"The Pacific" Part 4

[FiLtH]

  gyrene if you dont think that white americans were racist toward asians before the war, you need to read a bit more yourself.  While you are at it, try getting over yourself.

[Bodhi]

gyrene, The single largest reason the Japanese were so hated was for the attack on Pearl Harbor which was considered cowardly as they were officially promising peace.  It had nothing to do with racism or bigotry until the propaganda machine became involved and began to describe the Japanese as inhuman monsters.

[Stoney]

The reason the Japs were hated at that time was not because they were inferior or the color of thier skin, but because of what they did at Pearl Harbor. For him to state that our soldiers were racist was wrong. He made it sound as though the whole US military was.

I would like to call attention to the syntax that Hanks chose in expressing his opinion.  He did not call the American serviceman "racist".  He said that racism played a large part in the PTO.  To know that official U.S. Navy intel reports discussed the fact that Japanese airmen had an advantage in night vision, because of their different eye shape--that's definitive racism.  We're not talking about burning crosses on the lawn of the Japanese embassy.  We're talking about prejudice that took primacy in the U.S. understanding of the Japanese culture.  They were just as guilty, if not more, of making the same mistakes about us.

[-tronski-]

The reason the Japs were hated at that time was not because they were inferior or the color of thier skin, but because of what they did at Pearl Harbor. For him to state that our soldiers were racist was wrong. He made it sound as though the whole US military was.

Pearl may have been a catalyst, but it certainly grew from that point and became far more a decisive war of culture and ethnicity compared to the ETO.

Again Hanks did not call veterans of the PTO racists or their specific motivation to participate only racially motivated.

 Tronsky