Posters Artwork Documents

Race hatred.

Dr Seuss

Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) aims his pen at anti-Semites in the US for helping Hitler gift-wrap his present to the world - race hatred. Geisel devoted himself to political cartoons for the duration of WW2 - indeed, in the lead-up to America's entry in the war. His mockery aimed at Hitler, Mussolini and US-Nazi fellow travelers can hardly be described as unfair. However, in accusing Hitler of formenting "race hatred", he seems to have erected a wall between this and his own treatment of the Japanese and American-Japanese. The portrayal of the latter group in his cartoons has quite a different tone from those directed at European Axis subjects, and demonstrate a strong element of selective "race hatred" in Geisel himself. Oh well, I suppose that all is well in love and war ... or, then again, maybe not ... JR.