1941.12.08 “The Pacific Dragon Shows Its Teeth”
unattributed
11 x 13 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

A series of events led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility that each nation’s military forces planned for in the 1920s, though real tension did not begin until the 1931 invasion of Manchuria by Japan.

Over the next decade, Japan expanded slowly into China, leading to the Second Sino-Japanese war in 1937. In 1940 Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the U.S. This move prompted the United States to embargo all oil exports, leading the Imperial Japanese Navy to estimate it had less than two years of bunker oil remaining and to support the existing plans to seize oil resources in the Dutch East Indies.

The Philippines, at that time an American protectorate, were also a Japanese target. The Japanese military concluded an invasion of the Philippines would provoke an American military response. Rather than seize and fortify the islands, and wait for the inevitable U.S. counterattack, Japan’s military leaders instead decided on the preventive Pearl Harbor attack, which they assumed would negate the American forces needed for the liberation and reconquest of the islands.

Later that same day [December 8th local time], the Japanese indeed launched their invasion of the Philippines.

1940.09.14 “Noise Terror Planes Descending on Confused Troop Columns”
by Norbert B. Quinn (1902-1987)
10 x 16 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Born in Medford, MA, and educated at Boston College High School (1920) followed by taking classes at the Museum of Fine Arts school, Quinn was an artist for the Boston Globe for many years. He retired to Maine in 1967.

Regardless of the topic, this is a really lovely piece of ink and wash art.

Probably the most iconic German aircraft during WWII, the Stuka dive bomber became the symbol of a string of successful campaigns in the early stages of the war.

The Wehrmacht seemed unstoppable in 1939, when Stukas swarmed the sky above Poland.

What specifically made these planes horrific were the two horns attached to the wings which produced a screeching sound once the aircraft was inbound for a strike. As the Stuka descended from the sky to drop its deadly load, the scream which accompanied it had a devastating effect on the morale of anyone who was on the ground.

The haunting horns were dubbed the “Jericho trumpets” by the Germans, who relied on the psychological effect of the noise to give them an edge against their opponents.

It was all for a propaganda effect.

The only problem with the Jericho Trumpets was that they affected the aerodynamics of the planes, causing enough drag to slow the plane down by 20 miles per hour and making them easier targets for defenders. Eventually, the sirens would be scrapped, and whistles were placed on the bombs to create the same psychological effect.

1940.02.05 “He Needs More Than A Cheering Section”
by Cyrus Cotton “Cy” Hungerford (1889-1983)
13 x 18 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Hungerford

Hungerford worked for the Wheeling (West VA) Register before becoming editorial cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Sun for fifteen years from 1912. He joined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1927 and stayed there until his retirement in 1977.

During the early stages of World War II, the British and French Allies made a series of proposals to send troops to assist Finland against the Soviet Union in the Winter War, which started on 30 November 1939. The war was a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which put Finland into the Soviet sphere of influence. The plans involved the transit of British and French troops and equipment through neutral Norway and Sweden. The initial plans were abandoned due to Norway and Sweden declining transit through their land, fearing their countries would be drawn into the war.

In February 1940, a Soviet offensive broke through the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus, exhausting Finnish defenses and forcing the country’s government to accept peace negotiations on Soviet terms. As the news that Finland might be forced to cede its sovereignty to the USSR, public opinion in France and Britain, already favorable to Finland, swung in favor of military intervention.

Finland’s defensive war against the Soviet invasion, lasting November 1939 to March 1940, came at a time when there was a military stalemate on the continent called the “Phony War.”

1944.06.06 “The Pit and the Pendulum”
by Gordon Smith
11 x 14 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

The D-Day landings in June 1944, created a second-front and took the pressure off the Red Army and from that date they made steady progress into territory held by Germany.

This cartoon is attributed to the Boston Post, but I cannot track the artist, yet. At least the signature is clear.

1943.06.14 “The Triple: Sammie, To Joe, to Winnie”
by Albert Turner Reid (1873-1958)
8 x 11 in., pencil on paper
Coppola Collection

Albert Reid sold his first political cartoon to the Topeka Mail and Breeze in 1896. After this first cartoon, his work began to appear regularly in the Kansas City Journal, Kansas City Star, Chicago Record, the New York Herald, and the Saturday Evening Post.

Reid was a successful businessman, a staunch supporter of the American farmer, a composer, a painter of murals and a teacher of art. The art school which he started with George Stone in Topeka was the beginning of Washburn’s Art Department. If he had been active in larger political centers, he probably would have received even more recognition. A large collection of his work is in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society.

Drawn on the back of some stationary from the Hotel Carteret in NYC (still there, in Chelsea, with $3K/month studio apartments for rent), a lovely sketch of a nice analogy using a baseball diamond to record a triple play. Uncle Sam takes out Tojo, who was on a Sneak Run (Pearl Harbor); Joe Stalin takes out Hitler; and Churchill takes out Mussolini. A cheer to Buy Bonds shows in the stands, with Chinese Nationalist Premiere Chiang Kai-Shek, just before his installation as Nationalist President, yelling out “Belly Good” from home plate.

1945.03.24 “Little Man, What Now?”
by Sy Moyer (1887-1980)
9 x 11 in., pen and crayon on board
Coppola Collection

Moyer was an editorial and sports cartoonist for the Minneapolis Tribune and St Paul Dispatch.

Moyer is listed in a few places as being “1926-2016” but I am skeptical. There is another artist, a painter, named Sy Mohr, who is listed as 1926-2016 in a few places (but who was really born in 1923).

By the 1940s, the cartoonist Moyer seems to have been pretty well established, he was notes for his depiction of the Asian Enemy, and there are images of his well-worn work-desk which are unlikely for a 20-year-old.

This record exists: “SY MOYER was born 13 September 1887, received Social Security number 474-09-0126 (indicating Minnesota) and, Death Master File says, died August 1980.”

The Battle of Manila (Feb 3 – Mar 3 1945) was a brief and major battle of the Philippine campaign. It was fought by American forces from both the U.S. mainland and the Philippines against Japanese troops in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.

The battle ended the almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines (1942–1945). The city’s capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur’s key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.

The title (Little Man, What Now?) is an homage to a quite famous novel from pre-war Germany that documents the conditions in a turmoil-filled country on the brink. It was almost inadvertently critical of the rising Nazi ethos, to a degree that the text, well-known and in print, was edited in its later editions to revise references to the Nazis being seen in a bad light. As a colloquial saying, “Little Man, What Now?” took on that sense of impending doom at the rise of history-changing events, here a message to Japan as the war in Europe was on its last legs (this is a month before VE Day).

“How to be Popular” (Among Us Mortals, 07/16/1950)
by W.E. (William Ely) Hill (1887-1962)
18.5 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

W.E. (William Ely) Hill (1887-1962) was known for his masterful black and white Sunday page, “Among Us Mortals,” sometimes referred to as the Hill Page.

From this July 16, 1950 edition, titled “How to be Popular” some quotes:

“This girl spends most of her waking hours getting psyched. Her popularity grows by leaps and bounds with each psychiatrist she patronizes, as he uncovers strange phobias, guilt fixations and plain and fancy inferiorities.”

“A girl on a picnic should always appear helpless. Helplessness is a girl captivates big strong men and they’ll flock around her. A horrid ant has crawled down Jeanie’s neck and the male picnickers are hoping to dislodge it.”

“I’m willin’ to sleep my way to the top, I wanna be popular.” (song lyric, Pop!ular, by Darren Hayes, 2004… couldn’t resist…)

1943.07.17 “Last Chance Crossroads”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14 x 22 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.

This cartoon, from July 17, 1943, has auspicious timing. Let me explain.

The Allies won the North African Campaign on May 13, 1943, with a quarter-million German and Italian troops surrendering at Tunisia. With its massed army and navy in the southern Mediterranean and free for new action, British and American strategists faced two options: transfer these forces north for the impending invasion of Europe from the English Channel, or remain to strike at southern Italy, which Churchill called “the soft underbelly of Europe.” At this crossroads, the Allies, after some dissension, decided to press north into Italy.

The invasion was assisted by some subterfuge (see the 1957 film “The Man Who Never Was”). In April 1943, a month before the Allied victory in North Africa, German agents recovered the body of a British Royal Marine pilot from the waters off a Spanish beach. Documents in an attaché case handcuffed to the officer’s wrist provided a goldmine of intelligence about the Allies’ secret plans, and German agents quickly sent the documents up the chain of command where they soon reached Hitler. Der Fuehrer studied the captured plans carefully, and, taking full advantage of their top-secret details, directed his troops and ships to reinforce the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, west of Italy, against an impending Allied invasion. There was only one problem: The recovered body–which was not a Royal Marine but actually a homeless man from Wales who had committed suicide–and its documents, were an elaborate British diversion called Operation Mincemeat.

The invasion of Sicily began early on July 10, 1943. By the afternoon, supported by shattering naval and aerial bombardments of enemy positions, 150,000 Allied troops reached the Sicilian shores. General Patton commanded the American ground forces and General Montgomery led the British. Hitler had been so deceived by “Mincemeat” that he had left only two German divisions in Sicily to battle Allied soldiers. Even several days into the attack he was convinced that it was a diversionary maneuver and continued to warn his officers to expect the main landings at Sardinia or Corsica.

This cartoon appeared a week later. And over the next two weeks, the Italian people made their choice: the fascist regime fell rapidly into disrepute. On July 24, 1943, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini was deposed and arrested.

1942.05.07 “Records of the Heroes”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14 x 22 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.

The Fall of the Philippines – Bataan and Corregidor

The Philippines had been the outlying US Army command in the Pacific for many years. In the summer of 1941 increasing tension between Japan and the United States caused the War Department to set up a new command for the specific purpose of organizing the defense of the Philippines. This command, activated on July 26, 1941, was led by General Douglas MacArthur, brought out of his 1937 retirement, placed on active duty, and designated as the commanding general.

At the time of Pearl Harbor, just months later, the Japanese struck before the Philippine Army could be completely trained or properly equipped. We sometimes forget that the December 7 attack was followed directly by an air attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941 seriously crippled elements of the American air forces stationed in the islands and damaged naval installations.

Between December 8-25, the Japanese successfully carried out numerous landings throughout the Philippines; Manila was evacuated on December 25^th. The Bataan peninsula sits at the entry to Manila Bay, directly on the path to the city, with the island fortress of Corregidor sitting right in the middle of the inlet entry.

On March 12, 1942, upon direct orders of the President, MacArthur, his family, and members of his staff were evacuated from Corregidor. Two months later, on May 6, the day commemorated here, Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese and went into the history books. All US vessels had been scuttled, destroyed, or lost. Most Navy personnel became Japanese prisoners of war. However, some were able to escape and join guerrilla groups. Some even reached Australia, a month later, after enduring the open sea in a motor launch.

1945.02.24 “Don’t Travel”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14 x 22 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.

The bombing of Dresden was a British/American aerial bombing attack on the capital of the German state of Saxony. In four raids, between February 13-15, 1945, the Allies dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. Three more US air raids followed, two occurring on March 2, aimed at the city’s railway marshalling yard, and a smaller raid on April 17 aimed at industrial areas.

Immediate German propaganda claims following the attacks, and postwar discussions of whether the attacks were justified, have led to the bombing becoming a moral cause celebre. To this day there are those, mostly in the German far-right, who refer to the bombing as a mass murder, calling it “Dresden’s Holocaust of bombs.”

February 23, 1945, by the way, is the date on which the famous picture of the flag raising at Iwo Jima took place.