Cultural Differences Between America And Japan During WWII

As Mahatma Gandhi said, “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive” (Mahatma). Our culture identifies who we are and how we behave in social environments and provides us with a foundation in which to live our lives and raise our families. Each individual culture has certain customs and courtesies that are important. Exposure to the cultures of others can be intimidating and can leave a person feeling confused and unsure about how they fit in (Schaefer 60). Culture shock can leave a person feeling out of place in an unfamiliar culture (Schaefer 60). Our diverse societies demand understanding and acceptance of other cultures. Learning and understanding these cultures before being

The United States put Japanese people in camps, stealing their rights, and placed them in inhumane facilities that no human being should be forced to withstand.

Even though Japan was impressed by a lot of the values that Americans held, they believed that they were too different to hold similar cultures. In the 1870s, Japan realized that they wanted to reflect a military like

Japanese-Americans citizens in the Pacific Coast were interned during World War II (1939-1945) after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941. The U.S. government did not do the right thing when they interned Japanese ancestry from the Pacific Coast in this time because Japanese citizens were interned mainly due to racist views towards them, prejudice views toward Japanese citizens, and the United States was at war with Japan.

Japanese soldiers are widely remembered as being cruel and indifferent to the fate of Allied prisoners of war. Cruelty could take different forms, from extreme violence and torture to minor acts of physical punishment, humiliation and neglect. Some prisoners were made to hold a heavy stone above their heads for many hours. Others might be forced into small cells with little food or water.

On February 19th, 1942 in the midst of world war two 120,000 Americans were put prison for their ethnic background.These people may have been of Japanese descent but I am steadfast in the belief that they were no less american than anyone else. The interment of the Japanese americans was a racist, unjust, and illogical act the will forever leave a stain on america’s honor as a nation.

The most gruesome tales have come to light by the people who survived the merciless actions of the Japanese soldiers. For instance, Tang Shunsan who witnessed and survived the mass murder of Nanking when he left the safety of his hideout behind due to his simple curiosity. Tang and his fellow shoemaker apprentices hid in their house where they converted the doorway so it looked like “...from the outside, a smooth, unbroken wall”(nanking 2). The Japanese soldiers never would have known he was there had he not ventured out into the open to satiate his curiosities of what a Japanese man looked like. Once discovered, he was taken to a large grave for the Chinese people they had killed, and, “...to Tang’s horror, a competition began among the soldiers-a competition to determine who could kill the fastest”(nanking 3 pg. 85). With luck on his side, Tang survived the competition when “ the soldier decapitated the man directly in front of Tang”(nanking 4) and instead of moving out of the way, “Tang also toppled backwards and dropped, together with the body, into the pit”(nanking

World War II dramatically altered everyday life in the United States. Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 1941. The day after the attack, Great Britain and the United States declared war on Japan and two days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. During the course of the war, food, gas and clothing were rationed and the search for scrap metal to build armaments became an increasing need. Because the men were now sent to war, women were forced to find employment as electricians, welders and riveters.

Since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Americans accused many Japanese Americans of being spies even though most of them were natural American born citizens. More than 120,000 Japanese’s Americans were placed into what they called “internment camps” where they were forced to sell and leave everything they had and live in horrible conditions isolated from the rest of society. However in 1943, they government gave Japanese-Americans the choice to join the Army efforts in Europe only. Those who joined were part of what became known as the 442nd regiment and was the most highly decorated unit in the United States because of their bravery and overall performance during

Beating had long been an acceptable and routine method of discipline within the Japanese Army. Soldiers could strike subordinates with no questions asked and no explanation warranted. The slightest distinction between ranks was of critical importance because it meant the difference between who could inflict blows, and who could expect to receive them. This sort of institutionalized brutality had a tendency to work its way down the ranks to the lowliest private. One can imagine what would happen when an enlisted man, hardened by this psychology of top-down violence, found himself suddenly thrown into a foreign and not altogether distasteful situation in which he was the superior, in charge of a group of helpless prisoners. For some, the temptation to beat proved irresistible. For others, beating was only the beginning." (Hampton 91-92)

As during any election cycle, nearly all types of media are currently flooded with campaign advertisements that viciously attack various candidates’ politics, character, or sometimes both. People are willing to go to extraordinary lengths in order to gain power over others. This is likely due to the fact that everyday citizens are so susceptible to influence from those above them. As demonstrated in World War II, individuals are extremely susceptible to impact from authority figures.

In his work “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live” Takashi Fujitani compares and contrasts the Japanese treatment of colonialized Koreans leading up to World War II with the American treatment of the Japanese residents following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This work highlights how both the Japanese and the Americans treated the Koreans and Japanese Americans, respectively, and offers several different viewpoints. Thus, this work is exceptionally important and provides incredible insight into both cultures and the harsh reality of wartime. Additionally, Fujitani also explains how the Korean and Japanese populations are still influenced today.

Culture of a nation is manifested and influenced by a number of factors. National psyche and traits being the most pronounced ones. Military culture , to a certain extent , is in harmony with the national culture, however, it has its own impulses and dynamics. It incorporates obedience that curtails individual freedom or at times it may be at tangent with the socio-cultural values of a society ; Military culture of British – Indian Army ,as inherited by us is a case in point here. Philosophy of our present military outlets draws strength from history , organisational infrastructure , uniform , traditions social moorings and a host of other factors which , despite numerous changes , is still undergoing the process of evolution.

During world war two, countries on both sides committed war crimes that shocked both the people involved, and the globe. From 1937 through to 1945, the Japanese justified their treatment of the Australian prisoners of war at the Burma railway with three things. The Japanese believed that their bushido code allowed them to treat the Australian this way, their ethics was one of complete brutality and hardship, and the Japanese soldiers were being fed false propaganda that showed a dehumanized view of the Australians. These three statements demonstrate that the Japanese atrocities committed at Burma, were, in the eyes of the Japanese, fair and just.

The culture of a place is an integral part of its society whether that place is a remote Indian village in Brazil or a highly industrialized city in Western Europe. The culture of Japan fascinates people in the United States because, at first glance, it seems so different. Everything that characterizes the United States--newness, racial heterogeneity, vast territory, informality, and an ethic of individualism-- is absent in Japan. There, one finds an ancient and homogeneous society, an ethic that emphasizes the importance of groups, and a tradition of formal behavior governing every aspect of daily living, from drinking tea to saying hello. On the surface at least, U.S. and Japanese