You’re right: There is a lot of rigid racism in Japan — the country definitely needs to face that fact and deal with it. Ironically, they’re doing that now simply because the Japanese population is so skewed toward the elderly now, that they’ve been importing foreigners to bolster their workforce, and there’s more tension rising to the surface.

As for looking back at the 1940s with a PC outlook, yep, it’s an exercise in revisionism, but it’s also important to place today’s racism (PC or not, racism and stereotypes are still flagrant in American society) in historical context. And also, to place the racist imagery of the 1940s into its historical context — Asians have been painted with an ugly racist brush for centuries; in fact all people of color have in the U.S. These are lessons that are still not taught in schools, or if they are, not very much (the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII still takes up only one paragraph in the history book that’s used by my school district).

I can still watch John Wayne in “The Fighting Seabees” and I’m OK with the historical context of U.S. military calling the Japanese “Japs.” As a journalist, I interviewed a Pearl Harbor survivor and didn’t correct him when he kept using the term “Japs” even though he knew I was Japanese American — I’m not that PC.

However, it’s really, really important to educate people that that image of Japanese as animals, as apes, evolved out of a racially-based ignorance from previous centuries, and that there were decades of legislation like alien land laws and non-citizenship clauses that are part of that history.

Having said that, I do acknowledge that Japan has been terrible on other people and other races. They aligned with the Axis during WWII because they shared a sense of racial superiority, and I hate that about the country of my heritage. No one’s perfect. We just need to acknowledge our weaknesses and strive to make for a more just and fair future for everyone….

I’m writing a blog post today about a book that chronicles the post-war repatriation of Japanese from Manchuria, and how Gen. MacArthur and the Occupation forces helped get those citizens back to Japan. The book doesn’t dwell much on the terrible things Japanese did throughout Asia in the years leading up to WWII, and I’m taking the author to task for that, even though I know his books is focused on one particular experience.

So, I’m trying to write about these issues from my personal perspective, but with a lot of historical research behind me. So I hope you’ll accept my thoughts.

BTW, My dad was in the US Army in Japan and served during the Korean War when he met my mom. My brothers and I were all born in Japan, and raised on or around military bases, and attended American schools on base. We lived for a time in Iwakuni, the largest USMC base in the country. So I’m pretty familiar with the US military perspective about the Far East and how they’re perceived in Japan. Again, I bring my lifetime of experience as a personal filter for me to write about.

Take care, and thanks for commenting, Jerry!

While it’s true racism exists in the USA, it’s nothing compared to Japan. If you don’t believe that, go live there and try to fit in.

White ppl are just plain arrogant, igorant and annoying…. i stopped caring about these hypocrites long ago.

Asians all look similar, the same just like comparing any Cauasian North American with any random European. And if someone disagrees, their an idiot.