Atom Bomb Cartoon Draws Nuclear Response

Area veterans were boiling Monday over a syndicated cartoon of a pot-bellied World War II vet with an A-bomb under his arm.

The vet loudly invokes readers to remember American casualties in various battles with the Japanese but to “forget” the 200,000 Japanese who died at Hiroshima, the arms race or the long-term consequences of atomic weapons research.

“Somebody ought to shoot the son of a bitch,” said Dave Holland whose two brothers were veterans. The SOB in question was cartoonist Steve Benson of the Arizona Republic.

Like dozens of other readers who phoned or wrote, Holland denounced Benson’s cartoon as disrespectful of American servicemen who fought for their country.

“It was the sickest, grossest, most cowardly thing you’ve ever printed,” said Marlin Reed, a World War II vet.

Some readers objected to the caricature of the vet as loud-mouthed and slovenly. Many accused Benson of not knowing that dropping the atomic bomb spared lives by ending the war. Almost all the critics saw the cartoon as generally un-American and defamatory against veterans.

Why on earth would The Spokesman-Review publish it?

Opinion Editor John Webster, who made the selection, explains:

“What’s freedom worth, if it only applies to those who hold popular views? If we suppress `unpatriotic’ opinions, we practice a type of journalism all of us scorned when our enemies practiced it.

“Cartoonist Steve Benson surely knew popular opinion strongly supports use of the atomic bomb to end World War II. So he used a hard hit to break through our comfort zone.

“These opinion pages want to be big enough to tolerate dissent like Benson’s, or our freedom is an illusion.”

The Spokesman-Review’s own editorial cartoonist, Milt Priggee, has delivered his share of “hard hits.” To him, “A good editorial cartoon either confirms or challenges the reader’s deeply held beliefs.

“When your beliefs are confirmed, the cartoon lands on your refrigerator door,” says Priggee. “If your beliefs are challenged, then we hear about it.

“Which is why we have editorial cartoons. They are to provoke debate. Debate is democracy in action. It is this democracy that so many veterans have given their lives to protect.”

xxxx