Nisei and sansei Japanese americans that grew up in Northern California, and who’s parents or grandparents were in Tule Lake (one of the internment camps). This was in the 1980’s. They were the ones that referred to Japan Town (san francisco) as J Town.
I grew up (in Toronto, Canada) with it being an offensive term of the same caliber as the dreaded N word.
In recent years however, the term seems to have mainly been softened in common parlance to be a reference to inferiority, primarily as it pertains to consumer products. (“Jap crap” was a phrase I heard with some frequency.) Even that seems to be disappearing to some degree now that Japanese products are increasingly regarded as being of equivalent, or in some cases superior to their North American counterparts. I have noticed that more people seem to be referring to Japanese products without using the pejorative abbreviation these days. I think the increasingly global market is having a lot to do with that. Well, that, and recent events have given rise to more contemporary targets to be used as fodder for the racist.
This is all anecdotal, and much of it might have to do with the fact the crowd I hang with is older than it once was (thus has become more mature – mostly) so there could be a bias at work here.
Very true. Having said that, I was talking to a friend of my sister’s who described herself as a JAP and I was very confused as to what she meant. She clearly wasn’t Japanese.
She was a Jewish-American Princess. :smack:
Oh yeah, I grew up with that one, too. Usually it was pretty clear which “jap” was being used by the context though. (eg. “She’s such a JAP.”)
When I was taking Japanese classes we got a very serious and almost tearful lecture once from a teacher, that the department abbreviation was JAPA, not JAP. Evidently there had been some mislabeled forms and such going around and even that was enough to really upset the Japanese teaching staff.
My understanding is that it’s much more sensitive on the West Coast, because we South Carolina students hadn’t realized it was an issue, largely. After that I asked my dad not to say it. (He means it derogatorily. Whoever put down “JAP 302” surely didn’t.)
Since my wife’s parents were interned during World War II she would prefer you not use the term “Jap” around her.
Here are some terms she prefers.
American
Japanese-American
American of Japanese ancestry
Asian-American
Japanese
Asian/East Asian
I have been admonished here for using the term. Being British, I didn’t know that Americans found the term offensive. So I learned something.
Japanese pop music is ubiquitously referred to as J-pop among fans in the US, FWIW.
I’m not actually sure the term was used particularly to insult. Rather, it had insulting connnotations for being used at the time. Frankly, if you were a soldier or a bureaucrat or whatever and needed to talk about the Japanese a lot, you’d probably come up with a shortened nickname, too. Note that the nicks for various groups, especially in wartime, are usually short, 2 syllables or less.
Reb
Yank
Hun
Kraut
Jap
Brit
This from a country that uses the word Cunt as a term of endearment. I love that country!
I roomed with a guy who grew up in Japan and he referred to Japantown as “J-Town”. (He even called LA’s Little Tokyo “J-Town”.)
This phrasing is just so strange; it’s like you wrote it in 1979. “Jap Crap” and the notion of Japanese products being good instead of shoddy isn’t “disappearing to some degree now,” it’s been as dead as a doornail since Miami Vice was still a going concern.
Yeah, I found that comment to be bizarrely anachronistic.
My sansei NorCal cousins use the term J-town. Not much to do there, so I rarely hear J-Town or Japantown in either case.
Maybe it’s just a function of living in Canada – I dunno, but I was hearing that reference throughout the 80s and into the early 90s. At least until “rice” took over as a term for Japanese automobiles (“ricemobiles” or “rice rockets”) and later as a term referring to modifications to cars (mostly to Japanese cars) (to “rice” one’s car up.)
I did a Google image search for the ubiquitous “No Japs” signs prevalent around the time of WWII. At least, I’ve seen a book full of photos of them. This picture was the only one I could find and it dates from around 1920, which of course was quite a bit before Pearl Harbor.
In the online gaming communities I’m in, the shorthand for different nationalities has evolved from the 2-letter country codes plus a few options.
So japanese are “jaypees” or “JPs”, etc, with the few exceptions (mostly the use of NAs for “anyone from north america” or EUs for the obvious.)
After reading this, your location didn’t surprise me one bit. 
I would add that in my experience, every time anyone in FFXI said “Japs”, they were admonished for it.
I’m Japanese-American and I used to be able to see Pearl Harbor from my parents’ front door. I do find the term offensive, and I would look at you funny if I heard you say it. Wouldn’t matter if it was inoffensive where you were from or if you meant Jewish-American Princess. If I traveled to a place where it wasn’t offensive, I would try to keep that in mind, but I wouldn’t be able to suppress my initial “WTF did you just say?” reaction.
“Ricer”/“ricermobile” never really tripped my Offend-o-meter, likely because every kid I knew that did shit like that to his car was Japanese, or some flavor of Asian, or did it to a Japanese car. I think I liked making fun of them too much to be offended by the term.
People refer to Koreantown as K-town. (I’ve never heard of Chinatown being referred to as C-town though, interestingly enough.)
Isn’t there a term for gay guys who have Asian fetishes? Rice queen or something along those lines? (Sorry for the hijack. I’ve never heard the term “rice” as a verb before in connection to cars. Learn something new every day.)
Yellow fever?
No. Here, I found it on Wiki. Wiki knows all.