Annexation of Hawaii

The issue of this political cartoon is: The Annexation of Hawaii. The cartoonist's message is if we were to annex Hawaii before Japan we’d be the ones to stop the “those periodical eruptions”. Which most likely means the United States would stop any feuds from happening between the three nations: Japan, the United States, and Hawaii.

The issue of this political cartoon is: Annexation of Hawaii. The cartoonist’s message is if we were to annex Hawaii we’d be “beating” Japan or as it says in cartoon, “The only way to stop those periodical eruptions.” Which means to stop any feuds between Japan, America, and Hawaii is for the United States to annex Hawaii.

Although, some might agree other could just as easily disagree. People could see the United States annexing Hawaii as immoral or unconstitutional. The cartoonist might have used is symbolism because at the time Japan was trying to annex Hawaii and in the picture above you can see a hand, which I believe is Uncle Sam’s hand, placing Uncle Sam’s hat on a smoking volcano which most likely represents the feud between the three nations, and by having America annex Hawaii, or in this case placing the hat on the volcano will burn out any political “eruptions.” Another, visible technique the cartoonist had used was labeling as he/she labeled the volcano which represents Hawaii and on the upper volcano it says Japanese Ambition which means that it’s Japan’s strongest desire to obtain Hawaii.

This political cartoon doesn’t support my view on American-Imperialism because I’m an anti-Imperialist. It doesn’t support my view because although imperialism was an astonishing change for America. That doesn’t exactly mean it’s an okay thing. We as Americans and as a nation take our freedom particularly seriously but when the time came for Hawaii to make their ‘choice’ if they wanted to be a part of the United States Americans refused to listen. America doesn't have right to take away the freedom of other countries. Didn't we as Americans fight for our own freedom from Great Britain? Now we think it’s okay to take freedom away from other countries seeking freedom or rule themselves.

University of Hawaii. "Political Cartoon - U.S. Annexation of Hawaii." Flickr. Yahoo!, 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/uhmlibrary/6650123119>