Pearl Harbor Racism Analysis

The United States chose to discriminate against the Japanese before the attacks on Pearl Harbor due to the large flow of Japanese immigration with in the west coast. The fact that a good portion of this discrimination and racism was shown through various different print sources is very astounding, especially since most of this took place in 1941, the year in which the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the island of Pearl Harbor. Simon Worrall shows some examples of discrimination in his non-fiction article How Racism Arrogance, and Incompetence Led to Pearl Harbor. He says, “If you read the American magazines and newspapers in 1941, it’s amazing how the Japanese were considered a funny, curious people who were technologically inept. They were supposedly physiologically incapable of being good aviators because they lacked a sense of balance and their eyes were not right” (Worrall 1).

They also thought due to their physical characteristics, they could not be good aviators. The definition of Aviation is the flying and/or operating of an aircraft. In Howard Zinn’s book A People's History Of The United States, he explains a reason for racism shown against Japan before Pearl Harbor. He says, “Hatred against the enemy, against the Japanese, particularly, became widespread. Racism was clearly at work. Time Magazine, reporting the battle of Iwo Jima said; ‘The ordinary unreasoning Jap is ignorant. Perhaps he is human. Nothing ..