Re: Fundamentally arrogant and racist
During wartime too every country involved gives rise to its worst instincts. The Japanese army in Manchuria bears comparison with the worst the Germans ever managed, a fact we in the West tend to either forget or not know about. But when it comes to atrocities the Americans, British and French are in glass houses even if the stones they throw are a bit bigger than the incoming ones. In Okinawa and Bengal the US and the UK did not exactly cover themselves with glory.
The point with Japan was that the anti-Eastern racism began to be overt when the US and the UK blocked the declaration of equality at the League of Nations. I think the UK would have agreed but for the US. Once the Japanese had been told by the WASP powers that they were second class citizens, the scene was set for an eventual WW2. It is a long stretch from 1920 to Pearl Harbor, but the long line of petty insults, sanctions and mocking representations of the Japanese in the Press preceded WW2. In hindsight we were extremely lucky that the US produced people like Eisenhower and Marshall who rose far above the level of their politicians and media and laid the foundations of the long peace.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
