During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), a French postcard company produced a set of several postcards mocking General Oku Yasukata, whose name is a near-homophone for the phrase “au cul” — French for “of the ass”.
Though not involved in the fighting, the French were allied with Russia: hence the petard- humor directed at the Japanese. Unhappily for European leaders, not to mention Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Japanese nonetheless prevailed.
(via oddside)