Like the famed cherry blossoms come with the Japanese springtime, Babysan came with the Occupation — and it is hard to say which brings more color and charm to the small Far Eastern country. One is inclined, however, to steak his yen on Babysan; she is in bloom all year ‘round. Published in 1953 (a year after the American occupation of Japan ended), Babysan is a series of one panel cartoons accompanied by a few paragraphs of explanatory condescension. The backstory is that Babysan was a young child in 1945 when the Americans first came. That’s when she fell in love with them, you see, because servicemen would pass out candy to the curious children. Creepy! The cartoons walk a peculiar line: Babysan is a flirty Japanese pin up but she’s also foolish, duplicitous, greedy and generally unpleasant to be around. Check out more Babysan on Flickr. She may not go so far as to become a blonde but she knows that there are many ways to attract a man. She realizes that occidentals from Brooklyn and any point west often admire lush curves. In the Jane Russell department Babysan is slightly understocked. So are many Japanese girls. But there are some western ideas that can be used without adaptation to enhance chisai chichi — chisai means small, and even small chichi are better than no chichi at all. She tries a western innovation and she succeeds — a little awkwardly perhaps, but the jump is hurdled. A girl just doesn’t step out of a wooden, toe-revealing geta into soaring, high-heeled shoes without wobbling a little, and she doesn’t shed a kimono for a skirt and a sweater without looking a little “artificial.” But on Babysan, the boyfriend insists, even “falsies” look good.

Like the famed cherry blossoms come with the Japanese springtime, Babysan came with the Occupation — and it is hard to say which brings more color and charm to the small Far Eastern country. One is inclined, however, to steak his yen on Babysan; she is in bloom all year ‘round.

Published in 1953 (a year after the American occupation of Japan ended), Babysan is a series of one panel cartoons accompanied by a few paragraphs of explanatory condescension.

The backstory is that Babysan was a young child in 1945 when the Americans first came. That’s when she fell in love with them, you see, because servicemen would pass out candy to the curious children. Creepy!

The cartoons walk a peculiar line: Babysan is a flirty Japanese pin up but she’s also foolish, duplicitous, greedy and generally unpleasant to be around. Check out more Babysan on Flickr.

She may not go so far as to become a blonde but she knows that there are many ways to attract a man. She realizes that occidentals from Brooklyn and any point west often admire lush curves. In the Jane Russell department Babysan is slightly understocked. So are many Japanese girls. But there are some western ideas that can be used without adaptation to enhance chisai chichi — chisai means small, and even small chichi are better than no chichi at all.

She tries a western innovation and she succeeds — a little awkwardly perhaps, but the jump is hurdled. A girl just doesn’t step out of a wooden, toe-revealing geta into soaring, high-heeled shoes without wobbling a little, and she doesn’t shed a kimono for a skirt and a sweater without looking a little “artificial.” But on Babysan, the boyfriend insists, even “falsies” look good.