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People of Japanese descent are seen traveling from many different states across America to receive a box of TNT, or dynamite. With the depiction of happy Japanese-Americans, Dr. Seuss indicates that the Japanese-Americans are not to be trusted and will destroy the country, happily and surely. The stereotypical caricature of the people is obvious. With the slanted eyes and mustaches, Dr. Seuss racist mindset is seen by the exaggerated facial features of these men. These exaggerated features also clearly identify these men as Japanese.
Hung above the man giving away TNT is a sign that reads, "Honorable Fifth Column". Dr. Seuss's usage of diction is interesting, for the fifth column is a group of traitors who betray their country and sympathize with their country's enemy. The adjective, honorable, is used to explain how Americans believed that the Japanese-Americans consider betraying America as a righteous, good deed for their motherland. A phrase is also written at the top of the political cartoon which reads, "Waiting for the Signal from Home...". This is the name of the cartoon and connects to the man with the telescope. The man is looking towards the west, indicating that the Japanese-Americans are ready to launch a surprise attack from within once they receive a signal from Japan.
Taking into consideration the time period, I believe that this cartoon would have been effective and persuasive. Dr. Seuss's main objective is to convince the viewer that the Japanese-Americans are enemies of America who are planning to ruin the country. In a time of chaos and hysteria with deeply rooted mentalities of racism, the American people believed and agreed to Dr. Seuss's political cartoon. This belief eventually led to the internment and relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps. Ironically, these camps were similar to the concentration camps America was combating against.
Dr. Seuss' campaign for civil rights and against racism and anti-Semitism had one major blind spot: Americans of Japanese descent. At the time of Pearl Harbor nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans lived on the West Coast. Twothirds were US citizens by birth. Many of the others were prevented by law from becoming citizens. Soon after Pearl Harbor, the American government ordered the forced relocation and internment of all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. One February 13, 1942, just days before the Roosevelt administration's decision to incarcerate all Japanese Americans living on the West coast, Dr. Seuss drew "Waiting for the Signal From Home. . . ." It shows the West Coast-Washington, Oregon, and California-and a horde of smiling, spectacled, virtually identical Asians lining up to pick up blocks of TNT from a warehouse labeled "Honorable 5th Column." A smiling fellow on the roof looks through a telescope out to sea fro the "signal from home." It is an curious cartoon. For one thing, no Japanese American on the West coast was ever convicted of an act of sabotage. General John DeWitt, the individual most responsible for incarceration, could not have asked for more effective propaganda.
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