The film was produced by Famous Studios and released on November 20, 1942 by Paramount Pictures, and focuses on racist stereotypes of the Japanese during the war.

At first Popeye is confused but then it is revealed that the ‘cloud’ is actually attached to a Japanese plane with the lettering ‘Made in Japan’ written clearly on the back to make sure the audience knows who the enemy is.

A Japanese soldier emerges depicted with thick glasses and big teeth to pander to contemporary racist stereotyping in America in an effort to demonize the enemy.

Popeye manages to blow up the plane and the Japanese man is left holding a typical looking umbrella before falling onto a ‘Jap Scrap Repair Ship’.

Because of eating his spinach, Popeye turns into the Statue of Liberty which was a familiar symbol in anti-Nazi cartoons as it is also used in Disney’s Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943).

The cartoon ends with Popeye flying home with the Japanese sailors locked in a cage behind him, where they start complaining before they "turns" into rats and scurrying around.

For example when Popeye shouts ‘I have never seen a Jap that wasn’t yeller’ this was because the term yellow was rarely used to refer to the Japanese because this could also reflect badly on America’s Asian ally, China.

[2] The term ‘Jap’ that Popeye used throughout the cartoon was also used to help create the idea that the West were fighting a different species, while Germans and Italians were treated as individuals, the Japanese as a race were seen to possess a herd instinct that led to extreme loyalty to their emperor.

Similarly, at the end of the cartoon when all of the Japanese were locked in the cage they resembled squealing mice which could represent their naturally higher pitched voices.

When he goes on board, two foreign sailors hand him a false peace treaty which Popeye tries to sign (perhaps showing the willingness of the American people to stop war) before they hit him over the head with a mallet.

[8] This portrayed them as fanatic and ruthless with a desire for overseas conquest without seeing the consequences and this was reinforced when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 and many studios’ first impulse was to capitalize on the theme of treachery and brutality.

The Japanese enemies were freakish stereotypes but were more often showcased as idiots rather than actual threats, this may have been done to dehumanize them as this would make it easier for the American people to hate and kill them.

When the Bureau of Motion Pictures heard of these portrayals of the Japanese they were not pleased and decided to get all studios to shift from the theme of racism to one of fascism.

[10] This went unnoticed as even Japanese Americans were being rounded up and put into internment camps in Washington, Oregon and California as it was thought they could join the enemy at any time, or commit acts of sabotage or espionage.