I think it was written to appeal to the post-WWII-hangover readers of the early 50s.
Probably not, since it was published in 1941 (But written before Pearl).
The post-WWII-hangover story might be Water is for Washing, where a man who is phobic of water learns that thanks to a major geological event, the entire Imperial Valley region is about to become an inlet of the Pacific Ocia. This is of some concern to him because he is downhill from the Pacific when this happens. One of the kids he encounters while fleeing is a "Jap" and he's not pleased about the kid's enthnicity but he takes both kids with him. Later on, an unnamed tramp helps him keep the kids alive.
There's an interesting bit in the wikipedia article on Sixth Column:
The original idea for the story of Sixth Column was proposed by John W. Campbell (who had written a similar story called All), and Heinlein later wrote that he had "had to reslant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line" and that he did not "consider it to be an artistic success."[1] Heinlein did not provide details of his reslanting, but it is noteworthy that the mysterious force which has accidentally killed all but six[2] of the two hundred[3] American personnel at the beginning of the novel, is later revealed to be race-based, suggesting that the survivors were ethnic minorities. There are few clues to the ethnicity of the surviving personnel, though one of them has skin described as “brown.” [4] A possible clue is provided by the nickname of the one soldier who was not at the laboratory when the accident occurred: “Whitey.”[5] The irony is increased by the surname of the leading surviving scientist: “Calhoun,” the name of the prominent pro-slavery politician and political philosopher John C. Calhoun.[6]
no subject
Probably not, since it was published in 1941 (But written before Pearl).
The post-WWII-hangover story might be Water is for Washing, where a man who is phobic of water learns that thanks to a major geological event, the entire Imperial Valley region is about to become an inlet of the Pacific Ocia. This is of some concern to him because he is downhill from the Pacific when this happens. One of the kids he encounters while fleeing is a "Jap" and he's not pleased about the kid's enthnicity but he takes both kids with him. Later on, an unnamed tramp helps him keep the kids alive.
There's an interesting bit in the wikipedia article on Sixth Column:
The original idea for the story of Sixth Column was proposed by John W. Campbell (who had written a similar story called All), and Heinlein later wrote that he had "had to reslant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line" and that he did not "consider it to be an artistic success."[1] Heinlein did not provide details of his reslanting, but it is noteworthy that the mysterious force which has accidentally killed all but six[2] of the two hundred[3] American personnel at the beginning of the novel, is later revealed to be race-based, suggesting that the survivors were ethnic minorities. There are few clues to the ethnicity of the surviving personnel, though one of them has skin described as “brown.” [4] A possible clue is provided by the nickname of the one soldier who was not at the laboratory when the accident occurred: “Whitey.”[5] The irony is increased by the surname of the leading surviving scientist: “Calhoun,” the name of the prominent pro-slavery politician and political philosopher John C. Calhoun.[6]
If true, I completely missed it when I read it.