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Summary Of War Without Mercy By John Dower

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In John Dower presented a descriptive publication, “War Without Mercy” expresses the awful discrimination between the Americans and the Japanese during World War II and the consequences it had on both of it’s military. This writing is divided into four parts, Enemies, The War in Western Eyes, The War in Japanese Eyes, and the epilogue of the disastrous war. In the first part of this book, Dower describes how World War II meant death to over fifty million man, women, and children. Everyone experienced pain and suffering, whether it was emotionally, physically, or mentally. Racism was brought up to explain how the past is still connected to the present. The author provides information on how the Nazis tried to extinguish the Jews and that it …show more content…

Americans had to figure out a way to distinguish who was Japanese and who was Chinese. They believed that knowing their opponent will encourage a small chance of victory. Shortly after the war, an American historian named Allan Nevins published an essay called ‘How We Felt About The War”, it related the fight with the Pacific to the fight from the Indian Wars back when the colonies were first settling into the New World because it is explained how “emotions forgotten since our most savage Indian wars were awakened by the ferocities of Japanese commanders” (Dower, 33). In the War in Western Eyes, Dower vividly explains how “the Japanese were perceived as animals, reptiles, or insects” (Dower, 81), in chapter four. Degrading the Japanese with these metaphors seemed quite a casual thing to say. Therefore, most Japanese-Americans were humiliated and to make the impression that they were less of a human. Government associates would treat the Japanese as people they can control easily, and take advantage of their being. The Americans were so verbally abusive that they came up with the word “Japes”, a combination of the words “Japs” and …show more content…

There are always two sides to every story, and Dower made a clear illustration to his readers the way that the Westerners treated the Japanese, and vice versa. This world is filled with many different cultures and traditions that it’s only common that not every ethnicity will always agree on a certain situation. “War Without Mercy” also shows the readers that racism was very much alive back in World War II and is still continuing

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