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

[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!