I have never recognized on any occasion the slightest personal superiority, always meeting the Japanese officials, however exalted their rank, with perfect equality, whilst those of comparative distinction of their own nation were cringing and kneeling to them.  For motives of policy, and to give greater importance to my own position, I have hitherto studiously kept myself aloof from intercourse with any of the subordinates of the court, making it known that I would communicate with none but the princes of the empire.

Commodore Matthew Perry, February 11, 1854

And no honest person, today or a thousand years hence, will be able to suppress a sense of indignation and horror at the treachery committed by the military dictators of Japan, under the very shadow of the flag of peace borne by their special envoys in our midst.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, December 9, 1941

Japan needs us.  We need Japan.  We are both working for the same cause, the cause of freedom, and if we work together the Communists will not succeed in their efforts (1) to take over Japan, and (2) to take over the world.

Vice President Richard M. Nixon, August 3, 1960

Prior to Commodore Perry traveling to Japan in 1854, the United States had little contact with the nation located across the Pacific Ocean.  Most anecdotes came from sailors who had been shipwrecked off the shore of Japan and found themselves held captive by the Japanese.^[1]  That changed, however, when Commodore Perry met with the Tokugawa shogunate.  In a deal made between the two men, Japan opened its borders to the United States for the first time, allowing trade to occur between the two nations.  Starting from the initial interactions between the United States and Japan, the relationship between the two countries became based on the Japanese remaining in what Americans determine is their proper place.  At this time, Japan had none of the modern technologies developed by the West, such as telegraphs or railroads.  With the introduction of American developments to Japan, the Japanese began to learn from the United States, modeling their own nation after America technologically and aesthetically.  Telecommunication technologies arrived in Japan just before the establishment of the Meiji Government in 1868 and soon thereafter, many Japanese men had begun wearing western-style suits.^[2]  With this acceptance of western ideals, Japan was accepted as a powerful nation.  As the nation hoped to gain territory in mainland Asia, it began an expansionist policy, first fighting against China in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and then against Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).  Following the end of the First World War (1914-1918), when Japan aligned itself with the Allied Powers, Japan felt as if it had not been given proper territorial gains, and tensions were heightened with the rejection of Japan's Racial Equality Proposal.^[3]  The negative feelings developed by the Japanese government toward the United States led them to form an alliance with the Axis powers during the Second World War (1939-1945).  In an attempt to prevent the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japan’s expansion into Southeast Asia, the nation bombed Pearl Harbor on December 9, 1941.  By attacking the United States, Japan had for the first time stepped away from what the United States had deemed its proper place, which consisted of being their mentee rather than a major global power.

Quickly following the Second World War, American attitudes towards Japan changed again.  According to historian John Dower, the American occupation of Japan sculpted a new narrative that centered on a feminized version of the Japanese as a people who were subservient to the United States, which now had the power.  During World War II, Americans believed that Japan’s government had been a corrupt regime that had distorted the minds of the public.  However, in the years following the war, the dominant power in Japan had become the United States.  In Article 9 in Japan’s post-war “pacifist constitution,” ^[4]  Japan vowed to “renounce war as the sovereign right of the nation.” ^[5]  Certainly, if Japan no longer posed itself as a military threat and was incapable of effectively overtaking Asia as it had looked to do in years prior by military force, there was little need to worry.  Japan would become a democratic nation, just as the United States was, and would learn from, what Americans considered to be, the best nation in the world.  The heightened fear of spreading communism posed a much greater threat to Americans than the Japanese did.  Therefore, America’s mentees in Asia could be used to American advantage.  The acceptance of the Japanese as a friend remained until the 1980s, when Japan once again became a threat, although in a different way.  While the United State’s economy struggled, Japan’s economy boomed.  As the sale of Japanese cars rose, American companies such as Ford and General Motors laid off large numbers of employees.  Once again, wealthy Japanese companies and their products became a source of fear to Americans, just as they had been 40 years prior.

How, then, did Americans come to embrace the Japanese time and time again after becoming enemies and then competitors?  In his book, War Without Mercy, historian John Dower focuses on the different racist propaganda used by the United States that allowed the Japanese to be transformed and dehumanized from the onset of the Second World War.  Although both Japan and the United States felt that Japan had a proper place within the global sphere and within the relationship with the United States, they disagreed on what that place should be.  Japan believed that its people were racially superior to others, while Americans continued to see the Japanese as subservient and inferior to themselves.  Dower argues that the war in the Pacific was understood as a race war rather than a war against an ideology, as was the case in Europe.  He argues that the understanding of the war in the Pacific as a race war was what led to propaganda focusing so heavily on dehumanizing images of the Japanese and the tendency to lump all Japanese into the category of enemy.  His argument is supported by exploring and analyzing primary source materials produced during the war, which include propaganda films, government documents, and first-hand accounts.  Americans came to understand the Japanese as being something other than human as they were routinely depicted as apes and vermin in mass media.^[6]  From this, the American narrative of Japanese “beastliness” ^[7] was formed.  Such a widely accepted portrayal of the Japanese as subhuman creatures who committed atrocities ultimately allowed the justification of the bombing of cities in Japan, as well as the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States.  As the Japanese were unable to be trusted, Americans felt that they should all be treated as potential traitors who posed a threat to the nation and subject to proper punishment as a result.  

The thorough analysis Dower provides in regard to the undertones of American propaganda proves to the reader that unlike the war in Europe against the other Axis powers, Americans developed a different narrative about the War in the Pacific that focused on the demonization of the race of an entire nation rather than the atrocities a select few had committed.  In the final section of his book, Dower explains how the American occupation of Japan following the end of the war could be as peaceful as it was after the American populace had understood the Japanese to be such violent people.  Dower argues that the American portrayals of the Japanese throughout the war were “usually remarkably flexible and malleable, and can be turned about, even turned almost inside out, to legitimize a multitude of often contradictory purposes.” ^[8]  The malleable depiction of the Japanese, which had earlier shown them as apes, vermin, insects, or caricatures of themselves with extremely exaggerated facial features, allowed for a peaceful transition from understanding them as subhuman creatures into children.  With this, Americans began to see them as individuals who needed assistance finding their proper place within the global order.  The Japanese were still understood as being inferior to Americans, with depictions and descriptions of them supporting this claim, but they no longer posed a distinct threat as they accepted American help and returned to their proper place.  

        America’s Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy, written by Naoko Shibusawa, also discusses the reimagining of the Japanese that took place following the end of the Second World War, but in a gendered framework.  This change was engineered by postwar American liberals who were convinced that the combination of political rights, material wealth, and educational attainment in a nation such as Japan could bring about a vibrant democratic society that would be resistant to the totalitarianism that had spread throughout the nation in decades prior.  These individuals were often better educated than a majority of the American populace and held important media jobs that allowed them to help shape the public’s opinion.  Such jobs included Hollywood filmmakers, writers, and journalists.^[9]  In order to soften the image of Japan, the nation was “feminized” by showing the Japanese as subservient to the wants and needs of the Americans, putting them in their correct and subordinate position.  In contrast to the Japanese, the Americans who occupied postwar Japan were understood to be the masculine defenders of those who had been brainwashed by the Japanese government.  Although postwar American liberals believed that they possessed an enlightened view of race, these individuals often believed that non-white countries and peoples lacked the maturity to run a civilized society competently.^[10]  Therefore, nations like Japan required outside assistance in order to reach the enlightened state of government that the United States had achieved.  With this, the Japanese had once again become subordinated to the idea of American exceptionalism.  Although postwar American liberals attempted to minimize their racism, seeing Japan as capable of being America’s prodigy in Asia, this required the continued subordination of Japan to the United States.  

        Although the positive relationship between the United States and Japan continued through several decades, this changed with Japan’s growing economic dominance.  Andrew C. McKevitt’s book Consuming Japan: Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America, discusses the American ambivalence towards Japan as the Japanese economic presence grew stronger within the United States and argues that by consuming Japanese products, America was able to be globalized.  Initially, the economic success experienced by the Japanese led to tensions between the two nations, as Japan had advanced beyond the United States with its technology, allowing companies like Sony, Panasonic, and Toshiba to become household names.^[11]  However, as Japan grew stronger, trade disputes began between Japan and the United States, as  Japanese auto manufacturers began to overtake their American counterparts.  In addition to this, wealthy Japanese individuals made high-profile real estate and commercial purchases within the United States.  It was this latter phenomenon that led to “Japan-bashing,” anti-Japanese rhetoric that spewed from the mouths of politicians, intellectuals, business leaders, and other Americans who found the relationship between Japan and the United States benefitting Japan more than the United States.  In essence, a paradox had occurred within America, as certain aspects of Japanese culture were embraced by the public while others instilled anger and fear as the latter threatened American dominance and their way of life as Japanese dominance in the economic sphere removed them from their proper place.^[12]  With this rise in tensions, a new “yellow peril” ^[13]  occurred in the United States media.  However, in this situation, anger was also directed at high-profile Americans who the public believed had not done enough to protect the nation from the Japanese.  Everyone from politicians to owners of Major League Baseball teams was considered to be traitors by the American public as it was they who had allowed the “Japanese invasion” of the United States.  

        In line with these works, this thesis will focus on the changing depiction of the Japanese in American mass media from the mid-1800s through the 1990s.  In this paper, I will argue that the depiction and description of the Japanese by Americans shifts dramatically throughout history because it centers on the notion of the Japanese remaining in their proper place.  When the Japanese remain in their proper subordinate role, depictions show them in a positive light.  However, when Japan attempts to assert its dominance, depictions of the Japanese shift, showing Japan as a threat.  This will be done by analyzing newspapers, political cartoons, and other forms of mass media such as short films.  Newspapers from across the United States will be used, as often times articles from one paper were republished in another.  As Japan began to shift away from its pre-defined proper place as defined by the United States, depictions of the Japanese changed in both the 1930s and 1970s.  Rather than being shown as kind, intriguing, and childlike as was the case during times of friendship, the Japanese became threatening and dangerous.  Yet, as stated by Dower, the flexible and malleable portrayal of the Japanese, which has been a consistent factor throughout the history of Japanese-United States relations, allowed the Japanese to once again be seen as a friendly ally who required American help, although this was only done when the Japanese were understood to no longer be a threat.  

By examining the portrayals of the Japanese in the United States media throughout the second half of the 1800s and throughout the 20th century, it will become evident that no matter the global circumstances, the depictions of the Japanese are malleable because they focus on the idea of the Japanese remaining in their proper place used during times of both fear and friendship.  In chapter 1, I will discuss the initial relationship formed between the United States and Japan.  Ever since the first interactions occurred between these two nations, Japan was never understood by the United States as an equal.  The depiction of the Japanese as lesser beings took many forms and included portraying Japan as a child, a mentee, a younger sibling, or simply as the exotic other.  This understanding of the Japanese allowed this lopsided relationship to be manipulated in the future, enabling a shifting understanding of the Japanese that would be able to fit the needed narrative at any given time.  In the mid to late 1800s, as the United States aided Japan in becoming an industrialized nation, the United States was its mentor.  However, as Japan began to act on its imperialist ambitions in the early 20th century, the American narrative of the Japanese evolved, condemning Japan as a child who had acted out of turn.  Eventually, the American understanding of the Japanese shifted again, turning them into subhuman creatures who were able to carry out one of the worst mass-casualty events in American history–Pearl Harbor.  

The second chapter of the thesis will focus on the American view of the Japanese during and after the Second World War.  Always understood as not entirely human, the Japanese were depicted as insects, animals, or exaggerated caricatures of themselves.  However, the portrayal of the Japanese as apes and insects quickly faded away following the end of the Second World War, as the threat of communism spreading throughout Asia worried the United States.  Suddenly, with the onset of the Cold War, Japan once again became an ally of the United States, upholding democratic ideals on a continent that was plagued by the threat of Marxism.  With their government’s hand being held by the United States, Japan once again became an American prodigy.

        The final chapter will focus on the last shift in America’s portrayal of Japan, as the nation once again became perceived as a threat to the United States.  Throughout the 1970s, Japan had grown into a major economic power, rivaling the United States.  While Japan no longer had military ambitions, a new fear arose within America as Japanese manufacturers began to outsell their American competitors.  The rising economic dominance of Japan also allowed many wealthy businessmen to buy flagship American companies and buildings, leaving Americans feeling as if the entire nation would soon be purchased by the Japanese.  Japan was an acceptable ally if Americans were buying Japanese culture, as things like sushi, anime, and sake were not to be feared.  However, in contrast to this, Japan's domination over an area that represented the essence of American manufacturing, such as the automobile industry, was worrisome to many who dreaded an economic Pearl Harbor.  Interestingly, during this period, anger was aimed not only at the Japanese, but also at the American government for allowing Japan to reach a point where the nation was able to overtake the United States in several economic sectors.

        As stated previously, Japan has shifted multiple times throughout history from being one of America’s closest allies to one of its most fierce enemies, both militarily and economically.  In US media depictions of this relationship, there is a clear pattern of criticizing Japan when it stepped out of its proper place, which led to tensions between the two nations.  Japan’s proper place was initially determined by the United States, which understood itself to be the dominant nation.  As a result, throughout the 20th century, the Japanese were never recognized as fully capable individuals.  Instead, depictions of the Japanese fluctuate from being a child, an animal, an insect, or a younger sibling that is in constant need of assistance.  Within mass media produced in the United States, imagery has been used to reflect the Americans' opinion of the Japanese, shifting from being positive during times of peace to negative during times of tension and back again once Japan returns to its proper place.  The United States has understood Japan to be a friend for the past thirty years.  Yet, it is important to understand how the relationship between these two nations has shifted over the past two centuries.  Although the American portrayals of the Japanese have taken many forms, there is a constant understanding of the Japanese as something other than an equal to the United States.  The United States has shifted from mentor to parent to teacher, to helper, and dominating male figure.  In contrast to the United States, Japan has been the mentee, child, student, and feminine caretaker.  America’s relationship with Japan is based on the Japanese remaining in what Americans determine is their proper place and when they depart from it, tensions rise between the two nations.