Newspaper Page Text
Japan’s
image
changing
By EDWARD NEILAN
Copley News Service
American attitudes toward
the peoples of a particular
nation or region of the globe
go further toward shaping
our foreign policy percep
tions than we are likely to ad
mit.
One of the most dramatic
love-hate relationships in the
annals of international so
ciology and anthropology is
that between Japanese and
Americans.
Books and studies on what
Japanese think about for
eigners, especially Ameri
cans, are rare enough. But
even more scarce in our aca
demic and popular literature
have been serious works
about American emotional
and psychological relation
ships toward Japan and the
Japanese.
Anthropologist Shirley K.
Johnson has come along with
a probing study that helps us
understand the roots and
shadings of some of our for
eign policy involvements in
Asia generally and Japan
specifically.
Holding the American-
Japanese relationship up to
the light has its embarrassing
aspects. In her book “Ameri
can Attitudes Toward Japan,
1941-1975” (published by the
American Enterprise Insti
tute of Washington, D.C., and
the Hoover Institution of
Stanford University), John
son concludes that the whole
notion of national character
should be set aside as little
more than “prejudice
dressed up in scholarly cloth
ing.”
She notes that during the
last 35 years, Americans
have held all of these impres
sions of the Japanese: war
like and cruel, charming and
artistic, business-oriented
and clever.
Once stereotypes catch on,
they take on a life of their own
and tend to play a role in
shaping international events,
Johnson warns. “It is impor
tant, therefore, to ensure that
a single unfortunate turn in
the international arena
(Japanese reluctance to
lower tariff barriers against
American oranges, say, or
American restrictions on soy
bean exports to Japan) does
not begin a spiral of ill will.”
The author suggests that
one way to prevent such a
syndrome is to actively pro
mote and publicize a multi
plicity of stereotypes, “which
makes it more difficult for a
particular stereotype to dom
inate one nation’s perspective
of another nation.”
Ambivalence has always
characterized Americans
feelings toward Japan, as
evidenced in the story ap
proach of a hundred novice
foreign correspondents:
“Japan is a land of con
trasts. ...”
Commodore Perry’s sailors
found the Japanese to be the
most polite people they have
ever seen. But, Perry himself
was deeply frustrated by
what he considered to be their
outright lies, evasions and
hypocrisy.
The ambivalence has per
sisted. Johnson says, “One
possible reason is that most
middle-aged Americans have
experienced during their life
times a whole range of atti
tudes toward Japan called
forth in succession by chang
ing historical situations.
Rage and fear during World
War n, pity and compassion
during the occupation, ad
miration and curiosity during
the late 1950 s and early 19605,
annoyance and perhaps a
measure of envy during the
late 1960 s and early 19705.”
The author notes that
Americans don’t seem to be
able to embrace more than
one Asian nation at a time, in
a mass appreciation sense.
“This seesaw correlation of
American attitudes toward
Japan and China — when one
is up the other is down —
strikes me as indicative of the
fact that fundamentally we
are reacting to something
Oriental, something different
from ourselves, and that the
particular coloration we at
tach to a given country is dic
tated by current political con
siderations or events of the
recent past,” she says.
In the post-Vietnam mood
of American introspection
about a century of American
involvement in Asia, it is
worth spending time in ana
lyzing American attitudes, as
well as actions, in the region.
If FRI., sat., SUN. I A
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Page 9
-Griffin Daily News Thursday, February 26, 1976