Fuku-chan is a character from the comic strip of the same name by Ryuichi Yokoyama, which was so popular that it was published from 1936 until 1971.
During the Pacific war Fuku-chan obviously "went to war", appearing in three military animes.
In the anime "Fuku-chan's Submarine" (1944), he and his friends serve on the submarine "I-1" and dashingly defeat US enemies.
See full anime below:
Mind you, that’s not ordinary propaganda cartoon. I don't know, who studied the IJN submarines so thoroughly when creating it - but in this anime you can see a lot of details of service on a submarine: from attacking an enemy convoy to cooking in the galley, from a duel with an enemy submarine to replenishing supplies.
Cartoon shows many details. For example, after refueling the submarine, the hose is not simply disconnected - a cap is put on the fuel neck, and the pit with the neck is closed with a special hatch. It feels like the anime authors had a real submariner as a consultant.
The purely artistic part is also interesting. With primitive graphics (the norm in anime of that time), two combat missions with a lot of details were packed into half an hour. The characters does not look primitive, despite the fact that there are almost no dialogues in the anime. The almost complete absence of PATHOS!!!! in a product of military propaganda is also interesting. Not once characters cry ubique "Banzai!".
For the anime fans I will add, that for the first time in the history of Japanese anime all songs were specifically written for this anime, and not taken from somewhere else. Yes, the entire anime music industry traces its lineage to "Fuku-chan's Submarine".
The song about the submarine galley (潜水艦の台所) is still sung by Japanese submariners:
Also this anime shows you the coolest picture of the "Big Ben" - US aircraft carrier USS "Franklin" (CV-13):
