War without Mercy by Dowers - Book Report/Review Example

War without mercy

War without Mercy is a book written by Dowers which examines the conflict between Japanese and the Americans which were as a result of racism. Both authorities held racialist conventions that led to dangerous military intellect, organized terrible behavior, and the implementation of executions rules. The book has four parts which include; the enemies, the war in Western eyes, the war in Japanese eyes, and Epilogue.

Summary of the book in the four Parts

In Part I, Dower explain attitudes of both beliefs by reviewing and examining the images in propaganda. The Japanese booklets War is Won, Read this, Way of the Subject and the Why We Fight film series on the U.S. The information led difference between the Americans and the Japanese as the Americans viewed others in a dehumanizing manner and bleached with an element of fear. Japanese racism is based on optimistic celebration of their ethical dominance. Japanese were very sensitive to “color” issues, and this led to conflict between them and the Americas (Dower, 1986, p.5). Oppressions of the black and the immigrants became a political issue which led blacks to ask queries about “battling for the white people (Dower, 1986, p.5)”.When these dual racialist views encountered in battle, the outcome was a slaughter. This argument is comprehensively detailed throughout the book. Inhuman behavior on both Americans and Japanese is presented not only as evidence in support Dowers essay but also make disclosures such as "the visceral sentiments and pure race hatred that engrossed almost all members(Dower, 1986, p.11)” the fundamental determination of the work.

Part Two “The war in western eyes” studies the basics of American ethnic attitudes about the Japanese, examining carefully through popular philosophies to recognize its various expressions. Ironically, the Japanese were presented as both subhuman and superhuman, pictures appearing from "the prodigious Western pool of customary pictures of the other (Dower, 1986 p.16)".

Dower affirms that such approaches promoted a climate that encouraged killings and dispirited efforts to take captives. Efforts by intelligence specialists in Washington and under MacArthur's instructions to implement psychosomatic warfare skills to speed up Japanese surrenders made little progression. Typical as an alternative Leatherneck (the Marine magazine) in 1943 "ran a photo of Japanese carcasses on Guadalcanal with a capital letter caption reading 'GOOD JAPS' and a heading stressing that 'GOOD JAPS are deceased Japs (Dower,1986, p.79)".

Part Three examines Japanese culture to define the bases of its ethnic outlook. All through the war, Japanese "regularly referred to them as the prominent race of the world (Dower 186, p.203)". Though the "Yamato" race was similarly skilled as whites at demeaning other races, Japanese were preoccupied with their exceptionality and why that exceptionality made them superior. The Japanese fingered themselves to be on a mission to make a new world edict with each race in its appropriate place. The Japanese desired to see the war with the West "as a sanctified warfare for the creation of everlasting world peace (Dower, 1986, p.205)." They pursued to institute the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in which Tokyo would define the 'proper place' for each race. Though formally discouraged anti-white publicity, it was still common in Japan. Whites were reported as evil in Japanese propaganda. Frequently whites were visually symbolized as old and weak, typically in the form of Head of state Roosevelt. An appeal for the Japanese term for America was changed to "proposal a crucified Roosevelt as the novel icon for the Americans (Dower, 1986, p.259) ".

Part Four “Epilogue” is defined in various ways the grand end of War without Mercy, as it proceeds to the significant query of how, given an environment of so much racialism, the postwar period was so peaceable. Dower stated that the same racial stereotypes that led to massive killing were used to end the slaughter. “The presence of the Japanese as lesser men,” for instance, continued to be a piece of American thought that they turn into “men women whom one could teach perfect at imitation, good in education.” Likewise, “the Japanese philosophy of ‘proper place enabled the superficially radical change from prominent contest to defeated power.” Typecasts, then, continued but hate did not. War did not disappear moreover; “the war hatreds and race hatreds did not go away; rather, they went somewhere else.” The United States moved the nationalist philosophies and descriptions of the enemy as an unreasonable, anti-individualistic mass into the Cold Warfare, and other typecasts were moved to China and other emerging countries (Dower, 1986, p.350).

Author’s significant arguments and supporting evidence

Dowers used primary sources from the field of popular philosophies in adding to journalist, political, academic document and military. In the center of his book, Dowers includes, 29 cartoons explain and dealing with race and the war (Dower, 1986, pp.178-200). The animations, printed amid 1941 and 1945, span the extent of the battle as well as prewar and postwar times. 15 of the cartoons are Japanese 14 are Anglo-American, and the sets as a whole described the extent to which Americans and Japanese justly dehumanized one another in a manner only the primary sources can. Dowers also used pop social songs to demonstrate the differences between the treatments of the Germans and Japanese in American culture; familiar songs included and “We’re gonna find a someone yellow and then fight such person Red, White, and Blue,” and "Mows the Japs Down!”. The racial slang did not include the Germans. Indicating his skillfulness for describing the difference as well as similarity, Dower describes that Japanese songs were pretty different, and stressed on patriotism rather than pure racism. (Dower, 1986, p.198).

Japanese song did not demonize their enemies instead they idealized them. The song titles for Japanese were different from those of American pop songs, as they betrayed images of national unity. The songs included; “Pure Snow.” and “Flowers of Loyalty”

Dower’s sources also used political histories such as government documents as supportive materials in his thesis. He dedicates a complete chapter to a 3127-page Japanese Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus. This document explained the effect of the war and reflected Japanese administration opinions on race and politics (Dower, 1986, p.220). Dowers used this text as evidence in his reports on Japanese use of race concepts. For example, the text verifies the statement “conventions of eternal hierarchy and disparity among peoples and nations placed at the heart of what the Japanese slogans. Example of such slogan is ‘Pan-Asianism’ and ‘co-prosperity.’” These slogans were used by the Japanese administration throughout the war to recruit the aid of other Asian countries. However, these countries were purposely conquered by the Japanese, and their residents were normally abused and endangered to inhumane working conditions in support of the Japanese battle struggle (Dower, 1986)

My Reflection

War without Mercy has expanded my understanding of World War II that might not be farther than truth. War without Mercy has intricate my understandings of the battle in the Pacific by devastating my earlier understanding of the Japanese drive for entering World War II as just a method to acquire economic resources. War without Mercy has provided me with an intricate form of the story that demonstrates that there was a deeper tinge behind Japan’s “sacred war” that spun around descriptions of the West as “demons” and the faith in the “ultimate destiny” of the Yamato race. The book has also devastated my earlier notions that the America entered the fighting with pure intents.

The type of depictions that Dower explains and the intensities of racism the Japanese were imperiled as seen in the United States. The representation revealed that Americans were just as bad, if not evil than the Japanese when it emanated to pure hate and that the Americans did not even recognize the likelihood that there could forever be a “good Jap,” a pleasure that was at least set aside for specific Germans. The rise in the radicalization of the youths and accessibility of weapons which can be used for massive destruction, there is a possibility that war could develop as a result of religion, racism, and ideologies. The nations should embrace each other regardless of color, religion or social class to avoid war.