War Without Mercy Race Power - 2037 Words

War Without Mercy: Race Power in the Pacific War by John W. Dower centered around the war in Pacific in World War Two in which the two main antagonists were narrowed to United States and Japan, rather than Allied and Axis Power. The author divided the book into four parts. Part one classified the war as a race war and provided proof and explanation supporting this argument. Part two and part three explored and explained the roots of the racism, sentimentalism that Americans held against Japanese, and vice versa, respectively. Part four summarized the casualties as well as circumstances that countries faced postwar, and explained how extreme prejudices had dispersed so quickly immediately at war end. Part one included the first three†¦show more content†¦Although Americans’ enemy - the Axis Power - included Germany, Italy, and Japan, Americans saw a major distinction Japanese and the others, racial differences. Through different media, each side outlined and informed enemy’s cruelty, brutality, and â€Å"atrocities,† although the definition for the last term seemed vague and uncertain. The information publicized by the governments was not entirely true, yet not entirely false either (61-62). However, it was undoubtedly effective since the reports of war crimes of the other further reaffirmed and strengthened the existed stereotypes (73). Part two included the following four chapters that the Dower depicted the characteristics and assumptions that Westerners had on Japanese in particular, but included other races likewise. Chapter four examined Westerners’ association of Japanese with animals, restated that they were considered differently than their German and Italian allies, who were still considered as â€Å"people† and treatment dependant on individual behaviors. These discrimination applied to Japanese Americans, who were American citizens, also (Dower 78, 82). Chapter five studied reasons the term â€Å"lesser men† and â€Å"supermen† were given to the Japanese. Before Pearl Harbor, Westerners devalued the Japanese culture, for not having â€Å"uniqueness†, as well as its military strength, because of unimpressive performance in imperialism in its occupied colonies (i.e. China, Korea) (95, 98). Because of these arrogant