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Originally Posted by tweezers74
I have to say I never understood the hatred towards the Japanese from people during that era but now I can at least see where they are coming from. I have been mistaken as Japanese and have been called "Jap" (in not a nice way) many times. It doesn't bother me so much because I know it comes from a place of ignorance but I think back to the Japanese Americans living in Hawaii at the time. I remember reading about the treatment the Japanese Americans serving in the US Navy got after the attack. But yet they were so proud to be part of the US and called their own people "them". I guess the same way my parents think of the Communist Vietnamese. My father served in the US Navy and my mother worked for the US Army. To this day, if they hear somebody speaking with a Northern Vietnamese accent, let's just say they aren't exactly cordial.
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Tweze, the people of the greatest generation lived through a horrific war. The Japanese attack brought us into the war. For any serviceman that served in Germany and saw what the Germans did to the Jews is scarred forever. The "Japs" were beyond brutal in China. Throwing Chinese babies in the air and trying to catch them on a sword is not the worst. Google the Japanese occupation of China. It will shock you. They were brutal to any POW. Every citizen back home was forced into rationing. My own parents talk about flower and sugar rationing. My grandparents had to drive on bald used tires because the tires were rationed and the were not allowed to buy more tires for several months. Try to imagine going to the grocery store and being told you are not due any more of a product because you did not have the ration stamps. It will work up a hate for the people that caused the war. Virtually everyone knew someone personally that lost a brother father uncle or neighbor. All because the "Japs" attacked us. The reality is we would have likely gone to war eventually. The attack awakened a sleeping giant that was pissed off.