Private Snafu: In The Aleutians

The cartoon talks about the Aleutian Islands. Then it says 'The Japs once considered a back door to the United States.' Note the stereotyped Japanese soldier.

But when the door was opened the Japanese found U.S. troops there to push them back. The soldier runs away and says 'Oh, regrettable incident.'

'And now our back door is a front door to Tokyo.' Which was really exaggerating things, of course, since the Aleutians were definitely not a way to invade Japan. The weather in the area made military operations extremely difficult for both sides, actually.

The narrator talks like a tour guide, claiming abundant weather styles and talking nice, but the weather turns bad really quick.

Then he talks about the 'thick gummy mud peculiar to this region.' The guy you see is standing on the shoulders of a guy who is standing on the shoulders of another guy.

Then he says 'it gets quite breezy up here,' and it looks like a hurricane passing through.

The airstrips are hard to keep free of moisture, the narrator says, as three guys dive into a pool and Private Snafu comes along, puts on the old-fashioned deep sea diving gear, and jumps into the pool. Shortly thereafter, a plane flies out.

For once, Private Snafu actually doesn't do anything wrong at all.



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