War Without Mercy

War Without Mercy

The author of this book is John W. Dower who is the Henry Luce Professor International Cooperation and Global Stability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience, and The Elements of japanese design, and is the editor of The Origins of the Japanese State and coeditor of The Hiroshima Murals.

His main reason for writing this book was to explain the racial side of the war in Pacific and racism of imperialism. The author focused on The Pacific War in Western eyes and in Japanese eyes. He showed the differences between Anglo-American and Japanese reactions about Pacific War by showing political cartoons, propaganda films, and popular songs. Americans often saw Japanese people as apes, bats, yellow peril, and rapist. Paralleling Japanese saw American people as demons, monsters, and dandruff. Since Japanese attacked on Pearl Harbor, American people reacted violently with fear and anger at the power of Japanese nation. At end of the book, He also discussed how racism and stereotypical images against each other changed after the Pacific War.

John W. Dower equally divided discussions of the propaganda methods and perceptions into both American and Japanese side. however, I saw that the author emphasized Anglo-Americans were more atrocious and brutal than Japanese. This books said Japanese were hated by Americans