Tojo the Terrific. And Don’t Call Me a Skunk While He is Around. New York, 1943.

SZYK, Arthur. Tojo the Terrific! “And don’t call me a skunk, when he [Tojo] is around!…” Signed and Dated “Arthur Szyk, N.Y. (19)’43”. Pen and pencil on paper. Sheet size: 8 1/2″ x 6″. Image size: 7″ x 5 3/4″. Very Good condition.

Szyk, in his inimitable style, neatly skewers Japan’s Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. Drawing him in pompous glory, riding a skinny nag who bears his own face, Tojo seems the very essence of buffoon. The image is further driven home by the lively little skunk at the bottom of the drawing who, holding his snout, says “And don’t call me a skunk, when he is around!…”

General Hideki Tojo became the Prime Minister of Japan in October 1941 and is credited with making the final decision to declare war on the United States and Britain by ordering the bombing attack on Pearl Harbor. Though certainly an adherent to the theory of total war, there is room for dispute on whether he came to be considered an absolute dictator like Mussolini or Hitler. After the fall of Saipan in July 1944 (the first pre-war Japanese Territory to be lost) his government forced him to resign. Tried by the Allies after the war, he was convicted of War Crimes and hanged in 1948.

Provenance: Parke Bernet Sale, New York, Mrs. Arthur Szyk, March 26, 1959, lot 75B.

Publishing History: Appeared as the illustration for Casco Products Corporation (probably in Washington Sunday Star, 1944). Szyk also illustrated 5 other ads for Casco (see Ansell, p. 307).