War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War

"In Japanese eyes, it was the non-Axis West that aimed at world domination and had been engaged in the quest, with conspicuous success, for centuries; and it was the value system of the modern West, rooted in acquisitiveness and self-gratification, that explained a large part of its bloody history of war and repression, culminating in the current world crisis. The Japanese thus read Western history in much the same way that Westerners were reading the history of Japan: as a chronicle of destructive values, exploitative practices, and brutal wars." 

This information is summarized from a Japanese document called The Way of the Subject (Shinmin no Michi) and offers up a valid point as to the causalities of European colonialism. In essence, the Japanese point out that the entire responsibility of the war is because of Anglo-American colonies in Asia. It further illustrates how history can be understood from both sides differently, and how it can be manipulated to serve political interests.

"In everyday words, his first kind of stereotyping could be summed up in the statement: you are the opposite of what you say you are and the opposite of us, not peaceful but warlike, not good but bad. […] In the second form of stereotyping, the formula ran more like this: you are what you say you are, but that itself is reprehensible."

In removing the emotional and political façade, this quote explains the core of racial stereotypes. Stereotyping is just a way of pointing out how another group is different, and how that difference is “bad.”

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the single word favored above all others by Americans as best characterizing the Japanese people was 'treacherous,' and for the duration of the war the surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet remained the preeminent symbol of the enemy's inherent treachery. The attack also inspired a thirst for revenge among Americans that the Japanese, with their own racial blinders, had failed to anticipate." 

What this quote points out, without getting into the complicated events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor, is how the Americans felt after the attack: They were attacked without provocation (there is plenty of discussion about just what happened between the US and the Empire of Japan that led to the attack), and the desire for revenge was strong. It can be argued that one leading factor of the surprise involved in the attack was a result of American belief that the Japanese were incapable of such a monumental strategy (see Page 37, Footnote 10).