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War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War |
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War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
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by John W. Dower
Sales Rank: 20433
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Discount: 32 %
List Price: $16.95
$11.53
At Amazon
on 6-23-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
Published by: Pantheon February 12, 1987
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0394751728
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0394751726
Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
Weighs: 1.2 pounds
Product Review
Dower's premise in War without Mercy is a startling one: Though Western allies were clearly headed for victory, pure racism fueled the continuation and intensification of hostilities in the Pacific theater during the final year of World War II, a period that saw as many casualties as in the first five years of the conflict combined. Dower doesn't reach this disturbing conclusion lightly. He combed through piles of propaganda films, news articles, military documents, cartoons--even entries in academic journals in researching this book. Though his case is strong, Dower minimizes other factors, such as the protracted negotiations between the West and the Japanese.
From Publishers Weekly
One of the most disturbing examples of racism in the Pacific War was the execution of Allied POWs by the Japanese while American planes were dropping bombs on Tokyothis on the final day of the war, a year after Japan's defeat was assured. Dower, professor of Japanese history at UC San Diego, traces in rich detail the development of racism on both sides of the Pacific, including an analysis of wartime propaganda comparing Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" films with their Japanese counterparts. The book leaves no room for doubt about the intensity of racial loathing among all, and shows that its effects were virtually identical. This startling work of scholarship has a greater theme, however, than racially inspired atrocities in the Pacific theater. Dower looks at the abrupt transition from what he describes as "a bloody racist war" to an amicable postwar relationship between the two countries, and notes that the stereotypes that fed superpatriotism and racial hatred were surprisingly adaptable to cooperation in peacetime. This phase of the relationship was followedin an instance of considerable historical ironyby an "economic Pearl Harbor," as Japan won victory after victory in the global trade wars and an entrepreneurial superpower was perceived as looming on the Pacific horizon. Japan's postwar accomplishments having shattered the teacher-pupil model that defined the countries' postwar relationship, pejorative stereotypes have been resurrected and applied to the battlefields of commerce. To cite one of the mildest of Dower's examples: 89% of Australian executives polled in 1984 considered the Japanese untrustworthy and devious. Those concerned with the seductive power and universal influence of racism in the 20th century will find this landmark study absorbing and essential. Photos.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
In War Without Mercy John Dower's demonstrates and explains the racial side of the war in the Asia-Pacific. Moreover he deftly explains the ramification or consequences from the dynamics of "othering." Both military and reconstruction policy in the Asia-Pacific, according to Dower were informed by this sense of othering that ultimately resulted in catastrophic misunderstandings on both sides. The sense of othering may have resulted in, at least for the moment, motivation to destroy the other but it certainly did not provide true insight regarding the enemy's. Dower starts the book out by taking a close look at the phenomenon of propaganda and what was produced on both sides. Key in the examination is Frank Capra's documentary, Know Your Enemy - Japan where he pegs the notion of and uncovers the undergrid of race and stereotyping. At the core of the stereotyping on the Japanese side was a sense of the "Pure Self" vs. "The Demonic Other." Conversely, on the American side images of simians and a fluctuating sense of lesser man and superman pervaded the mindset. As per the Japanese the pure self, may have had deeper cultural roots. Dower describes how Japanese came to experience the color white not in terms of color per se but infused with a deeper sense - one of purity. Moreover, the imagery is further complicated in the form of the demonic "Other" and as Dower outlines the Japanese also came to represent the allied powers, in general, as demons. As far as the American side is concerned most of the imagery was less about uplifting oneself but rather putting down others. Imagery of simians and subsequent visions of supermen were presented. There was also imagery of the herd and childish Japanese. With regards to the herd, Dower also examines the public images of the Japanese in American culture during World War II. What is clear is that "Despite such differences, however," Dower writes, "the end results of racial thinking on both sides were virtually identical - being hierarchy, arrogance, viciousness, atrocity, and death." (180) Dower is at his best when he argues that despite the differences in the particulars of the racial stereotyping that fed the Pacific War the functions were the same on both sides. In closing, Dower's "big" book in terms of scope speaks volumes about anti-Japanese racism and vice versa but also about the resilient, ever changing, and malleable phenomenon that is racialization and racialized thinking that all nations have found themselves involved with and the misinformation and disaster that results when we engage with the Other. Miguel Llora
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War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
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Updated on 6-23-2008.
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