Donald Duck Gets Drafted

During World War II, American companies such as Disney begun producing propaganda for the war effort. Walt Disney allowed for the production of wartime propaganda cartoons which support the American military against the Japanese and Germans. These cartoons typically starred Donald Duck, a household name that is known by many children around the world. He is portrayed in different ways as an American soldier, fighting against the highly stereotypical depictions of Japanese and German soldiers.

One of the first of these is Donald Duck getting drafted, portraying it to be an honor to be drafted and to fight for the stars and stripes. It begins as he walks through a walkway lined with propaganda posters that encourage males to join the army and become instantly irresistible to women, amongst other perks that come with becoming an American soldier. He is put through a physical examination that is made to look intense and like a joke. Making Donald, a future soldier, to be a less than intelligent person that is asked simple basic questions and answers them wrong, only to be waved through.  (1942)

Another more aggressive one depicts the duck being set on a difficult mission to fight against the opposing armies. During a typical comedic case and tumble sequence, there are heavily racist bits of animation, including heavy exaggerated Japanese accents and animated trees to look like a stereotypical Japanese. Through a sequence of accidents, Donald ends up destroying the Japanese air fleet, writing a letter to his commander at the end saying that the enemy has been wiped out. (1944)

Lastly, the most extreme of these cartoons, Der Fuehrer's Face, depicts Donald Duck as a Nazi soldier, complying to his commanders, hailing Hitler at every opportunity. Although it is not clear at the beginning, the end of the cartoon reveals Donald awaking from a nightmare in his stars and stripes pajamas, and instead of hailing Hitler, he salutes the Statue of Liberty. Another notable feature of this cartoon is the by far most extreme of the racist stereotypical depiction of the German but mostly the Japanese soldiers. Their skin was depicted to be a sort of neon like yellow color, as well as heavily portrayed inaccurate Japanese accents.