Jap hunts: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:49, 29 April 2010

Revision as of 16:50, 29 April 2010

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[[File:JapaneseAmericanGrocer1942.jpg|thumb|A Japanese American unfurled this banner the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. This [[Dorothea Lange]] photograph was taken in March 1942, just prior to the [[Japanese American internment]].]]

After the [[Pearl Harbor]] attacks, much anti-Japanese paraphernalia and propaganda surfaced in the United States. An example of this was the so-called "'''Jap hunting''' license", a faux-official document, button or medallion that purported to authorize "open season" on "hunting" the Japanese, despite the fact that over a quarter of a million Americans at that time were of Japanese origin. Some reminded holders that there was "no limit" on the number of "[[JapsJap]]s" they could "hunt or trap". These "licenses" often characterized Japanese people as sub-human. Many of the “Jap Hunting Licenses”, for example, depicted the Japanese in animalistic fashion.<ref>Boggs, Jeremy. Open Season. 06 Mar. 2004. 15 Oct. 2007. <http://clioweb.org/openseason/index.html></ref>

Against Japan, Americans often saw themselves fighting a "nameless mass of vermin."<ref>[http://books.google.se/books?id=pDW4YNkmvZYC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=%22nameless+mass+of+vermin%22&source=web&ots=z3fNAPTwNn&sig=arJYZRC2cysKsDBkorfWR5vgZXg&hl=sv#PPA98,M1]</ref>

The British embassy in Washington noted this in a weekly report.<ref>[http://books.google.se/books?id=jTg1xacTjhEC&pg=RA1-PA231&lpg=RA1-PA231&dq=%22nameless+mass+of+vermin%22&source=web&ots=YkDKTKVU26&sig=kZscBG72t-dclH4PCM-01dytOOI&hl=sv]</ref>

To understand where the word “Jap” comes from a comparison to the “[[Nazism|Nazis]]” as it left space for the recognition of the “good German,” but scant comparable place for “good Japanese.” Magazines like ''Time'' hammered this home even further by frequently referring to “the Jap” rather than “Japs,” thereby denying the enemy even the merest semblance of pluralism.<ref>Dower, W. John. War without Mercy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.</ref>

The Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941 plunged the United States into war and planted the notion of Japanese treachery in the minds of Americans. The hysteria that enveloped the West Coast during the early months of the war, combined with long standing anti-Asian prejudices, set the stage for what was to come.<ref>A More Perfect Union. 1990-2001. 15 Oct. 2007. <http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/removal_crisis.html></ref>