The Japanese concentration camps -- we rounded up Japanese Americans and tossed them into these camps because we feared they were loyal to Japan -- stands as one of the most atrocious civil rights violations in American history. Dr. Seuss -- yes, the same Dr. Seuss that has been all the discussion the past few days --helped stoke the fear of the Japanese Americans. This cartoon came out just a week before FDR signed the executive order authorizing placing the Japanese in the concentration camps. The cartoon shows two Japanese war ships on the horizon, ready to invade America, and the Japanese Americans are just waiting for the signal from home to blow America up. Whatever you do or do not like about Seuss's children's books, all that is benign in relation to this and the hate and fear that it helped spread against the Japanese Americans. It is said that Seuss was repentant, and wrote Horton Hears a Who as an apology to the the Japanese people. I don't see that in the Horton Hears a Who story line, but hope it is true. Would like to think he was apologetic. Seuss remains a great American, to me, and I hate to see his being removed from the Read Across America Day.
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