HIEA 112 Week 5

Considering the intense racial animosity that Dower outlines in his introduction to War Without Mercy, why do you think the Japanese and US governments were so quick to see each other as allies? Do you believe that the transition was as quick for ordinary people? Think about how this question (including a version of this question that is put forth in Kurosawa’s No Regrets for Our Youth) risks effacing the scrutiny of Japanese colonial rule and imperialist aggression in Asia.

I think the Japanese saw that they had to give into accepting help from the US since they had suffered so much from WWII especially after the atomic bombs were dropped. They didn’t have the resources to fix the damage that was being done and they needed a powerful ally to help them. In addition, if they didn’t accept the help they could’ve suffered a lot more as the US would continue to make the Japanese suffer. The propaganda that was put out by the US, constantly portraying the Japanese as monkeys also didn’t help. It made others look down on the Japanese and the Japanese felt angered. With others also looking down on the Japanese no one else would want to help them especially when the US was also using the propaganda to say that the Japanese actions were inhumane. With that the Japanese wouldn’t have many other options to turn to as allies to help them recover from the atomic bombs and the war in general.

The Japanese likely weren’t happy to accept the help of the US especially after all the damage that they did. It would be hard to accept the help of an enemy. As for the citizens of the US, although they wouldn’t want to help prior enemies, they would also see some pride in the fact that Japan had fallen so low that they actually needed and accepted the help of them.