Friday, September 14, 2007

Coonie Tunes

This next video was made at the height of WWII and as many films or cartoons were at that time it served as propaganda for the war effort and also against our enemies. In this one we are taken behind the lines and shown the "advanced "state of the Japanese military, and their tactics as well as showing what life is like in the Land of the Rising Sun. It more or less makes them look like blubbering idiots and incredibly technologically incompetent. Exposing and exaggerating the Japanese and opening them to ridicule of course served to make some people more confident and optimistic that we would in fact win the war, because really, look how dumb they are. But it also makes fun of the Nazis and of Il Duce so it was Make Fun of the Axis day.
I guess the physical stereotypes of the Japanese back then were that they had big teeth, big ears and small squinty eyes upon which glasses were mandatory. Hmm
I think it's a sign of our societal evolution against racism or malicious stereotyping that in our current conflict there haven't been this type of portrayals of the enemy (except for maybe that South Park episode where they go to Afghanistan -Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants, and the stereotyped and mocked figures were all clearly seen as terrorists- if you know of nay more let me know), maybe because now we are fighting individuals and not countries and so to mock some of our allies appearances and features would lead them to hate us more. Anyway here's Tokio Jokio from 1943

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