The Role Of Racial Tension And The Consequence Of...

John Dower takes a look at the role of racial tension and the consequence of reconstruction and military policy in the Pacific theater of World War II. These racial tensions in World War Two were not confined to the tensions between Nazi Germany and European Jewish persons. These feelings were spread between other European groups, the United States, and Asian countries. The racial feelings that lay between Japan and the United States was readily displayed through various mediums, which include propaganda film, written documentation, and cartoons. Military and public figures were also documented expressing these views of racial inferiority. Part one of Dower’s book goes through ideas before, during and after World War II. Starting off†¦show more content†¦The Japanese, though, had a similar facade covering their actions in Asia. Prior to World War II, there was a number of colonial settlements in Asia to which were controlled by Western Allies. â€Å"In the highly publicized Assembly of the Greater East Asiatic Nations convened in Tokyo in November 1943, a succession of Asian leaders voiced support for Japan and placed the war in East-versus-West, Oriental-versus-Occidental, and ultimately blood-versus-blood context†(6). The war appeared to be a way for Asian leaders to gain control over their own lands again; however, Japan’s behavior towards other Asians caused for a lose of support in their growth. the Japanese became â€Å"dominating the political scene, taking over local economies, imposing broad programs of â€Å"Japanization,† slapping non-Japanese in public, torturing and e xecuting dissidents, exploiting native labor so severely that between 1942 and 1945 the death toll among such workers numbered in the hundreds of thousands† (7). Though moving across the continent under ideals of a â€Å"free Asia,† the Japanese were also moving with the ideal of imperialism and cultural superiority. During the war, propaganda that was used to drive home stereotypes of each cultural group. â€Å"On the part of the Japanese , this involved singling out the emphasis placed on individualism and profit making in the Western tradition, and presenting this as proof positive that Westerners were