Joe Jitsu (Dick Tracy)


Joe Jitsu is a fictional police officer, one of Dick Tracys crimefighters in the 1961 syndicated animated cartoon series of the popular comic strip. He has since been criticised as a Japanese stereotype. His method of subduing criminals was to grab them by the wrist, and exclaim "So solly!" and "Excuse, prease!" while repeatedly judo-flipping them on the ground violently. The voice for this character was provided by Benny Rubin.
Both Joe Jitsu and Go Go Gomez, a Mexican stereotype, have been edited out of some reruns of the Dick Tracy cartoon series. Henry G. Saperstein, then the chairman of UPA, stated "It's just a cartoon, for goodness' sake." Others pointed out that the 'stereotypes' included two Anglos, and that the Joe Jitsu character was a deliberate attempt to re-introduce a sympathetic Japanese character after the passions of the last war had died down.