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| Country polled | Positive | Negative | Neutral | Pos − neg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 China | 22% | 75% | 3 | -53 |
 Spain | 39% | 36% | 25 | 3 |
 Turkey | 71% | 24% | 5 | 47 |
 Pakistan | 38% | 20% | 42 | 18 |
 India | 45% | 17% | 38 | 28 |
 Russia | 45% | 16% | 39 | 29 |
 Peru | 56% | 25% | 19 | 31 |
 Nigeria | 57% | 24% | 19 | 33 |
 United Kingdom | 65% | 30% | 5 | 35 |
 Mexico | 59% | 23% | 18 | 36 |
 Kenya | 58% | 22% | 20 | 36 |
 Germany | 50% | 13% | 37 | 37 |
 Indonesia | 57% | 17% | 26 | 40 |
 United States | 65% | 23% | 12 | 42 |
 France | 74% | 21% | 5 | 53 |
 Brazil | 70% | 15% | 15 | 55 |
 Australia | 78% | 17% | 5 | 61 |
 Canada | 77% | 12% | 11 | 65 |
| Country polled | Favorable | Unfavorable | Neutral | Fav − Unfav |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 4% | 90% | 6 | -86 |
 South Korea | 22% | 77% | 1 | -55 |
| Pakistan | 51% | 7% | 42 | 44 |
 Philippines | 78% | 18% | 4 | 60 |
| Australia | 78% | 16% | 6 | 62 |
| Indonesia | 79% | 12% | 9 | 67 |
 Malaysia | 80% | 6% | 14 | 74 |
| Country polled | Positive | Negative | Neutral | Pos − Neg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 18% | 71% | 11 | -53 |
| Mexico | 24% | 34% | 42 | -10 |
| Pakistan | 34% | 15% | 51 | 19 |
 South Africa | 41% | 17% | 42 | 24 |
| India | 39% | 13% | 48 | 26 |
| France | 55% | 29% | 16 | 26 |
 Portugal | 43% | 13% | 44 | 30 |
| United Kingdom | 58% | 26% | 16 | 32 |
| Germany | 58% | 25% | 17 | 33 |
 Ghana | 55% | 11% | 34 | 34 |
| Australia | 60% | 26% | 14 | 34 |
| Spain | 57% | 19% | 24 | 38 |
 Egypt | 52% | 14% | 34 | 38 |
| Kenya | 61% | 20% | 19 | 41 |
| Turkey | 60% | 32% | 8 | 43 |
| South Korea | 68% | 20% | 12 | 48 |
 Italy | 66% | 18% | 16 | 48 |
| Brazil | 66% | 16% | 18 | 50 |
| Nigeria | 65% | 14% | 21 | 51 |
| Canada | 67% | 16% | 17 | 51 |
| United States | 69% | 18% | 13 | 51 |
 Chile | 66% | 14% | 20 | 52 |
| Peru | 64% | 10% | 26 | 54 |
| Russia | 65% | 7% | 28 | 58 |
| Philippines | 84% | 12% | 4 | 72 |
| Indonesia | 85% | 7% | 8 | 78 |
Anti-Japanese sentiment (also calledJapanophobia,Nipponophobia[4] andanti-Japanism) is the fear or dislike ofJapan orJapanese culture. Anti-Japanese sentiment can take many forms, from antipathy toward Japan as a country toracist hatred ofJapanese people.
Anti-Japanese sentiments range fromanimosity towards theJapanese government's actions during theSecond Sino-Japanese War andWorld War II, todisdain for Japanese culture, or toracism against theJapanese people. Sentiments ofdehumanization have been fueled by theanti-Japanese propaganda of theAllied governments inWorld War II; this propaganda was often of a racially disparaging character. Anti-Japanese sentiment may be strongest inKorea andChina,[5][6][7][8] due toatrocities committed by theImperial Japanese military.[9]
In the past, anti-Japanese sentiment contained innuendos of Japanese people asbarbaric. Following theMeiji Restoration of 1868, Japan was intent toadopt Western ways in an attempt to join the West as an industrialized imperial power, but a lack of acceptance of the Japanese in the West complicated integration and assimilation. Japanese culture was viewed with suspicion and even disdain.[citation needed]
While passions have settled somewhat since Imperial Japan's surrender in thePacific War theater ofWorld War II, tempers continue to flare on occasion over the widespread perception that the Japanese government has made insufficient penance for theirpast atrocities, or has sought to whitewash the history of these events.[10] Today, though the Japanese government has effected somecompensatory measures, anti-Japanese sentiment continues based on historical and nationalist animosities linked toImperial Japanesemilitary aggression andatrocities. Japan's delay in clearing more than 700,000 (according to the Japanese Government[11]) pieces of life-threatening and environment contaminatingchemical weapons buried in China at the end of World War II is another cause of anti-Japanese sentiment.[citation needed]
Periodically, individuals within Japan spur external criticism. Former Prime MinisterJunichiro Koizumi was heavily criticized by South Korea and China for annually paying his respects to the war dead atYasukuni Shrine, which enshrines all those who fought and died forImperial Japan as part of theAxis powers during World War II, including 1,068convicted war criminals. Right-wing nationalist groups have produced history textbooks whitewashing Japanese atrocities,[12] and the recurring controversies over these books occasionally attract hostile foreign attention.[citation needed]
Some anti-Japanese sentiment originates from business practices used by some Japanese companies, such asdumping.[citation needed]
Like the elites inArgentina andUruguay, the Brazilian elite wanted toracially whiten the country's population during the 19th and 20th centuries. The country's governments always encouraged European immigration, but non-white immigration was always greeted with considerable opposition. The communities of Japanese immigrants were seen as an obstacle to the whitening of Brazil and they were also seen, among other concerns, as being particularly tendentious because they formedghettos and they also practicedendogamy at a high rate. Oliveira Viana, a Brazilian jurist, historian, and sociologist, described the Japanese immigrants as follows: "They (Japanese) are like sulfur: insoluble." The Brazilian magazineO Malho in its edition of 5 December 1908, issued a charge of Japanese immigrants with the following legend: "The government ofSão Paulo is stubborn. After the failure of the first Japanese immigration, it contracted 3,000 yellow people. It insists on giving Brazil a race diametrically opposite to ours."[13] On 22 October 1923, Representative Fidélis Reis produced a bill on the entry of immigrants, whose fifth article was as follows: "The entry of settlers from the black race into Brazil is prohibited. For Asian [immigrants] there will be allowed each year a number equal to 5% of those residing in the country...."[14]
Years before World War II, the government of PresidentGetúlio Vargas initiated a process offorced assimilation of people of immigrant origin in Brazil. In 1933, a constitutional amendment was approved by a large majority and established immigration quotas without mentioning race or nationality and prohibited the population concentration of immigrants. According to the text, Brazil could not receive more than 2% of the total number of entrants of each nationality that had been received in the last 50 years. Only the Portuguese were excluded. The measures did not affect the immigration of Europeans such as Italians and Spaniards, who had already entered in large numbers and whose migratory flow was downward. However, immigration quotas, which remained in force until the 1980s, restricted Japanese immigration, as well as Korean and Chinese immigration.[15][13][16]
When Brazil sided with theAllies and declared war on Japan in 1942, all communication with Japan was cut off, the entry of new Japanese immigrants was forbidden, and many restrictions affected the Japanese Brazilians. Japanese newspapers and teaching the Japanese language in schools were banned, which left Portuguese as the only option for Japanese descendants. As many Japanese immigrants could not understand Portuguese, it became exceedingly difficult for them to obtain any extra-communal information.[17] In 1939, research ofEstrada de Ferro Noroeste do Brasil in São Paulo showed that 87.7% of Japanese Brazilians read newspapers in the Japanese language, a much higherliteracy rate than the general populace at the time.[13] Japanese Brazilians could not travel withoutsafe conduct issued by the police, Japanese schools were closed, and radio receivers were confiscated to prevent transmissions onshortwave from Japan. The goods of Japanese companies were confiscated and several companies of Japanese origin had interventions by the government. Japanese Brazilians were prohibited from driving motor vehicles, and the drivers employed by the Japanese had to have permission from the police. Thousands of Japanese immigrants were arrested ordeported from Brazil on suspicion of espionage.[13] On 10 July 1943, approximately 10,000 Japanese and German and Italian immigrants who lived inSantos had 24 hours to move away from the Brazilian coast. The police acted without any notice. About 90% of the people displaced were Japanese. To reside in coastal areas, the Japanese had to have a safe conduct.[13] In 1942, the Japanese community that introduced the cultivation of pepper inTomé-Açu, inPará, was virtually turned into a "concentration camp". This time, the Brazilian ambassador in Washington, DC, Carlos Martins Pereira e Sousa, encouraged the government of Brazil to transfer all Japanese Brazilians to "internment camps" without the need for legal support, justas was done with the Japanese residents in the United States. However, no suspicion of activities of the Japanese against "national security" was ever confirmed.[13]
Even after the war ended, anti-Japanese sentiment persisted in Brazil. After the war,Shindo Renmei, a terrorist organization formed by Japanese immigrants that murdered Japanese-Brazilians who believed inJapanese surrender, was founded. The violent acts committed by this organization increased anti-Japanese sentiment in Brazil and caused several violent conflicts between Brazilians and Japanese-Brazilians.[13] During the National Constituent Assembly of 1946, the representative ofRio de Janeiro Miguel Couto Filho proposed an amendment to the Constitution saying "It is prohibited the entry of Japanese immigrants of any age and any origin in the country." In the final vote, a tie with 99 votes in favour and 99 against.SenatorFernando de Melo Viana, who chaired the session of theConstituent Assembly, had the casting vote and rejected the constitutional amendment. By only one vote, the immigration of Japanese people to Brazil was not prohibited by the Brazilian Constitution of 1946.[13]
In the second half of the 2010s, a certain anti-Japanese feeling has grown in Brazil. The former Brazilian president,Jair Bolsonaro, was accused of making statements considered discriminatory against Japanese people, which generated repercussions in the press and in theJapanese-Brazilian community,[18][19] which is considered the largest in the world outside of Japan.[20] In addition, in 2020, possibly as a result of theCOVID-19 pandemic, some incidents of xenophobia and abuse were reported to Japanese-Brazilians in cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.[21][22][23][24]
According to a 2017 BBC World Service survey, 70% of Brazilians view Japan's influence positively, with 15% expressing a negative view, making Brazil one of the most pro-Japanese countries in South America.[1]
Like other countries to which the Japanese immigrated in significant numbers,anti-Japanese sentiment in Canada was strongest during the 20th century, with the formation of anti-immigration organizations such as theAsiatic Exclusion League in response to Japanese and other Asian immigration. Anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese riots also frequently broke out such one inearly 1900s Vancouver. During World War II,Japanese Canadians wereinterned like their American counterparts. Financial compensation for surviving internees was finally paid in 1988 by theBrian Mulroney government.[25]
Anti-Japanese sentiment is felt very strongly in China, and distrust, hostility and negative feelings towards Japan and the Japanese people and culture is widespread in China. Anti-Japanese sentiment is a phenomenon that mostly dates back to modern times (since 1868). Like many Western powers during the era of imperialism, Imperial Japan negotiated treaties that often resulted in the annexation of land from China towards the end of theQing dynasty. Dissatisfaction with Japanese settlements and theTwenty-One Demands by the Japanese government led to a seriousboycott of Japanese products in China.
Today, bitterness persists in China[26] over the atrocities of theSecond Sino-Japanese War and Japan's postwar actions, particularly the perceived lack of a straightforward acknowledgment of such atrocities, the Japanese government's employment of known war criminals, and Japanese historic revisionism in textbooks. In elementary school, children are taught aboutJapanese war crimes in detail. For example, thousands of children are brought to theMuseum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing by their elementary schools and required to view photos of war atrocities, such as exhibits of records of the Japanese military forcing Chinese workers into wartime labor,[27] theNanjing Massacre,[28] and the issues ofcomfort women.[29] After viewing the museum, the children's hatred of the Japanese people was reported to significantly increase. Despite the time that has passed since the end of the war, discussions about Japanese conduct during it can still evoke powerful emotions today, partly because most Japanese are aware of what happened during it although their society has never engaged in the type of introspection which has been common in Germany afterthe Holocaust.[30] Hence, the usage of Japanese military symbols is still controversial in China, such as the incident in which the Chinese pop singerZhao Wei was seen wearing aRising Sun Flag while she was dressed for a fashion magazine photo shoot in 2001.[31] Huge responses were seen on theInternet, a public letter demanding a public apology was also circulated by a Nanjing Massacre survivor, and the singer was even attacked.[32] According to a 2017BBC World Service Poll, only 22% of Chinese people view Japan's influence positively, and 75% express a negative view, making China the most anti-Japanese nation in the world.[1] Online hate speech against the Japanese is common onChinese social media.[33]
Anti-Japanese sentiment can also be seen in war films and anime that are currently being produced and broadcast in Mainland China. More than 200 anti-Japanese films were produced in China in 2012 alone.[34] In one particular situation involving a more moderate anti-Japanese war film, the government of China banned the 2000fictional film,Devils on the Doorstep because it depicted a Japanese soldier being friendly with Chinese villagers. WhileLycoris Recoil considered too violent inSoutheast Asia since theassassination of Shinzo Abe.[35]
Japan's public service broadcaster,NHK, provides a list of overseas safety risks for traveling, and in early 2020, it listed anti-Japanese discrimination as a safety risk on travel to France and some other European countries, possibly because of fears over theCOVID-19 pandemic and other factors.[36] Signs of rising anti-Japanese sentiment in France include an increase in anti-Japanese incidents reported by Japanese nationals, such as being mocked on the street and refused taxi service, and least one Japanese restaurant has been vandalized.[37][38][39] A group of Japanese students on a study tour inParis received abuse by locals.[40] Another group of Japanese citizens was targeted by acid attacks, which prompted the Japanese embassy as well as the foreign ministry to issue a warning to Japanese nationals in France, urging caution.[41][42] Due to rising discrimination, a Japanese TV announcer in Paris said it's best not to speak Japanese in public or wear a Japanese costume like a kimono.[43]
According to theJapanese foreign ministry, anti-Japanese sentiment and discrimination has been rising in Germany, especially recently when theCOVID-19 pandemic began affecting the country.[44]
Media sources have reported a rise in anti-Japanese sentiment in Germany, with some Japanese residents saying suspicion and contempt towards them have increased noticeably.[45] In line with those sentiments, there have been a rising number of anti-Japanese incidents such as at least one major football club kicking out all Japanese fans from their stadium over fears of the coronavirus, locals throwing raw eggs at Japanese people's homes and a general increase in the level of harassment toward Japanese residents.[46][47][48]
In a press release, the embassy of Japan inIndonesia stated that incidents of discrimination and harassment of Japanese people had increased, and they were possibly partly related to theCOVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and it also announced that it had set up a help center in order to assist Japanese residents in dealing with those incidents.[49] In general, there have been reports of widespread anti-Japanese discrimination and harassment in the country, with hotels, stores, restaurants, taxi services and more refusing Japanese customers and many Japanese people were no longer allowed in meetings and conferences. The embassy of Japan has also received at least a dozen reports of harassment toward Japanese people in just a few days.[50][51] According to theMinistry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), anti-Japanese sentiment and discrimination has been rising in Indonesia.[44]
The issue of anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea is complex and multifaceted. Anti-Japanese attitudes in theKorean Peninsula can be traced as far back as theJapanese pirate raids and theJapanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), but they are largely a product of theJapanese occupation of Korea which lasted from 1910 to 1945 and the subsequent revisionism of history textbooks which have been used by Japan's educational system sinceWorld War II.
Today, issues ofJapanese history textbook controversies, Japanese policy regarding the war, andgeographic disputes between the two countries perpetuate that sentiment, and the issues often incur huge disputes between Japanese and South Korean Internet users.[52] South Korea, together with Mainland China, may be considered as among the most intensely anti-Japanese societies in the world.[53] Among all the countries that participated in BBC World Service Poll in 2007 and 2009, South Korea and the People's Republic of China were the only ones whose majorities rated Japan negatively.[54][55]
Anti-Japanese sentiment inPeru started during 20th century as part of a generalanti-Asiatic sentiment afterChinese immigration in Perú, because Japanese and Chinese people were catalogued as a "yellow menace" that deteriorate the race and invaded Peruvian territory. Politicians and intellectuals tried to generate repudiation against Asians through publications such as bulletins and articles in newspapers and pamphlets that ridiculed them, even inciting the Peruvian people to attack Peruvian-Japanese citizens and their businesses.[56] Peruvian worker protests led to the creation of an Anti-Asian Association in 1917 and the abolition of contract migration in 1923.[57]
Then, the pre-war times were especially difficult for Japanese immigrants, coming to influence the Peruvian government itself (with the deportations of Japanese to concentration camps in the United States during World War II, specially to the country's only family internment camp inCrystal City, Texas). Although there had been ongoing tensions between non-Japanese and Japanese Peruvians, the situation was drastically exacerbated by the war.[58] The economic success of Japanese farmers and businessmen in niche but visible sectors, the significant amount of remittances sent back to Japan, the fear that Japanese were taking jobs from the locals and a growing trade imbalance between Japan and Peru were motives to implement legislation in order to curb Japanese immigration into its borders.[57] Like In 1937, in which Peruvian government passed a decree revoking citizenship rights of Peruvians who had Japanese ancestry, followed by a second decree making it even more difficult to maintain citizenship, the results of which included stigmatization of Japanese immigrants as "bestial", "untrustworthy", "militaristic,". and "unfairly" competing with Peruvians for wages.[58] These contributed to increasingnationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment which worsened alongside the depressed and unstable Peruvian economy.[57]
Fueled by legislative discrimination and media campaigns, a massive race riot (referred to as the "Saqueo") began on May 13, 1940, and lasted for three days. During the riots Japanese Peruvians were attacked and their homes and businesses destroyed.[59] There were damaged over 600 Japanese residences and businesses in Lima, resulting in dozens of injuries and one Japanese death. Not only was it the “worst rioting in Peruvian history,” but it was also the first to target a racial group (because Peruvians mostly discriminate by social class, but doesn't had a tradition of discrimination by race).[57] Despite its massive scale, the saqueo was underreported, a reflection of public sentiment towards the Japanese population at the time.[59]
The deportees were viewed as a threat to both Peru and the United States before and after thebombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, being registered pressure from the United States, which was an influence for Peruvians’ “anti-Japanese attitude” against their own citizens.[60] The deportation of Japanese Peruvians to the United States also involved expropriation without compensation of their property and other assets in Peru.[61] As noted in a 1943 memorandum, Raymond Ickes of the Central and South American division of the Alien Enemy Control Unit had observed that many ethnic Japanese had been sent to the United States "... merely because the Peruvians wanted their businesses and not because there was any adverse evidence against them."[62]
During post-war, decreased anti-Japanese sentiment on Peruvian society, specially after 1960 (when Japan started to develop closer relations with Peru and their Nikkei community). However, there was a light revival of those sentiments after the government ofAlberto Fujimori, a Peruvian-Japanese who was involved inCorruption in Peru, which generated antipathy against Japan in Peruvian circles.[63] This revival of the sentiment was so intense that were concerned by the Japan government, afterAlberto Fujimori's arrest and trial, the Japanese embassy in Peru and the local media have received frequent telephone calls threatening to harm Japanese-Peruvians, Japanese businesses in Peru, the installations of the embassy and its staff.[64]
Anti-Japanese sentiment in the Philippines can be traced back to theJapanese occupation of the country during World War II and its aftermath. An estimated 1 million Filipinos out of a wartime population of 17 million were killed during the war, and many more Filipinos were injured. Nearly every Filipino family was affected by the war on some level. Most notably, in the city ofMapanique, survivors have recounted the Japanese occupation during which Filipino men were massacred and dozens of women were herded in order to be used ascomfort women. Today, the Philippines has peaceful relations with Japan. In addition, Filipinos are generally not as offended as Chinese or Koreans are by the claim from some quarters that the atrocities are given little, if any, attention in Japanese classrooms. This feeling exists as a result of the huge amount of Japanese aid which was sent to the country during the 1960s and 1970s.[65]
TheDavao Region, inMindanao, had a large community of Japanese immigrants which acted as a fifth column by welcoming the Japanese invaders during the war. The Japanese were hated by theMoro Muslims and the Chinese.[66] The Morojuramentadoss performed suicide attacks against the Japanese, and no Moro juramentado ever attacked the Chinese, who were not considered enemies of the Moro, unlike the Japanese.[67][68][69][70]
According to a 2011BBC World Service Poll, 84% ofFilipinos view Japan's influence positively, with 12% expressing a negative view, making Philippines one of the most pro-Japanese countries in the world.[3]
The older generation of Singaporeans have some resentment towards Japan due to their experiences inWorld War II when Singapore wasunder Japanese Occupation but because of developing good economical ties with them, Singapore is currently having a positive relationship with Japan.[71]
Due to Japan's various oppression and enslavement of Taiwan during World War II and the dispute over theSenkaku Islands, anti-Japanese sentiment in Taiwan is very common, and most Taiwanese people have a negative impression of Japan.[72] However, according to other surveys, Taiwan's anti-Japanese sentiment is seen as much weaker or relatively favorable compared toSouth Korea, which was affected by the same Japanese colonialism.[73][74] Anti-Japanese sentiment appears weaker in Taiwan than anti-Chinese (especiallyanti-PRC) sentiment.[75]
TheKuomintang (KMT) victory in 2008 was followed by a boating accident resulting in Taiwanese deaths, which caused recent tensions. Taiwanese officials began speaking out on the historical territory disputes regarding the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands, which resulted in an increase in at least perceived anti-Japanese sentiment.[76]
Anti-Japanese sentiment was widespread among Thai pro-democracy student protesters in the 1970s. Demonstrators viewed the entry of Japanese companies into the country, invited by the Thai military, as an economic invasion.[77]
In theRussian Empire, the Imperial Japanese victory during theRusso-Japanese War in 1905 halted Russia's ambitions in the East and led to a loss of prestige. During the laterRussian Civil War, Japan was part of theAllied interventionist forces that helped to occupyVladivostok until October 1922 with apuppet government underGrigorii Semenov. At the end of World War II during theSoviet-Japanese War in August 1945, theRed Army accepted the surrender of nearly 600,000Japanese POWs after EmperorHirohito announced the Japanese surrender on 15 August; 473,000 of them were repatriated, 55,000 of them had died in Soviet captivity, and the fate of the others is unknown. Presumably, many of them were deported toChina orNorth Korea and forced to serve as laborers and soldiers.[78] TheKuril Islands dispute is a source of contemporary anti-Japanese sentiment in Russia.[citation needed]
In the 1902, theUnited Kingdom signed aformal military alliance with Japan. However, the alliance was especially discontinued in 1923, and by the 1930s, bilateral ties became strained when Britain opposed Japan'smilitary expansion. During World War II, British anti-Japanese propaganda, much like its American counterpart, featured content that grotesquely exaggerated physical features of Japanese people, if not outright depicting them as animals such as spiders.[79] Post-war, much anti-Japanese sentiment in Britain was focused on the treatment of BritishPOWs (SeeThe Bridge on the River Kwai).
In theUnited States,anti-Japanese sentiment had its beginnings long beforeWorld War II. As early as the late 19th century,Asian immigrants were subjected to racial prejudice in the United States. Laws were passed which openly discriminated against Asians and sometimes, they particularly discriminated against Japanese. Many of these laws stated that Asians could not become US citizens and they also stated that Asians could not be granted basic rights such as the right to own land. These laws were greatly detrimental to the newly arrived immigrants because they denied them the right to own land and forced many of them who were farmers to become migrant workers. Some cite the formation of theAsiatic Exclusion League as the start of the anti-Japanese movement in California.[80]
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Anti-Japanese racism and the belief in theYellow Peril in California intensified after the Japanese victory over theRussian Empire during theRusso-Japanese War. On 11 October 1906, the San Francisco, California Board of Education passed a regulation in which children of Japanese descent would be required to attend racially-segregated separate schools. Japanese immigrants then made up approximately 1% of the population of California, and many of them had come under the treaty in 1894 which had assured free immigration from Japan.
The Japaneseinvasion of Manchuria, China, in 1931 and was roundly criticized in the US. In addition, efforts by citizens outraged at Japanese atrocities, such as theNanking Massacre, led to calls for American economic intervention to encourage Japan to leave China. The calls played a role in shaping American foreign policy. As more and more unfavorable reports of Japanese actions came to the attention of the American government, embargoes on oil and other supplies were placed on Japan out of concern for the Chinese people and for the American interests in the Pacific. Furthermore, European-Americans became very pro-China and anti-Japan, an example being a grassroots campaign for women to stop buying silk stockings because the material was procured from Japan through its colonies.
When theSecond Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Western public opinion was decidedly pro-China, with eyewitness reports by Western journalists on atrocities committed against Chinese civilians further strengthening anti-Japanese sentiments. African-American sentiments could be quite different than the mainstream and included organizations like thePacific Movement of the Eastern World (PMEW), which promised equality and land distribution under Japanese rule. The PMEW had thousands of members hopefully preparing for liberation fromwhite supremacy with the arrival of theJapanese Imperial Army.
The most profound cause of anti-Japanese sentiment outside of Asia started by the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor, which propelled the United States into World War II. The Americans were unified by the attack to fight theEmpire of Japan and its allies: theGerman Reich and theKingdom of Italy.
The surprise attack onPearl Harbor without adeclaration of war was commonly regarded as an act of treachery and cowardice. After the attack, many non-governmental "Jap hunting licenses" were circulated around the country.Life magazine published an article on how to tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese by describing the shapes of their noses and the statures of their bodies.[81] Additionally, Japanese conduct during the war did little to quell anti-Japanese sentiment. The flames of outrage were fanned by the treatment of American and otherprisoners-of-war (POWs). The Japanese military's outrages included the murder of POWs, the use of POWs as slave laborers by Japanese industries, theBataan Death March, thekamikaze attacks on Allied ships, the atrocities which were committed onWake Island, and other atrocities which were committed elsewhere.[citation needed]
The US historian James J. Weingartner attributes the very low number of Japanese in US POW compounds to two key factors: a Japanese reluctance to surrender and a widespread American "conviction that the Japanese were 'animals' or 'subhuman' and unworthy of the normal treatment accorded to POWs."[82] The latter reasoning is supported byNiall Ferguson: "Allied troops often saw the Japanese in the same way that Germans regarded Russians [sic] — asUntermenschen."[83] Weingartner believed that to explain why merely 604 Japanese captives were alive in Allied POW camps by October 1944.[84]Ulrich Straus, a USJapanologist, wrote that frontline troops intensely hated Japanese military personnel and were "not easily persuaded" to take or protect prisoners, as they believed that Allied personnel who surrendered got "no mercy" from the Japanese.[85]
Allied soldiers believed that Japanese soldiers were inclined tofeign surrender in order to launch surprise attacks.[85] Therefore, according to Straus, "[s]enior officers opposed the taking of prisoners[,] on the grounds that it needlessly exposed American troops to risks...."[85]
An estimated 112,000 to 120,000 Japanese migrants andJapanese Americans from the West Coastwere interned regardless of their attitude to the US or to Japan. They were held for the duration of the war in theContinental US. Only a few members of the large Japanese population ofHawaii were relocated in spite of the proximity to vital military areas.[citation needed]
A 1944opinion poll found that 13% of the US public supported thegenocide of all Japanese.[86][87]Daniel Goldhagen wrote in his book, "So it is no surprise that Americans perpetrated and supported mass slaughters -Tokyo's firebombing and then nuclear incinerations - in the name of saving American lives, and of giving the Japanese what they richly deserved."[88]
Weingartner argued that there was a common cause between the mutilation of Japanese war dead and the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[89] According to Weingartner, both of these decisions were partially the result of the dehumanization of the enemy: "The widespread image of the Japanese as sub-human constituted an emotional context which provided another justification for decisions which resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands."[90] Two days after the Nagasaki bomb, US PresidentHarry Truman stated: "The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him like a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true."[84][91]
In the 1970s and the 1980s, the waning fortunes of heavy industry in the United States prompted layoffs and hiring slowdowns just as counterpart businesses in Japan were making major inroads into US markets. That was most visible than in the automobile industry whose lethargicBig Three (General Motors,Ford, andChrysler) watched as their former customers bought Japanese imports fromHonda,Subaru,Mazda, andNissan because of the1973 oil crisis and the1979 energy crisis. (When Japanese automakers were establishing their inroads into the US and Canada. Isuzu, Mazda, andMitsubishi had joint partnerships with a Big Three manufacturer (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) in which its products were sold ascaptives). Anti-Japanese sentiment was reflected in opinion polling at the time as well as in media portrayals.[92] Extreme manifestations of anti-Japanese sentiment were occasional public destruction of Japanese cars and in the 1982murder of Vincent Chin, aChinese-American who was beaten to death after he had been mistaken for being Japanese.[citation needed]
Anti-Japanese sentiments were intentionally incited by US politicians as part of partisan politics designed to attack the Reagan presidency.[93]
Other highly-symbolic deals, including the sale of famous American commercial and cultural symbols such asColumbia Records,Columbia Pictures,7-Eleven, and theRockefeller Center building to Japanese firms, further fanned anti-Japanese sentiment.
Popular culture of the period reflected American's growing distrust of Japan.[citation needed] Futuristic period pieces such asBack to the Future Part II andRoboCop 3 frequently showed Americans as working precariously under Japanese superiors. The filmBlade Runner showed a futuristic Los Angeles clearly under Japanese domination, with a Japanese majority population and culture, perhaps[original research?] a reference to thealternate world presented in the novelThe Man in the High Castle byPhilip K. Dick, the same author on which the film was based in which Japan had won World War II. Criticism was also lobbied in many novels of the day. The authorMichael Crichton wroteRising Sun, amurder mystery (later made into afeature film) involving Japanese businessmen in the US. Likewise, inTom Clancy's book,Debt of Honor, Clancy implies that Japan's prosperity was caused primarily to unequal trading terms and portrayed Japan's business leaders acting in a power-hungry cabal.[citation needed]
As argued by Marie Thorsten, however, Japanophobia was mixed with Japanophilia during Japan's peak moments of economic dominance in the 1980s. The fear of Japan became a rallying point fortechno-nationalism, the imperative to be first in the world in mathematics, science, and other quantifiable measures of national strength necessary to boost technological and economic supremacy. Notorious "Japan-bashing" took place alongside the image of Japan as superhuman, which mimicked in some ways the image of theSoviet Union after it launched the firstSputnik satellite in 1957, and both events turned the spotlight on American education.[citation needed]
US bureaucrats purposely pushed that analogy. In 1982,Ernest Boyer, a former US Commissioner of Education, publicly declared, "What we need is another Sputnik" to reboot American education, and he said that "maybe what we should do is get the Japanese to put a Toyota into orbit."[94] Japan was both a threat and a model for human resource development in education and the workforce, which merged with the image of Asian-Americans as the "model minority."[citation needed]
Both the animosity and the superhumanizing peaked in the 1980s, when the term "Japan bashing" became popular, but had largely faded by the late 1990s. Japan's waning economic fortunes in the 1990s, now known as theLost Decade, coupled with an upsurge in the US economy as the Internet took off, largely crowded anti-Japanese sentiment out of the popular media.[citation needed]
TheYasukuni Shrine is aShinto shrine inTokyo, Japan. It is the resting place of thousands of not only Japanese soldiers, but also Korean and Taiwanese soldiers killed in various wars, mostly in World War II. The shrine includes 13Class A criminals such asHideki Tojo andKōki Hirota, who were convicted andexecuted for their roles in the Japanese invasions of China, Korea, and other parts of East Asia after the remission to them under theTreaty of San Francisco. A total of 1,068 convicted war criminals are enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine.[citation needed]
In recent years, the Yasukuni Shrine has become a sticking point in the relations of Japan and its neighbours. The enshrinement of war criminals has greatly angered the people of various countries invaded by Imperial Japan. In addition, the shrine published a pamphlet stating that "[war] was necessary in order for us to protect the independence of Japan and to prosper together with our Asian neighbors" and that the war criminals were "cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces". While it is true that the fairness of these trials is disputed among jurists and historians in the West as well as in Japan, the formerPrime Minister of Japan,Junichiro Koizumi, has visited the shrine five times; every visit caused immense uproar in China and South Korea. His successor,Shinzo Abe, was also a regular visitor of Yasukuni. Some Japanese politicians have responded by saying that the shrine, as well as visits to it, is protected by the constitutional right of freedom of religion.Yasuo Fukuda, chosen Prime Minister in September 2007, promised "not to visit" Yasukuni.[95]
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There are a variety of derogatory terms referring to Japan. Many of these terms are viewed asracist. However, these terms do not necessarily refer to the Japanese race as a whole; they can also refer to specific policies, or specific time periods in history.
The two exceptions to this positive reputation for Japan continue to be neighbours China and South Korea, where majorities rate it quite negatively. Views are somewhat less negative in China compared to a year ago (71%[2006] down to 63%[2007] negative) and slightly more negative in South Korea (54%[2006] to 58%[2007] negative).
a derogatory term for Japanese. It refers to Japanese traditional footwearGeta, which separates the thumb toe and the other four toes. [일본 사람을 낮잡아 이르는 말. 엄지발가락과 나머지 발가락들을 가르는 게다를 신는다는 데서 온 말이다.]
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