1940.09.29 “Heil or Aryan Blood”
By Al Cramer (?)
11 x 12 in., ink on art board
Coppola Collection
Al Cramer, a frequent contributor to humor magazines like Humorama, and famous for risque gag cartoons, was active in the 1940s-60s. This cartoon adds an interesting dimension to Cramer’s career, placing him in the lineage of the wartime editorial cartoonists. No biographical information on Cramer (so far).
“Heil or Aryan Brother” is a cartoon mocking the ideological schizophrenia of the Axis alliance. Cramer illustrates Hitler’s racist obsession through the image of “testing” Japanese blood for Aryan purity, even while depending on Japan as an ally. Here there is a “Heil” of convenience rather than conviction.
The Japanese figure smirks knowingly, he is using the alliance to his benefit, aware of its hypocrisy, which is not the usual depiction of the Japanese as puppets for Berlin.
Hitler had laid down his plans in Mein Kampf, and defined Japan as a target of "international Jewry," and thus a possible ally.
US containment moves against Japan were interpreted by Japan's militaristic leaders as signals that they needed to take radical measures to improve the Empire's situation, thereby driving Japan closer to Germany. And Tokyo interpreted the situation in Europe as proof of a fundamental and fatal weakness in western democracies. Japan's leadership
concluded that the current state of affairs had to be exploited and subsequently started to seek even closer cooperation with Berlin. German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was sent to negotiate a new treaty with Japan, whose relationships with Germany and Italy, the three soon to be called "Axis powers," were cemented with the Tripartite Pact of September 27, 1940.
