Mobilizing the United States for war produced a constellation of financial problems. In order to equip and train the soldiers that would go off to fight against Germany and Japa, the U.S. government needed quite a bit of money. Expansion of war industry also returned the United States to full employment after the Great Depression, increasing the average American income. Wartime rationing, however, meant that this newly employed segment of the American population did not have as many opportunities to use their income to buy goods.
Because there was more money circulating amongst American workers but fewer goods to buy the supply of most goods fell far short of demand. As a consequence, there was a real threat that inflation might get out of hand. In order to solve this problem the United States government began selling war bonds to fund the war. Not only would this provide the government with the money it needed to fight, it would also remove excess cash from the U.S. economy and help to forestall inflation.
Geisel was a great advocate of buying war bonds, and he produced countless cartoons praising those who chose to invest in the U.S. war effort. While this cartoon is just one of many pushing war bonds, this one is unique in the way it presents the message. Of all of Geisel’s wartime cartoons, this one is perhaps the most tainted by anti-Japanese racism. The use of the word “Jap” in the cartoon’s header, a word which had taken on a derogatory character during the war, is the most obvious incarnation of this racism.
The racist character of the remainder of the cartoon is more subtle but also more significant. It depicts Japanese people as insects, vermin who should be exterminated. This kind of dehumanization of the enemy is typical of racially charged propaganda, and was also used by the Japanese in their presentation of Americans and by the Germans in discussing the fate of Europe’s Jews. The face of the fly in this cartoon bears all the typical characteristics of Geisel’s drawings of Japanese people. In nearly every case their eyes are not visible, they wear glasses, and they have an upturned nose, large teeth, and a mustache.