I’m thirtysomething. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people my age and younger don’t associate today’s Japan with the WWII aggressors at all. Japan is a tiny, crowded island from which comes reliable cars, futuristic electronics, puzzling snacks, and profoundly weird porn. We rather like Japan.
This^ I’m 35, and mostly feel the same way. My Dad also refuses to buy foreign (not just Japanese) cars, he believes it takes jobs away from Americans.
I believe that was caused in part when a Japanese pilot crash landed during the raid and talked a local guy into helping him raise hell.
Well, that’s to be expected. My uncle fought the Germans and had a dreadful war (Dunkirk, Desert Rat, part of the Italy invasion) and he *loathed *the Germans to his dying day, aged 92. His brother (my father) was 17 when the war finished and has never had a problem with Germans (or Japanese).
It’s a big country so I’m sure someone out there hates the Japanese but it’s not common by any measure I can see. I think the Japanese are mainly thought of as the “good guys” these days versus the looming threat of Evil Communist China.
I suppose there’s a racism aspect in viewing the Japanese as being quirky or cute (“They all have robot toilets and cartoons with girls in panties!”) but that’s different from hating them.
I’ll add my opinion to the consensus that anti-Japanese sentiment is practically nonexistent in contemporary America. Japanese people might be stereotyped or mocked, but one is very unlikely to encounter the type of hatred or derision many Americans have towards black people or Muslims being directed towards Japanese people.
The hatred of the Japanese largely belongs to what little is left of the generation of the time. My great uncle Frank hated the Japanese and felt buying Japanese was terrible. He was also frighteningly racist and bigoted in general though so he wasn’t the best yardstick to measure the racism of his generation. Also he fought in the Pacific War and lost a brother on one of the islands to the Japanese.
As to “reading about it always gives me the impression that contemporary Americans viewed the war against Nazi Germany as a bit of unpleasantness they had to get out of the way before they settled accounts with the real enemy, Imperial Japan.”
No, not at all. That would have been a very rare attitude. Americans were far more prejudiced against the Japanese but Germany was the big enemy, Japan second and Italy of little account at all. In fact remarkably it seems like more people of the time disliked the Vichy French than the Italians.
In my life, Japan has been considered a closer friend to the US than probably any other non-English speaking nation. One we were worried about out-competing us in the 70s and 80s but a close friend.
I would guess the list of US friends would run like this.
- UK, Ireland & Canada
- Australia & New Zealand
- Japan & Israel
- South Korea, Taiwan & Western Europe except France
- France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia & Egypt.
Philippines use to up at 3 but not so much and I guess Iran was a 4 or 5 before the Revolution.
Thanks for the replies so far.
Was it? Animal House notwithstanding, the Japanese had attacked Americans directly whereas all the Germans did was declare war and be nominally allied with their enemy. Nowadays of course with the revelations of the shoah WWII is synonymous with a crusade against Nazi evil rather than retribution against Japan, but back then I’m not so sure that was the case.
Well, my first instinct on seeing the title of the thread was “why would we?” Then there was a certain amount of “oh, yeah, Pearl Harbor” but, the overriding reaction is still “why would we.”
I don’t know if this is a joke or not, but don’t use racial slurs against ethnic groups purposefully.
My apologies. I was trying to channel Archie Bunker.
No, Germany was considered the bigger threat. Part of that was the racism and part the Euro-centric view of power.
Also the Pacific war was a different type of war, it was ships and planes and marines. Germany had far more men on the ground and thus more families would be looking at news the German war primarily.
I know my family had servicemen and merchant marines in both theaters but so many more served on the ground in North Africa, Italy & France that most Americans would think Germany the bigger threat.
:dubious: Could you take a shot at quantifying “many?” I mean we’re a big country, and the internet is famous for giving a loud voice to the lowest common denominator. But I would guess that far less than one percent of Americans hould that sort of attitude.
So did he go with Blaupunkt instead?
But your question is about whether Americans *still *dislike the Japanese.
Certainly in popular culture the default bad guys are Nazis. Hitler is the ultimate bad guy. There is no Japanese equivalent of Godwin’s law. In bad time-travel fiction, the most common horror “punchline” is coming back to a German-occupied United States. *Never *a Japanese occupied country. The audience would be baffled.
I’ve never noticed any dislike of the Japanese in general. I doubt if you would see much after the WW2 generation.
Interesting story about Ni’ihau during WW II. I lived briefly on Kauai and never heard this bit.
Back to the OP, I am in my early 50’s and have not heard ANY racism related to WW II Japanese from my peers.
My father was in the Navy during WWII, although the closest he came to combat was watching a mine float past his ship. I’ve never heard him express any anti-Japanese sentiment.
I’m 70, my Dad passed in 94, my paternal Grandmother was a translator / nurse aid at a German POW camp in North Texas. A maternal uncle was a pilot in Pearl and was killed in1941.
So knew / know many people that still are not in love with them. They do not show it because they are civilized people and even children who intermarry with them are not discriminated against.
But we have a ways to go before racism of this sort or any sort will be gone from minds completely. I think we will have killed ourselves by killing the Earth before that is completely eradicated from human kind.
I worked with a WWII veteran who served in the Pacific and absolutely hated the Japanese. The phrase “dirty Jap” came out of his mouth at least once a day. He would not buy any Japanese merchandise. I once had a Japanese cast recording of a muscial delivered to the office, and he went ballistic, severely criticizing me and asking how I would feel if the “dirty Japs” won the war and I was now a slave cleaning a Jap whore’s ass.
Most racist person I ever met.