Jose Rizal Likened to George Washington

Walter Kaner is a well-known philatelist prior to and during World War II (and also during the so-called Golden Age of Comics).

Kaner^{1, 2, 3, 4} is also known as Walter Kanner as evidenced by the same article published by Red Bank Register⁵ and the Filipino Elizalde Stamp Journal in 1940.⁶

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 credits Kaner as a stamp pages writer for DC Comics in 1942.⁷

Heroes mark the his- and her-story of every country, and those with remarkable contributions appear in banknotes, coins, and stamps.

In Sensation Comics⁸ #9, cover dated September 1942, Kaner calls Jose Rizal the “George Washington of the Philippines.”  Here, Kaner celebrates Rizal’s martyrdom against Spain’s rule in the Philippines.  The very short article is contained in a panel with art where men in uniform aim their guns at Jose Rizal’s back.  A drawing of the Jose Rizal stamp is seen at the right lower corner of the panel.⁹

© DC Comics

used under the principle of fair use

Theodore Roosevelt, former American president, calls Jose Rizal “the greatest genius and most revered patriot ever known in the Philippines.”¹⁰

Frank Ernest Gannett in his abridged translation of Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) calls Rizal “the greatest Filipino ever born, and his memory is cherished to-day by his people as we ourselves cherish the memory of Washington.”¹¹

Jose Rizal and George Washington are exemplars who believe in justice and proper exercise of authority.  Rizal points out the abuses of the government in his time, and Washington declines greater influence by turning down a third term as president.¹²  Many sources affirming the greatness of these two men are available digitally and in print.

George Washington is loved and revered in the United States.

In this beautiful little country of ours, the Philippines, there is no hero more loved and revered than Jose Rizal.¹³

Notes

¹Walter Kaner and Walter Kanner are one and the same.  Different sources give the same details about the man except for the variation in the spelling of the family name.

²John Edelberg.  “Liberian Commemorative Stamps Issued.”  New York Post 1 Mar. 1941: 8.

[This article subtitles Walter Kaner as “Philatelic Author on Air” and informs the reader about “an air mail set of four stamps issued on Feb. 27 by the Philippines.”]

³Behind the Mike.  Broadcasting 1 Jan. 1941: 41.

[“Behind the Mike” is a section of the magazine that puts together announcements about people and their activities.  Walter Kaner appears in a number of issues of Broadcasting and is described in this issue as “philatelist and conductor of The Stamp Man program on WWRL.”]

⁴“Kaner’s Stamp Promotion.”  Billboard 18 July 1942: 8.

⁵The AP Feature Service.  “Stamps in the News.”  Red Bank Register [New Jersey] 19 Sep. 1940: 3.

[Red Bank Register features a number of stamp-related articles including the one found in Elizalde Stamp Journal.  Since Red and Elizalde share the same article, they both spell Kanner instead of Kaner.  It looks like the two publications owe their spelling to a typographical error.]

⁶“Stamp Album Traces History of Brasil.”  Elizalde Stamp Journal.  2.1 (1940): 23.

⁷“Kaner, Walter.” [Search result.]  Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999.  The Jerry Bails Project, last updated 18 Oct. 2006.  Web.  29 June 2017.  <www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=KANER%2c+WALTER>.

⁸Sensation Comics is a comic book that features a number of characters but its main attraction is Wonder Woman.

⁹Walter Kaner.  “George Washington of the Philippines.”  Sensations in Stamps.  Sensation Comics #9 (Sept. 1942), J. R. Publishing Co. [DC Comics]: N. pag.

 

¹⁰Austin Craig.  Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot.  1913.  Amazon.com: [A Public Domain Book], 2012.  Location 2.  Kindle.

¹¹Frank Ernest Gannett.  “Jose Rizal.”  1900.  Rpt. in Jose Rizal. The Collected Works of Jose Rizal: The Complete Works PergamonMedia (Highlights of World Literature).  Amazon.com: PergamonMedia, 2015.  Locations 15943-15944.  Kindle. 

¹²David B. McCoy.  George Washington: History in an Hour.  London: William Collins, 2012.  [Chapter where citation is] “A Farewell into Immortality” [N. pag.].  ePub.

¹³Others may not agree with this.  There is no arguing, however, that Rizal’s date of execution is 30 December 1896.  December 30 is Rizal Day and is celebrated as a legal holiday in the Philippines.