Tokio Jokio | 1943 | World War 2 Era Propaganda Cartoon

Tokio Jokio is a 1943 comic Looney Tunes cartoon, an animated short film produced by Warner Bros. It was intended as an American propaganda film against Japan while the two countries were at war. As with most of the Looney Tunes shorts produced during World War 2, the film consists of a series of rapid-fire, short gag vignettes.

The opening scene features a voice-over explaining that the short is merely a Japanese newsreel that was "captured from the enemy". The theme is on Japanese propaganda. Although the jokes are generally aimed at Japan, the cartoon also pokes fun at Rudolph Hess, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Since the United States was at war and fought for survival - the stereotypes in the film were intended to give audiences some sense of superiority and optimism.

All of the voices in the cartoon were performed by Mel Blanc. (Mel Blanc earned the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Voices". He is best remembered for his work as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, and many other Looney Tunes characters.)


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that severely damaged the American Pacific fleet. The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. Domestic support for non-interventionism disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom was replaced by active alliance.

The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan. The lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime after the end of World War 2.

On December 11, Germany and Italy, honoring their commitments under the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States. The pact was an earlier agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan which had the principal objective of limiting U.S. intervention in any conflicts involving the three nations. The United States Congress issued a declaration of war against Germany and Italy later that same day. The United Kingdom actually declared war on Japan nine hours before the U.S. did, partially due to Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, and partially due to Winston Churchill's promise to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States.

Throughout the war, Pearl Harbor was frequently used in American propaganda.

One further consequence of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath (notably the Niihau Incident) was that Japanese American residents and citizens were relocated to nearby Japanese-American internment camps. Within hours of the attack, hundreds of Japanese American leaders were rounded up and brought to high-security camps such as Sand Island at the mouth of Honolulu harbor and Kilauea Military Camp on the island of Hawaii. Later, over 110,000 Japanese Americans, including United States citizens, were removed from their homes and transferred to internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Texas.

The war on the Pacific against the Empire of Japan culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States Army Air Forces, accompanied by the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on 8 August 1945, resulting in the Japanese announcement of intent to surrender on 15 August 1945. The formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.


Tokio Jokio | 1943 | World War 2 Era Propaganda Cartoon