7. The Japanese fifth column was presented to support the internment of Japanese Americans
Dr. Seuss drew several editorial cartoons for PM which indicated his disapproval of racism and antisemitism in the United States and elsewhere, though his disapproval waned in his consideration of Japanese Americans. Early in the war he presented all Japanese Americans as being fifth columnists, ready and willing to take action against the United States, in a cartoon which was clearly supportive of the internment of those living along the American West Coast. The cartoon showed a seemingly unending line of Japanese, drawn in the caricatures stereotypical at the time, stretching from Washington to California, all waiting for their turn to be issued a package labeled TNT.
The same year, in June of 1942, he drew another cartoon for PM which depicted a long line of Americans, under the heading, “What This Country Needs Is a Good Mental Insecticide”. In it, each person in line is waiting for Uncle Sam to spray an insecticide through their ears, driving out what is labeled in the cartoon the “racial prejudice bug”. Another presented the same month shows a maze surrounding a building labeled US War Industries. To reach the industries and the jobs within the maze must first be negotiated successfully, and the entrance to the maze has a sign above it reading. “Negro Job Hunters Enter Here”. The disparity between the racist attitudes and depictions of the Japanese and those of the Black American and Jewish population displayed by Dr. Seuss was a feature of his work throughout the war.