When Golden Age Comics were not quite racist

[strannik01]

Martin Luther King Day is the day of reflection, a day when we look back at how far America has come and how far it still has to go. I figured that this would be as good of time as any to fulfill a months-old request and repost a Golden Age story which dealt with one of the more shameful chapters in American history - the internment of Japanese-Americans.



During the 1940s, comics usually avoided the topic. When they did touch in it, the writers treated it as a given that all Japanese-Americans were either spies or potential spies, making the internment perfectly justified. So imagine my surprise when I went to look up Captain Nippo's first appearance and stumbled upon a story where interned Japanese-Americans actually come off sympathetically. Moreover, it featured a protagonist that the readers could probably identify with to some extent. Mind you, the story has its issues, but in the context of the time, this was mind-blowingly progressive.

The following story originally appeared in Four Favorites #9. Writer and artist unknown.
















Tune in next time for something a bit more stereotypical as I fulfill psychopathicus_rex's request and post a few stories featuring one of Bob Phantom's most memorable foes - Ah Ku, the Princess of Crime.

Comments

[windiebird.livejournal.com]

Oh, looks like rain.

NEVER MIND IT"S A CLOUD OF AMERICAN FISTS AAAAAAA

(Good times, thanks for sharing!)

[justinslot]

This is amazing--thanks for sharing!

"But he proved that being a real American is a state of mind, not a color of skin!" Also: Niki proves his American-ness via his baseball knowledge.

[wasabi.livejournal.com]

"A Brooklyn fan? Get the hell out of my car!"

[icon_uk]

Also: Niki proves his American-ness via his baseball knowledge

Actually, that'd be one of the first things a spy would be trained in, to ingratiate themselves via small talk. Some outsources phone centres do something similar, where even if they're based in Mumbai or Brazil, they may well be versed in their customers local soap operas so they can seem more "local".

[jogadoresesquecidos.blogspot.com]

Or football (soccer)... you can't go wrong in Brazil if you know your local footy well!

[greenmask]

Gee whiz, Saki. That's a pretty specifically horrible death.

[strannik01]

It was Golden Age. People dying in horrible ways was not that uncommon. It took the Comic Code to seriously tone it down all across the board.

[bluefall]

"Not unless I turn my back!"
"That would be preferable, but not necessary!"

... okay, I love this guy.

[jogadoresesquecidos.blogspot.com]

Loved that dialogue, too!

[wasabi.livejournal.com]

The car's steering wheel jumps from right to left. It's magic!

[blackruzsa]

Hari Kari?

Also, that dog.... it's a bit freakish, a bit weird, and very cute.

[cricharddavies]

Slang term for seppuku, ritual suicide, better known in America than the actual word at this time.

[icon_uk]

Apparently you would SAY "hari kiri", but READ it as "seppuku", so they're probably more correct in this strip

[blackruzsa]

Hara Kiri, isn't it? Oh right, the corrupted word.

[halloweenjack]

Relatively progressive... well, I suppose. I still couldn't help but mentally interpolate a panel where the kid says, "So, the German-Americans also have to go to camps to keep the bad Germans away from them so that they can help America win the war too, right?" "Uh... hey, why don't you go play with that nice George Takei kid, huh?"

[aaron_bourque]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FairForItsDay

[arilou_skiff]

It's not publicized as much, but german-americans (as well as british-germans and, IIRC, german-canadians) were interred as well, although not on the same scale.

[halloweenjack]

Hmmm... wonder what their criteria for interment was. (Membership in the German-American Bund or similar organizations, maybe?)

[strannik01]

So that was the Bund that kept getting mentioned in 1940-1942 Golden Age stories.

[thanekos]

he committed Harry Carey?

[proteus_lives]

Cubs win! Cubs win!

[justinslot]

He died a baseball fan, and thus a real American.

[proteus_lives]

History side-fact: The 442nd Infantry Regiment was a WWII unit composed mainly of Japanese-American citizens. Most of them had families in the Japanese Internment Camps.

They fought in Europe and became the the most highly decorated unit in U.S. Army history.

9 Presidential Unit Citations

9, 486 Purple Hearts

52 Distinguished Service Crosses

560 Silver Stars (plus 28 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award)

4,000 Bronze Stars (plus 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award; one Bronze Star was upgraded to a Medal of Honor in June 2000. One Bronze Star was upgraded to a Silver Star in September 2009.)

21 Medals of Honor

All in all, they recieved 18, 143 awards.

This was their fight song:

"Four-Forty-Second Infantry— We're the boys of Hawai'i nei— We'll fight for you And the Red, White and Blue, And go to the front... And back to Honolulu-lulu. Fighting for dear old Uncle Sam Go for broke! HOOH! We don't give a damn! We'll round up the Huns At the point of our guns, And vict'ry will be ours! GO FOR BROKE! FOUR-FOUR-TWO! GO FOR BROKE! FOUR-FOUR-TWO! And vict'ry will be ours!"

[aaron_bourque]

That is horrible rhythm to my unenlightened white people ears.

[proteus_lives]

Try non-army years.

Army songs and cadences, love or hate'em, they get the point across.

[aaron_bourque]

Even as a cadence it doesn't quite scan properly.

[proteus_lives]

It was originally another unit's song, they changed words around when the 442 claimed it as their own.

[psychopathicus_rex]

That's pretty damn impressive, all right. 18,143 medals? Yow!

[arilou_skiff]

Purple hearts you get for being wounded, right?

Methinks someone had it in for these guys.

[proteus_lives]

Yep, for getting wounded.

"Methinks someone had it in for these guys. "

Yep again, the Nazis and the Italians. Plus they often didn't get the support they should have and they fought hard, they were out to prove something.

[psychopathicus_rex]

As it was the last time it was posted, this is pretty interesting stuff, all right. Captain Nippo may have a horrible name by modern standards - although according to that link he was also called Captain NipPON, which at least sounds like something an actual Japanese person might name himself - but he's a pretty effective villain here. A nice detail is his size - he's a large man by any standards, but going by Japanese standards of height, he's monstrous. It's perfectly believable that he could intimidate people the way he's doing here. Also, the buccaneer boots and hook give him a nicely piratical look - he's very visually distinctive. A shame that they evidently messed with his look in later appearances, if the picture on that other page is to be believed.
Also, while one does have to applaud the writer, whoever he may have been, for emphasizing that Nikki is very much an all-American boy, despite his family's background - as you say, that was incredibly progressive for the time, and one gets the impression that said writer disagreed quite a bit with the whole internment camp thing - one must also note that he's not exactly the brightest kid around. Yeah, go ahead, blab about how you're going to alert the navy and how all-American you are while the enemy agent is RIGHT BEHIND YOU. American doesn't mean stupid, you know.
And that 'say - you're a Jap!' moment never fails to crack me up. I have no idea why - it's just so CASUAL.
Overall, good stuff. I look forward to more Bob Phantom and Princess Ah-Ku!

[arilou_skiff]

To be fair, golden-age comic-book characters were pretty stupid across the board. EVERYONE did the "talk while the other guy is standing RIGHT THERE" thing.

[psychopathicus_rex]

True, but for some reason the other guy usually didn't hear them - presumably they were meant to be mumbling to themselves or the like. Here, he's pretty blatantly speaking right out loud.

[icon_uk]

but for some reason the other guy usually didn't hear them

It's called a soliloquy

[psychopathicus_rex]

That fits it pretty well, all right. And people say comics are just for kids! Why, they use the techniques of SHAKESPEARE!