Quote:
Originally Posted by wdmso
The wartime America was clearly racist towards the "Japs". The racism made the decision a little easy. But, racism alone is not a big factor.
I think I have said that several times
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Why say it at all? Since just about everybody else on the planet (except you apparently) has some inherent notion of superiority regarding their "race" or culture or team or neighborhood or country or ethnicity or style of life or diet or point of view, or etc., or etc., or etc., and since "race" according to the article you posted can mean country of origin, or nationality, or ethnicity, or color, or other (take your pick--no doubt it will soon become a matter of self-identification in an infinite variation of transrace as in transgender by which you can define your "race" by preferred genotype, phenotype, social type, IQ type, athletic type, weight type, or any preference type that you desire), how then can "race," ergo "racism" not be a factor, no matter how little, in any relation to "the other"?
That "racism" (especially in the expanding limits of definition) is always lurking in the muck of human consciousness, its distinction as a relevant motivator has to be more than that it exists. You can be racist against Japanese, but have no desire to kill them. You can even love or admire them. (All of the "white" generals in your article said that it was unnecessary or immoral to drop the bomb, even though being white no doubt made them racist). I think the vast residuum of latent "racism," in the spectrum of human relations, is harmless. It can be a motivation to kill, but that requires more than that it exists.
Mentioning it as a factor in dropping the bomb is unnecessary unless you have an unexpressed agenda. Did racism exist when the Japanese tortured and beheaded Americans in front of the other American prisoners? The Japanese would have to have been exceptional to not have racist impulses. But is that why they did it? That line of thinking implies all wars, murders, harms done against "the other" are motivated by "racism." Granted, we have progressed to the understanding in the U.S. that if "white" people do it, it's racism. But if "the other" does it, it apparently isn't racism.
Peculiar also in the article you posted that "yellow" folks can have various racial descriptions such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, but "white" folks don't have French, English, Polish, etc. as racial identifiers. There is something "racist" about that. Or its just sloppy.
As TDF said, the term "racism" (as well as "race") has been so overused and misused that it has lost meaning.