"A 1944 opinion poll found that 13% of the U.S. public were in favor of the extermination of all Japanese."War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
John W. Dower (Author)Amazon.com Review
Dower's premise in War without Mercy
is a startling one: Though Western allies were clearly headed for victory, pure
racism fueled the continuation and intensification of hostilities in the Pacific
theater during the final year of World War II, a period that saw as many
casualties as in the first five years of the conflict combined. Dower doesn't
reach this disturbing conclusion lightly. He combed through piles of propaganda
films, news articles, military documents, cartoons--even entries in academic
journals in researching this book. Though his case is strong, Dower minimizes
other factors, such as the protracted negotiations between the West and the
Japanese.
From Publishers Weekly
One of the most disturbing examples of
racism in the Pacific War was the execution of Allied POWs by the Japanese while
American planes were dropping bombs on Tokyothis on the final day of the war, a
year after Japan's defeat was assured. Dower, professor of Japanese history at
UC San Diego, traces in rich detail the development of racism on both sides of
the Pacific, including an analysis of wartime propaganda comparing Frank Capra's
"Why We Fight" films with their Japanese counterparts. The book leaves no room
for doubt about the intensity of racial loathing among all, and shows that its
effects were virtually identical. This startling work of scholarship has a
larger theme, however, than racially inspired atrocities in the Pacific theater.
Dower examines the abrupt transition from what he describes as "a bloody racist
war" to an amicable postwar relationship between the two countries, and notes
that the stereotypes that fed superpatriotism and racial hatred were
surprisingly adaptable to cooperation in peacetime. This phase of the
relationship was followedin an instance of considerable historical ironyby an
"economic Pearl Harbor," as Japan won victory after victory in the global trade
wars and an entrepreneurial superpower was perceived as looming on the Pacific
horizon. Japan's postwar accomplishments having shattered the teacher-pupil
model that defined the countries' postwar relationship, pejorative stereotypes
have been resurrected and applied to the battlefields of commerce. To cite one
of the mildest of Dower's examples: 89% of Australian executives polled in 1984
considered the Japanese untrustworthy and devious. Those concerned with the
seductive power and universal influence of racism in the 20th century will find
this landmark study absorbing and essential. Photos.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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