Foreign Relations in His Highly

Foreign Relations

In his highly acclaimed book entitled War Without Mercy, Pulitzer Prize winning author and MIT professor John W. Dower suggest that racial misperceptions and stereotypes on both sides of the war determined the origins and course of conduct of the Pacific War between the United States and Japan. Mr. Dower is an American author and professor of history whose work focuses primarily on Japanese and American foreign relations.

Although he has written numerous books and articles regarding the relations between Japan and the United States before, during and after World War II, it is in War without Mercy that Dower makes his most well-thought argument for the assertion that the fundamental foundation of the war between Japan and the United States was a current of racism running through both sides. In order to prove his assertion, Dower focuses on the propaganda used by both countries in order to demonize the opposing side and thus maintain support for the war. In so doing, the book is full of documentary evidence, including both American and Japanese cartoons, songs, slogans, films, secret reports, and other forms of propaganda depicting exactly what role racism played in this bloody war.

To illustrate his point, Dower offers numerous, graphic examples of atrocities committed by both sides against each other. The purpose of these is examples is to demonstrate how successful the propaganda campaign was at demonizing the other side, thus allowing soldiers to commit gross violations of human rights. In this sense, Dower argues that the key ingredient in any human rights violation is a sense of racism, which is nothing more than a fancy word for peer hatred for another group of individuals. For example, Dower discusses the execution of Allied prisoners of war by Japanese soldiers while American planes were in fact bombing Tokyothis during the final days of the war and well after Japan's ultimate defeat was assured. Dower traces the cause of this atrocity, among others, by comparing such propaganda films as Frank Capra's Why We Fight with similar films created by the Japanese propaganda machine. The result is that the reader takes away a clear understanding of the role that racial loathing created on both sides and the atrocities it led to.

However, Dower goes beyond just tracing the foundation of racism between the United States and Japan during the Pacific War and also examines how this racial hatred was easily overcome during the post-war years. Dower points out that after the war, an amicable postwar relationship was created between the United States and Japan, one in which has continued to the present day. According to Dower, the same stereotypes that fed the super-patriotism and racial hatred that fueled the conflict were at the same time surprisingly adaptable to means of cooperation during times of peace.