The Shogunate Strikes Back

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Foreword
This presentation is one of a series given over the years by my colleague Dr Carolyn De Wytt and myself at Greenslopes Private Hospital. Greenslopes was founded as a military hospital and the patients are still mainly of service background. These talks are designed to acquaint staff with the background of some of the conflicts patients have been involved with.

Introduction
In World War II, the enemy Axis Powers consisted of three major nations. There were significant differences in the way they were perceived. Italy, the initial Fascist power, was not considered a serious adversary and changed sides in 1943, joining the Allies. Germany was in the power of the Nazis and Allied propaganda was aimed mainly at the Nazis themselves, rather than the German people. The attack was often condensed to the person of Hitler himself. Churchill, for example, when speaking on his support of Communism after Germany invaded Russia in 1941, said “ If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”

The Japanese, however, came out of the war probably with the worst reputation of any of the powers since there was no sub-group to focus on and the enemy were simply known as “The Japs”. Any atrocities committed by the Japanese in the 1930’s and 40’s were thought to be due to cultural or even racial factors. President Franklin Roosevelt, for example, took serious scientific advice as to whether there were any biological reason for the Japanese being so different to Europeans. Wartime propaganda posters usually depicted the Japanese in caricature as a buck-toothed, cross-eyed, somewhat ape like Asian figure.

As far as Australia is concerned, it is almost as if Japan is populated by two separate peoples. Firstly there are the “Japs”, our enemy in World War II, a fanatical and cruel race. Secondly there are the Japanese, an industrious, cultured and peaceful people, our allies in World War I and our major trading partner. In this paper, I present a personal view as to the cause of this dichotomy and what was different for the Japanese in the 1930’s and 40’s.