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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I expected a flurry of messages to appear about a previous poster’s blanket comment that "Japanese are childish and theatrical." Others have apparently decided to ignore the remark but I think some comment is due. </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I already deleted the message but with due respect must assume that the writer has had little or superficial interaction with Japanese people and is still under the sway of 1940s-50s generalizations about Japan.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or have I lost my sense of humor and the comment was meant to be a joke?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I hope members of this list have gotten beyond attributing any single trait or peculiarity —positive or negative— to ALL the people in any given country--or of any ethnic or racial or gender group.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s much more informative and helpful to look at specific forces and contexts at play than to simplify cause and effect by asserting instead that there are sweeping national traits to explain specific human actions or situations. </P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">In 1951, Douglas MacArthur made a post-SCAP (i.e., after he’d been fired by Truman) comment that lost the respect he’d gained (gained justifiably or not) of many Japanese while he had been Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The comment was that ‘the Japanese’ were “like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of forty-five years.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The ‘our’ apparently meant ‘American,’ suggesting a too common assumption among stereotypers that their listeners/readers share and approve the stereotype--in this case that Japanese people couldn't measure up to American maturity. Even if MacArthur meant to apply his view only to the political situation in Japan, he was still ignoring a history of sophisticated and complex political structuration and struggle in the country. MacA's personal history, however, suggests he was applying the !
put-down more broadly.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">(MacA’s comment is from the “Hearing to Conduct an Inquiry into the Military Situation in the Far East,” 82<SUP>nd</SUP> Congress, 1<SUP>st</SUP> session, 1951.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Quoted in Takamae Eiji’s “Inside GHQ,” p. 7.)</P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Joanne Izbicki</P>
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