, Ethnicity and Nuclear War
Book Subtitle: Representations of Nuclear Weapons and Post-Apocalyptic Worlds
Book Author(s): PAUL WILLIAMS
Published by: Liverpool University Press. (2011)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjdcf.5

Some writing about the way other races are displayed in fictions of the future. Highlighting the view that was commonly held in america up till ww2 that future wars will be fought not nation against nation but race against race.

10.Japanese Race Propaganda
Author(s): Saul K. Padover
Source: The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer, 1943), pp. 191-204
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Association for Public
Opinion Research
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2745649
Accessed: 25-04-2019 22:12 UTC

and interesting article written during world war 2. It decries belief in superior races and talks about japan’s adopting of racial methods of war…

11.Propaganda Analysis
Author(s): Hadley Cantril
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Mar., 1938), pp. 217-221
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/806063
Accessed: 25-04-2019 22:20 UTC

another world war 2 era paper about propaganda.

12.Them & Them Us & US: Regional and National Stereotypes in British Comics
Author(s): Mike Catto
Source: Circa, No. 44, Art & Popular Culture (Mar. – Apr., 1989), pp. 22-24
Published by: Circa Art Magazine
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25557396
Accessed: 25-04-2019 22:27 UTC

stereotyping in comics, British and scottish subject.

13. Book: comics and conflict by Cord a. Scott

a book that survey’s comics as propaganda in the united states, with a chapter for each war starting with ww2. Good Back ground info.

14. The Anti-Chinese Campaigns in Sonora, Mexico Author(s): Philip A. Dennis Source: Ethnohistory, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Winter, 1979), pp. 65-80 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/481468 Accessed: 29-04-2019 20:00 UTC

paper about antichinese propaganda in mexico. seems interesting to compare images of Asian peoples in propaganda from other countries.

15.
WANTED—AMERICAN PROPAGANDA IN JAPAN Author(s): K. K. KAWAKAMI Source: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 78, No. 11 (DECEMBER, 1916), pp. 331-334 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20667662 Accessed: 29-04-2019 20:06 UTC

some kind of weird pre-war editorial about American Japanese relations

D&R Play Mountain: a radio documentary about the work of Isamu Noguchi

Play Mountain

 

Just listened to this 99% invisible episode about the life and work of sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

Image result for isamu noguchi

Noguchi was born in America to a white mother and Japanese father he spent some of his childhood in Japan but was bullied because of his blue eyes. He returned to America to live in New York as a teenager and begun his work as a sculptor with dreams of designing abstract playgrounds intended to stir the imagination of children.

Image result for play mountain noguchiAlmost none of his playgrounds were designed in his lifetime but his ideas have stretched farther than he could imagine in the world of architecture.

During World War 2 Noguchi teamed up with United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier to design the Poston concentration camp. The idea was to make the camp a utopian village that would bring the internees together for an idillic life while they awaited the end of the war.

Noguchi himself went to the Poston camp (even though he was not required to) to supervise the construction of his vision.  But when he arrived he found himself imprisoned with none of his designs being followed.

(letter to artist Man Ray

When he got out he continued to design playgrounds that no one would build.

He is most famous for the Noguchi coffee table which appears in many movies.

Image result for noguchi coffee table

Just before he died he combined many of his playground designs into a giant park that now exists in Sapporo, Japan as Moerenuma Park. He never lived to see it built.

Image result for moerenuma park

Image result for moerenuma park

Is ‘Come See the Paradise’ Propaganda?

Image result for come see the paradise

I feel conflicted here. While ‘Come See the Paradise’ could be educational to people who have never heard of the concentration camps or know little about them and, as Chico pointed out, might be reluctant to watch a film like ‘Rabbit in the Moon,’ its didactic storytelling slips in some troubling ideas.

The white savior narcissism of Dennis Quaid’s character aside, the film is full of American apologetics and racial stereotyping.  Lucy is an all american girl with the one tragic flaw of being born Japanese. While Dennis Quaid loves her and makes a big show of accepting her despite her race, he consistently punishes her for any display of Japanese-ness that does not fall within his idealized notion of Japanese American Culture.

Lucy herself is equally ashamed of her culture, her interactions with Japanese characters that have not been sufficiently Americanized are consistently negative. Her mother and father shun her for marrying a Irish american man instead of being sold to a caricature of an older Japanese man. Her father down on his luck after being captured and tortured by the american military (the violence of which is very downplayed by the film) Joins his family in the camp and is shunned and assaulted by young Japanese american men. One of these men, Lucy’s brother, is portrayed as violent and irrational for resisting the injustice inflicted on him by his country. While Lucy’s brother who remained loyal to the united states is portrayed as level headed and heroic for fighting and dying for the United States military industrial complex.

Though the camps are shown and consistently explained to be unjust and unconstitutional at their core, the conditions of the camps are surprisingly homey. Every cabin is decorated, there is singing, dancing, sports, and work. Mentions of food theft by camp officials are raised, and then dismissed by Lucy’s loyal brother as legitimate shortages. White officers are shown to enforce unjust rules imposed on prisoners, and then they relent without any violence when confronted with Lucy’s rigid moral backbone. In fact the only threat to the life of a Japanese American prisoner shown is other Japanese Americans, specifically those who are allied with resistance to the United States. They are shown starting fights, throwing rocks, and jumping innocent J.A.C.L. members in the night.

Meanwhile, Dennis Quaid’s feeble attempt at asserting his loyalty to Japanese American prisoners is met by an understanding and seemingly goodhearted Commanding Officer who says “maybe they were safer in prisons?” A stance that is never fully combated by Quaid.

In the end Lucy is allowed to continue her life without much trauma from her imprisonment. Everyone who held her back from her true calling as an american housewife is dead or overseas! Yippee! Now she can tell her daughter that America only dropped one atomic bomb on Japan. It may seem like a small inaccuracy but I feel it is symptomatic of the essential message of the movie:

“America is sorry for it’s treatment of Japanese Americans…

… but…            …like, really it wasn’t that bad anyway?

Most Americans liked Japanese people. They’d probably fuck them if they had the chance. and also Japan was like really tacky anyway… and weird… like SO weird… who would want to be Japanese? Probably weird violent sexist people.

So… Sorry? Sorry that you feel like America wronged you, Japanese Americans.

And if you’re a white person watching this movie, you’re probably cool and not racist even a little bit, like sexy Dennis Quaid.

Who is even responsible for that weird “internment camp” idea? because definitely none of the white people were. probably Satan and weird strangers you don’t even know.

You’re fine now though. Satan’s dead. So you don’t have to think about your privilege or inherent biases any more. Racism is something that happened in the past.

 

Now go sign up for the American Military.”

D&R: Jason Shiga Talks About Asian Representation in American Comics

Insight into the Meaning of the Universe: Catching Up with Jason Shiga

Jason Shiga is an amazing cartoonist known for his work on ambitious puzzle and math based comics, including the mind bending chose your own adventure comic “Meanwhile” and the hilarious conceptual epic “Demon.”

Most of this interview was about his residency in Angouleme France, and his upcoming even more ambitious comic “The Box.” but the interview is capped off by some interesting thoughts about Asian American representation in comics:

I have a friend who is Asian and he wants to be a screenwriter. So he’s working on a screenplay and I asked him to tell me about it, and he said it was based on his own childhood and his own family but he had to make them white. And I was like why don’t you make them Asian? And he said, no one is going to buy that. That’s crazy to me. I feel like even in comics there are a lot of minority comics that want mainstream success, they want to somewhere down the line be able to option their comic book into some big budget Hollywood movie. Even with everything working for us, it’s an auteur’s medium, we get to write, draw and control every aspect of a story, and even then, maybe half of the Asian people working in comics still will default to a white protagonist.

 

It’s interesting to me that this this would be a problem even in the domain of alternative comics where, as Jason says, there is almost no corporate accountability.

Talking Points: Seventeen Syllables

  1. I like the focus on the experience of Japanese American Women. Their intersectional identity can make their struggle uniquely invisible. But based on the reading last week women’s issues are really important to discuss with Asian American issues.
  2. I’ve never felt an intense urge to gamble all my money away. So when I read stories about men gambling their families money away it’s really difficult to empathize with the men at all. What’s going through their heads?
  3. What was it like for people with mental health issues in the camps? The story Miss Sassagawara makes her being sent away for treatment sound like a good thing but I feel I rarely read stories where that is the case especially at that time and in such a racialized period specifically.
  4. I’m not one who usually thinks ill of marriage as an institution. But the reading material in this class makes me feel like it is almost never a good idea to get married and have kids.

Final Topic: Comics in WW2 Propaganda

Specifically relating to the representation of Japanese people in such comic books.

I found an interesting website that catalogues the history of Chinese American visual artists and found a Cartoonist named Chu F. Hing.

Creator of the Green Turtle

A character Gene Luen Yang recently revived.

 

I also Checked out the book War Without Mercy: Race & Power In the Pacific War 

by John W. Dower at Chico’s suggestion. From reading the introduction, War Without Mercy Details the effect of race on making WW2 a particularly nasty conflict.

 

I also found an article entitled This Is Our Enemy on JSTOR. Written by Paul Hirsch, the article reviews the process by which American comics were seized for propaganda use indirectly by the US government, and how the conflicting messages of the propaganda (one message of racial tolerance and another of the racial defectiveness of “our enemy”) contributed to the racial injustice inflicted on American citizens during the war.