# Do many Americans still hate the Japanese? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824 "2013-11-13T16:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/41 "2013-11-13T21:15:21Z")
My Grandmother lost a son in the War and certainly dislike all things Japanese. A friend of a friend described his Father lying on a beach with an eye hanging out of socket, playing dead while Japanese soldiers shot his wounded comrades who certainly hated everything Japanese. I believe hatred, dislike, prejudice stems from the Second World War, and became less as time passed. It is hard to get over members of a group messing with you or your family. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/42 "2013-11-13T21:23:56Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > 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. Before Pearl Harbor we were supporting the British against the Germans through Lend Lease. There were some economic sanctions against Japan, but nothing so blatant. And FDR definitely gave first priority to the European theater. I believe the bomb would have been used against Germany first if it had been ready before VE day. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/43 "2013-11-13T21:26:46Z")
> [@bup](#): > > 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. Good point, Imperial Japan for some reason isn’t used as a ‘popular’ enemy like Nazis these days for some reason, even though they were equally unpleasant in a lot of ways. As mentioned above their POW camps for Americans were not dissimilar to how the Nazis treated their Soviet POWs, and the Bataan Death March early on in the war sure went some way to explain why ordinary Marines hated the Japanese. > [@control-z](#): > > I’ve never noticed any dislike of the Japanese in general. I doubt if you would see much after the WW2 generation. That’s what I would have thought too, but [this moron](http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/tsunami-vs-pearl-harbor-an-interview) who posted about the tsunami was only 19. I know there’s an easy explanation - these people are just idiots, but does it speak to a wider lingering underlying trauma in the American psyche? > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > :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. More than a few, less than a lot. Hope that clears it up. For instance, in 2011 I was surprised even one assclown would still be pissed of about Pearl Harbor but enough posted about it to get the attention of media. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > No, Germany was considered the bigger threat. Part of that was the racism and part the Euro-centric view of power. The bigger threat, but not hated as much as the Japanese. In Europe GI’s were just professionals with a job to get done against other professionals, I reckon Marines in the Pacific had a more…personal hatred of the enemy. Could be wrong, but it’s always the impression I’ve got. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/44 "2013-11-13T21:27:48Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I believe the bomb would have been used against Germany first if it had been ready before VE day. Certainly. Einstein et al attempted to prevent the atom bomb being used after Germany surrendered. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/45 "2013-11-13T21:51:14Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > That’s what I would have thought too, but [this moron](http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/tsunami-vs-pearl-harbor-an-interview) who posted about the tsunami was only 19. I know there’s an easy explanation - these people are just idiots, but does it speak to a wider lingering underlying trauma in the American psyche? There’s always going to be some morons out there who say really, really dumb things during a tragedy. Wasn’t it Pat Robertson who said Haiti got blasted by that last hurricane because of a pact they made with the devil? You can always find interent comment section trolls who will say 911 victims / school shooting victims / tornado victims / etc. “dezervd what thy got! lol #pwnd!” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/46 "2013-11-13T22:01:17Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Before Pearl Harbor we were supporting the British against the Germans through Lend Lease. There were some economic sanctions against Japan, but nothing so blatant. And FDR definitely gave first priority to the European theater. > I believe the bomb would have been used against Germany first if it had been ready before VE day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Europe First was a stupid policy - it was based on sound practical and political reasons. But I think Americans at the time viewed the Nazis as “Another fine European mess, let’s get this over with” and the Japanese as “Sucker-punching, prisoner torturing barbarians who we should wipe off the face of the Earth” ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/47 "2013-11-13T22:22:26Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > The bigger threat, but not hated as much as the Japanese. In Europe GI’s were just professionals with a job to get done against other professionals, I reckon Marines in the Pacific had a more…personal hatred of the enemy. Could be wrong, but it’s always the impression I’ve got. > [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Europe First was a stupid policy - it was based on sound practical and political reasons. But I think Americans at the time viewed the Nazis as “Another fine European mess, let’s get this over with” and the Japanese as “Sucker-punching, prisoner torturing barbarians who we should wipe off the face of the Earth” My understanding is that the Japanese during WWII “Had no concept of surrender”. When a GI would come across an injured Japanese soldier and be met with a suicidal grenade, it tends to change one’s perspective. Even more so when they dropped their own mores forged in European wars and wallowed in what were considered war crimes. That sort of stuff tends to break minds. I trust I’m not representing Japanese wartime practices comprehensively, but judging from [this account](http://www.amazon.com/Onward-Towards-Our-Noble-Deaths/dp/1770460411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384381070&sr=8-1) I don’t think I’m far off. At any rate, as US GI’s from the Pacific don’t like to talk to much about their experiences during the war, this sort of enmity didn’t spread virulently throughout US society. Another straw in the wind was a [New Yorker piece](http://www.herseyhiroshima.com/hiro.php) published immediately after the war addressing Hiroshima. That helped shift elite views of the Japanese, as of course did cold war necessities. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/48 "2013-11-13T22:45:59Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > That’s what I would have thought too, but [this moron](http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/tsunami-vs-pearl-harbor-an-interview) who posted about the tsunami was only 19. I know there’s an easy explanation - these people are just idiots, but does it speak to a wider lingering underlying trauma in the American psyche? No. Once again, there really is almost no anti-Japanese sentiment in America. If you live in America, it’s never too long before you hear someone who expresses intense dislike towards black people, or Hispanic people, or even French people. You just don’t run into those types of strong feelings when it comes to Japanese people. In fact, the only time I ever hear racist people talking about Japan is when they’re praising it as an example of how having an ethnically homogeneous population leads to having a successful country. Those “The tsunami was payback for Pearl Harbor” posts were mostly just tasteless jokes that were intended to be shocking and offensive so that they would garner lots of attention. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/49 "2013-11-13T22:59:35Z")
> [@bup](#): > > 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. Yeah, I’ve heard no hatred against the Japanese, especially compared to what the Germans still get. Germans are still regularly called Nazis; I’ve never heard any Americans reference Japan’s wartime record in anger. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/50 "2013-11-14T12:51:45Z")
I once met a person who told me that she had been on a motorcycle tour around Scotland. One night they stayed at a small B&B. The landlady told them that they couldn’t have anything to eat as it was her husband who cooked and he was away over the weekend, but they didn’t mind as there were a couple of eateries in the town. Anyway, the next morning she asked them what motorcycles they had and when they told her “That is a German BMW and that is a Japanese \” etc she turned very pale and said “It’s a good thing that my husband is away. You would have been thrown out if he had seen you motorcycles”. It turned out that his father and two or three uncles had all died during the war and his hatred for anything German or Japanese was very much alive. This happened some time in the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/51 "2013-11-14T14:28:52Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > I once met a person who told me that she had been on a motorcycle tour around Scotland. One night they stayed at a small B&B. The landlady told them that they couldn’t have anything to eat as it was her husband who cooked and he was away over the weekend, but they didn’t mind as there were a couple of eateries in the town. Anyway, the next morning she asked them what motorcycles they had and when they told her “That is a German BMW and that is a Japanese \” etc she turned very pale and said “It’s a good thing that my husband is away. You would have been thrown out if he had seen you motorcycles”. It turned out that his father and two or three uncles had all died during the war and his hatred for anything German or Japanese was very much alive. This happened some time in the 90s. My immediate reaction was, “that’s insane – especially two generations after, when those who made said motorcycles would have been born long after war’s end. War is, largely, a continuation of diplomacy by other means: personal hatred between those involved at a low level, doesn’t have to be part of it.” However – people feel the way that they feel, and can’t necessarily set that aside easily, or at all. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/52 "2013-11-14T18:26:33Z")
Probably because this country and its current society is young, we as a whole, don’t carry on grudges for wars past. A lot of countries do though. I have not travelled the pacific rim or east asia much but in europe I noticed that they did to a certain extant. Maybe this was obvious to me for our lack of it but it was hard to not hear a conversation about this war or that or some country did that some hundreds of years ago. Or, wistful recollection when our country was part of this empire so and so. Maybe it’s just their form of “water cooler” talk but I have not seen that practice in the US. So, no, I don’t think you’ll find a large population of people lamenting about any country in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, or even first “Gulf War”. Probably, noteven for this current conflict (Gulf War II). We understand that its the “machine” that drives a war and that most of said countrys’ people are not usually involved. We get more angry at the “machine” (politicians, etc) then we do at the country we are in a conflict with. But, we all do hate specific groups or organizations, like Al Queda. Not too many supporters of them here at all. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/53 "2013-11-14T19:09:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I would say that the vast majority of people today don’t view the Japan of today or its people as the same Japan that we fought in WWII. There was plenty of hatred for the imperialist Japan of that era (and rightfully so I believe) but almost everyone recognizes that the post WWII era and its reconstruction changed Japan and its people in many fundamental ways (and westernized it to some degree) so the old feelings don’t really carry over. Much the same thing is true with Germany. American here. This is pretty much accurate. Americans generally believe that Japan and Germany both saw the errors of their ways and reformed themselves and are now close allies. The wisdom seems to be that a hypothetical future World War 3 will involve an alliance of the US, Germany, Japan, the British Commonwealth countries, and a few others against some other force, either Communist (e.g. DPRK and PRC), or Islamist (e.g. a hypothetical future Caliphate or pan-Islamic alliance waging overt holy war). The fear that the US will fight a future war with Japan pales in comparison to the fear that there will be a war with China - which is looking less and less likely every year. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/54 "2013-11-14T20:26:59Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Actually, the more common attitude was that Nazi Germany was the real enemy and that the Japanese war was a secondary conflict which conveniently allowed FDR to take on Hitler. However, the personal/racial dislike… it was aimed moreso at the Japanese, obviously. It was. Bill Maudlin (Stars and Stripes cartoonist attached to the infantry during WWII) wrote in his book _Up Front_ that most of the soldiers didn’t like hearing that they weren’t fighting Germans they were fighting Nazis. No, Bill wrote, other than a crack SS division in Italy I haven’t seen any Nazis. As for the Japanese: I worked in a military museum and one day a visitor asked me “How do you feel about all those Jap cars you see on the road today?” So there’s still some people who don’t like Japan for whatever reason. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/55 "2013-11-14T20:39:45Z")
Other than flat out racist against anyone who isn’t them types (and these people are much rarer than people try to make you think) there’s not a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment out there. Maybe some trumped up crap when someone dares to abbreviate Japanese as Jap because OMGOSH that’s what they said in nasty propaganda decades before you were born. ---
**Author:** ![Cold\_Dish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Cold\_Dish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cold_Dish)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/56 "2013-11-14T23:38:41Z")
My grandfather was a Bataan Death March survivor. Fucking hated the Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/57 "2013-11-15T01:18:16Z")
I’ve only encountered anti-Japanese sentiments coming from men of my father’s generation. Male WWII vets. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/58 "2013-11-15T01:28:40Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > It was. Bill Maudlin (Stars and Stripes cartoonist attached to the infantry during WWII) wrote in his book _Up Front_ that most of the soldiers didn’t like hearing that they weren’t fighting Germans they were fighting Nazis. No, Bill wrote, other than a crack SS division in Italy I haven’t seen any Nazis. > > As for the Japanese: I worked in a military museum and one day a visitor asked me “How do you feel about all those Jap cars you see on the road today?” So there’s still some people who don’t like Japan for whatever reason. Those German soldiers were fighting on behalf of a Nazi government, so yeah, they WERE fighting the Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/59 "2013-11-15T01:41:50Z")
I don’t and I’m of Korean descent. I’m an anime/manga fan and find Japanese women quite attractive. My parents (and their generation) not so much (although OTOH they have no problem using Japanese products or watching Japanese movies/TV shows/whatever ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824/60 "2013-11-15T02:19:01Z")
I do, but it’s more a function of my ex-brother-in-law being a world-class asshole more than anything else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-americans-still-hate-the-japanese/673824.md?page=4)