ABSTRACT
Despite their victory over Russia in the war of 1904–5, and their alliance with the allies (against Germany) in the First World War, the Western leaders’ rejection of Japanese equality in the League of Nations soured the relationship. Racism towards Japanese immigration in the United States, and Western horror at the actions of the Japanese army in Manchuria, fed the Western idea of the Japanese as a “yellow peril”, with a barbaric mentality. Their attack on Pearl Harbor only confirmed this view in the Western mind. Their initial success against Western colonies in the Pacific War, combined with their willingness to fight to the death, and their kamikaze tactics, enhanced the image of the Japanese as military fanatics. Yet, with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese seemed to embrace defeat, and the American occupiers were shocked at their polite and charming behaviour. After the war, the United States supported Japan’s economic reconstruction and promoted the image of the traditional charming and artistic Japanese. Yet it still came as a surprise to many in the West when Japan emerged on the world stage as a modern, international country at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
