War without Mercy by John W. Dower - Essay Example

? 23 January, “War without Mercy” by “John W. Dower” Review: The book “War without Mercy” authored by “John W. Dower” is quite well researched and knowledgeable. The whole book fundamentally revolves around the subject of change of opinions in the Japanese and Allied historic characters apropos the Pacific theatre in the Second World War. The book is equally discusses the strategy, propaganda, thinking and techniques adopted by either of the two opponents. There is an illustrative section based upon 15 Japanese and 14 British and American cartoons of political significance. Americans were shocked and surprised to see the sudden and overt expression of power by the Japanese people when Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor. Americans expressed their rage for the Japanese nation through political cartoons, studies, movies and songs in which the Japanese were portrayed as ferocious animals such as giants, rats, bats, apes, octopuses, and rapists. Japanese were no far behind in their visualization of Anglo Americans as gangsters, devils, monsters, Napoleonic megalomaniacs, ogres and also dandruff. Japanese wanted to drive the Anglo Americans out of the Pacific. One of Dower’s central arguments put forth in the book are that hatred and racism were the two most important factors that determined the strategic approach adopted by either of the two nations against each other. Their conceptions, analysis and response to the enemy were powered with feelings of racism and extreme abhorrence. In the introductory portion of the book, Dower clarifies this in these words, In this milieu of historical forgetfulness, selective reporting centralized propaganda, and a truly savage war, atrocities and war crimes played a major role in the propagation of racial and cultural stereotypes. The stereotypes preceded the atrocities, however, and had led an independent existence apart from any specific event. (Dower 73). Dower has carried out a detailed survey of the growth of Japanese stereotypical images, with particular focus on the American sources in the segment under the title of “The War in Western Eyes.” Contrary to the fact that the Japanese were no more than 73 million in population by the time, the war was initiated, the Japanese were frequently referred to as “Jap hordes.” This characterization of the Japanese by Anglo Americans was reinforced by the “Yellow Peril” fantasy that was in turn, partly promoted by “Fu Manchu” narratives of Rohmer. It was foreseen by the Anglo Americans that the Orient’s masses might fill such nations as New Zealand, Australia and western states of America with fear. This was also conceived by many propagandists from the Japanese origin whose plans reflected in a leaflet that had sketches showing seven Asian countries on one side and the Churchill and Roosevelt on the other side. The Anglo Americans never took the Japanese seriously until 1942, when the Japanese attacked the Pearl Harbor and engrossed unusual military success, particularly as Singapore got apprehended by Britain. Prior to their overt expression of power, Japanese were conceived by the Anglo Americans as downtrodden, dull, brainless and dumb fighters that did not have the capability to fly latest aircrafts, develop high quality battleships, or come up with unique weapons and fighting techniques. In the time immediately after the commencement of war, the Allies changed the view, and became quite fanatic and excessively zealous. They showed their readiness for dying. This immense revolution can be estimated from the fact that Japanese were largely portrayed as apes in those days. Soon after their expression of power, there was a general trend to show Japanese as ferociously enormous gorillas in 1943. The cover page of “Colliers” published on the 12th of December, 1942 showed a Japanese Officer in the form of a gigantic bat with sharp pointed fangs and ears holding a bomb painted with the typical symbol of skull with crossbones. The bat wore complete Japanese uniform topped with a plumed hat. The swastikas symbolized “Japs” under the studentship of “Nazis”. Likewise, Dower has dedicated one whole chapter titled as “Primitives, Children, and Madmen” to the psychiatric evaluation of the character of Japanese nation in his book, “War without Mercy”. Various American articles, books and magazines that surfaced in the later years wore sardonic titles like “How to tell Japs from Chinese”, “Jap cruelty traced to childhood”, and “Jap bullies”, etc. In addition to the publications, many songs produced by Americans were entirely based upon mimicry and ideas against the Japanese. Such songs included, but were not limited to “We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap”, “There'll be no Adolf Hitler nor Yellow Japs to fear” and “Until that rising sun is down” etc. Explaining the Japanese visualization of the war, Dower mentions in the 3rd part of his book that Japanese considered themselves as the world’s number one race i.e. shido minzoku in the time of war. Japanese also frequently made use of metaphors, phrases, sketches and ideas to symbolize their superiority, just as their Commonwealth and American rivals did. The images used by Japanese were “ranging from expressions that demeaned non-Japanese to elaborate affirmations of their own unique qualities” (Dower 203). According to Dower, the Japanese visualized themselves superior and unique to others in terms of nation, race and homogeneity. Once Japan developed coalition with Italy and Germany, it served to render its anti-white racism propaganda quite unfeasible. In addition to that, Japan owned an overly Westernized history in an attempt to nullify the colonialization by the western nations. This in turn, made huge compliments on the Japanese propaganda. Dower did not only personally identify the sketches chosen to represent either of the two nations, but also, frequently referred to the examples of other books that had drawn similar comparisons. For example, referring to “A History of Changing Theories about the Japanese”, Dower said that the author had compared Japanese to Europeans like this, ... physical features which on the contrary placed the Europeans closer to the monkeys and other animals than the Japanese; Kiyono offered this ... list: "high" noses, hairiness, relatively long arms, lower brain-to-body-weight ratio, thick fingers, and strong body odor of the sort associated with the generative function in certain animals. (Dower 219). As a matter of fact, the Japanese leaders had an urge to get a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere that would serve to unite the different countries that made part of it, though the Japanese only wanted Tokyo as the leading center for the military and economy. However, a disapproving visualization of the Asians also existed in their representation as dark colored, half naked and much uncivilized natives. During the period of the war, “demon” was used most often to represent the Europeans among all of the Japanese cartoons. That was why the in the drawings of British and American government officials, they were often drawn with long and pointed claws and horns. Another sketch from “Manga” showed the top of rice spiking with blades like the “samurai swords” that pierced three flyers of America, that had fell from a bomber. The flyers shown in the image had sharp pointed noises and thin bodies, which also had tails with them. One very good trait in the Japanese nation was the concept of unity. Any action they took was meant to serve the interests of the whole community and never an individual. The cartoon of a Japanese lady who combed her hair to get rid of “Anglo Americanism” thought of as “dandruff” illustrates the very theme as the dandruff symbolized selfishness, materialism, self obsession and Anglo Americanism. Some of the documents originating from the time of the war were found in one of the bookstores in Tokyo in 1981. Among them, there was a comprehensive report written in 1943. Its title was “Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato [Japanese] Race Nucleus”. The value of this document can be estimated from the fact that Dower wrote one whole chapter on it. Dower has offered a comprehensive explanation of the hierarchic thought processes among the Japanese, though the resemblance between Japanese economic, social, political and racial theories and the National Socialist has not been explained much. Like many achievements, there are also few failings of the “War without Mercy.” For example, Dower occasionally passed meaningless comments on the National Socialist ally of Japan. Dower has been quite skeptical in approving the innumerable killing stories that have conventionally been attributed to Japanese, though he openly accepted all myths and rumors apropos the suspected German murders which made the allied propaganda staples. Dower consents with the fact that the war in Pacific proved extremely brutal for each of the two fighters. Thousands of soldiers were assassinated. There was little consideration of capturing the enemy to make prisoners. Instead, fighters of the enemy were killed on the spot and their dead bodies were taken for mementos. It has been sufficiently discussed in the book how Japanese dealt with the Asians and whites in the concentration camps, and also, how Americans imprisoned Japanese citizens. Through a footnote in Dower (357), he conveys that the “Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race As Nucleus” discussed above constitutes a lot of pages that discuss the Nazi policies of racial significance and also, “the Jewish problem”. However, Dower does not sufficiently discuss Japanese response towards the Jews except for two sketches showing Japanese cartoons with anti-Jewish comic strips on Dower (192, 194). The book welcomes discussion about the pro-Muslim and anti-Jewish strategies of the Japanese and a nice comparison of the brutality in the battles of the East and the Pacific battle. Besides, a larger number and categorization of the political cartoons could have conveyed the variety in the trends of metaphors and images frequently used by either of the two opponents during the war in a better way. Critics consider “War Without Mercy” too narrow and brief to present a comprehensive war history. Particularly because the book aims at explaining the whole conflict fundamentally through race, and lacks devoting considerable attention to the Japanese killings and crimes during the war. Such criticism overlooks one key point of the book i.e. Dower has basically studied racism, however the critics see it as his try to make use of racism to elaborate the sundry. The book, “War Without Mercy” does not in general, claim about covering the subject of Pacific War. The book even does not claim to be a comprehensive guide for the crimes and atrocities of the war. Instead, the book starts merely like a tangent from a larger study. It fundamentally concentrates upon the racial features of the war that happened between the US and Japan, with particular emphasis on the images that either of the two made to express their feelings towards each other and the war as well. In the course of discussing this, the book also slightly touches upon the way the two nations continued to evolve aster the end of the war. An in-depth analysis of the “War Without Mercy” leads one to the conclusion that the book is a well documented piece of the historic tensions and propaganda that determined the bitterness of the flavor of war between Japanese and the Americans in the Pacific. The book has maintained a consistent mood throughout. The chapters are well organized, structured and are quite knowledgeable on each and every aspect of the war between Japanese and the West. The book is an excellent choice for inclusion in the curriculum of History subject in schools and Political Studies in the colleges and universities. The author has referred to a lot of valuable sources that can be consulted for gaining an ingrained understanding of the war. It can be hoped that a large number of Japanese texts about the Second World War that Dower has referred to in his book, in which the Japanese have explained their stance against the West will be revived and translated in English and other languages. This may serve to develop greater consensus between the West and the East and in turn. This may also greatly reduce the verisimilitude of conflicts in the future. Works cited: Dower, John W. War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. Print. Read More