Illustrating the Enemy

In 1942, less than a year after the United States entered World War II, Rea Irvin drew Adolf Hitler as a witch perched on a broomstick for The New Yorker’s Halloween cover. Usually, Harold Ross avoided publishing cover art depicting public figures; Irvin’s image was the rare exception. More subtly, Irvin caricatured another Axis power, drawing the three jack-o’-lanterns to the left side of the cover with stereotypical Asian features. In the wake of the Pearl Harbor bombing, racist caricatures of Japanese people allowed white Americans to “other” their adversary, and soon after served as a justification for imprisoning thousands of Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps.