Japanese and American Racism during World War II
Japanese and American Racism during World War II
When most people think about World War II, their thoughts go straight to the European front with concentration camps, Adolf Hitler’s regime, and Nazi racism of Jews. Millions of people died as a result of this profound racism, which caused this to be the most devastating war in history. What people tend to forget, though, is that racism existed not only in Europe, but in the Pacific front as well. John Dower wrote a historical text portraying the impudent behaviors of racial stereotyping in the countries of Japan and the United States. For example, Japan referred to Americans as “demons” and the U.S. referred to Japanese as “vermin.” Fueled by this tension, battles on the Pacific front greatly contributed to the overall number of casualties during World War II, thus making racism a very important factor. In Dower’s monograph, War Without Mercy, brutality of racism in WWII was demonstrated through the different ways Japanese and Americans stereotyped one another through the dehumanizing terms of “demons” and “vermin.”
Dower thoroughly described in his text how the Japanese viewed themselves. The historical and traditionalistic culture that they had did indeed spark much of the racism they possessed against Americans. The people of Japan used spirituality, uniformitarianism, samurai culture, and cultural restoration to boost themselves, while also using it to degrade other races. Japanese spirituality was extremely important to them. It tied into ideas of purity that made them unique individuals. Uniformitarianism said that they all originated from one sun goddess that began the Yamato race. The Japanese saw this as being biologically innate, and it could not be learned or cultivated by anyone else. This superiority made them believe that those who would never understand would need to be killed. The samurai culture they lived by said that they descended from the greatest warriors. They used this tradition to
When most people think about World War II, their thoughts go straight to the European front with concentration camps, Adolf Hitler’s regime, and Nazi racism of Jews. Millions of people died as a result of this profound racism, which caused this to be the most devastating war in history. What people tend to forget, though, is that racism existed not only in Europe, but in the Pacific front as well. John Dower wrote a historical text portraying the impudent behaviors of racial stereotyping in the countries of Japan and the United States. For example, Japan referred to Americans as “demons” and the U.S. referred to Japanese as “vermin.” Fueled by this tension, battles on the Pacific front greatly contributed to the overall number of casualties during World War II, thus making racism a very important factor. In Dower’s monograph, War Without Mercy, brutality of racism in WWII was demonstrated through the different ways Japanese and Americans stereotyped one another through the dehumanizing terms of “demons” and “vermin.”
Dower thoroughly described in his text how the Japanese viewed themselves. The historical and traditionalistic culture that they had did indeed spark much of the racism they possessed against Americans. The people of Japan used spirituality, uniformitarianism, samurai culture, and cultural restoration to boost themselves, while also using it to degrade other races. Japanese spirituality was extremely important to them. It tied into ideas of purity that made them unique individuals. Uniformitarianism said that they all originated from one sun goddess that began the Yamato race. The Japanese saw this as being biologically innate, and it could not be learned or cultivated by anyone else. This superiority made them believe that those who would never understand would need to be killed. The samurai culture they lived by said that they descended from the greatest warriors. They used this tradition to