Look at any picture of a ‘Japanese’ person made before or during WWII. Aside from all the other stereotypical features (including the buck teeth, which was common to both ‘Japanese’ and ‘Chinese’ caricatures) you’ll invariably see big round glasses. Why? Where did this stereotype come from? The omnipresent ‘Chinese pigtail’ is explainable as a historical reference, but nearsightedness just seems arbitrary.
Probably from General Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944.
That certainly makes sense, except we didn’t draw all propaganda ‘Germans’ as looking like Hitler or all propaganda ‘Chinese’ as looking like either Chiang Kai-shek or Mao.
Well, not all anti-Japanese propagandadepicted them with glasses. I am sure there are others. Tojo was seen as the Japanese equivalent of Hitler, and there were certainly plenty of anti-German propaganda featuring him.
Ah. I didn’t realize there was so much variation.
OMG, I just spit my coffee all over my keyboard! Thanks Fear Itself
I know wartime propaganda oftenly contained racist elements, but seriously “MORE TOOLIE, YOU CRACKIE, MORE HAPPY JAPPY” !? Who came up with that one?
Actually…there might be some truth to that particular stereotype (the myopia, not the bucktoothedness) Asians are more likely to be nearsighted than whites, and the prevalence of myopia in Asian countries is higher than in European countries.
Another factor may be the perceived shape of Asians’ eyes. Some westerners may have interpreted it as squinting . . . as a result of being nearsighted.
This is pretty much where I assumed the stereotype came from.
What the heck does it even mean?
It’s a poster urging care in the workplace. The more tools you break, the happier the Japanese will be.
never mind
All your other examples prove your point, but that guy is North Korean.
Don’t you know that every single time, without exception, continually, to the last item, when you post a thread that says that you ALWAYS encounter something you will proved to be WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
:eek:
:p:D:(
I think it’s supposed to be some sort of hybrid anti-drug/anti-Japanese type thing, i.e. “Take drugs and it helps the enemy”.
Bingo! You got it!:rolleyes:
Based on what? The poster is listed as a WWII anti-Japanese poster on several web sites (example)
And I’m sure Captain Amazing has the right explanation of the “Toolie” poster since the poster features drawings of broken machine tools.
Based on what looked like a red star on his hat. I was mistaken. The same image on your link shows the star to be yellow, which is right for Japan during WWII.
Whoosh?