John W Dower, Japanese history professor at the University of San Diego, examines the relationship between the Japanese and the United States during the Pacific War. After the Pearl Harbour attack the American people reacted in panic and rage towards their Japanese enemies by producing slanderous and racist propaganda often depicting them as apes, vermin and rapists. During this time the Japanese became the dominant power in Asia, their goal was to ‘advance south’ which challenged not only western presence but the entire idea of white supremacism. In order to push this idea, the Japanese used Pan-Asiatic, anti-Western propaganda depicting the Americans as gangsters, cannibalistic ogres and demons.
Dower divides the book into four sections discussing the perceptions of each side equally and providing thorough research in order to support the arguments and viewpoints made. There is also an entire section dedicated to the propaganda methods that contains the illustrations from different Japanese, American and British cartoons. Dower describes the conflict between the two counterparts as a ‘bloody racist war’ and this book perfectly portrays the intensity of racial loathing among all.
In the first section titled ‘Enemies’ Dower gives premise for the main idea of the book which is that racial fear and hatred were the main factors to how …show more content…
In the propaganda produced at the time the Japanese were often dehumanized and shown as inferior to the Anglo-Americans. This can be seen through the cartoon titled ‘monkey men’ (War without Mercy, pg 194) where the Japanese are represented as monkeys also implying that the atrocities in the Philippines inflicted by Japan were similar, if not the same, as the ones in Czechoslovakia inflicted by Germany. This further supports Dowers opinion that the war in the Pacific was equal to the one in
Dower divides the book into four sections discussing the perceptions of each side equally and providing thorough research in order to support the arguments and viewpoints made. There is also an entire section dedicated to the propaganda methods that contains the illustrations from different Japanese, American and British cartoons. Dower describes the conflict between the two counterparts as a ‘bloody racist war’ and this book perfectly portrays the intensity of racial loathing among all.
In the first section titled ‘Enemies’ Dower gives premise for the main idea of the book which is that racial fear and hatred were the main factors to how …show more content…
In the propaganda produced at the time the Japanese were often dehumanized and shown as inferior to the Anglo-Americans. This can be seen through the cartoon titled ‘monkey men’ (War without Mercy, pg 194) where the Japanese are represented as monkeys also implying that the atrocities in the Philippines inflicted by Japan were similar, if not the same, as the ones in Czechoslovakia inflicted by Germany. This further supports Dowers opinion that the war in the Pacific was equal to the one in