On December 7th, 1941 Japan initiated a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the intent of aggravating America to fight in World War II. The effects of the attacks were devastating. It resulted in the death of approximately 2,400 Americans, 21 sunken ships, and 188 aircrafts being destroyed. Four years after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the United States of America counterattacked by dropping an atomic bomb on two Japanese cities. On August 6th, 1945, the first bomb - nicknamed “Little Boy” was dropped from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay, on the city of Hiroshima. Over 70,000 innocent Japanese civilians were killed in the initial blast and over the following months, tens of thousands more died from radiation poisoning. Three days later, on August 9th, America dropped the second bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, the bomb was nicknamed “Fat Man”. This attack instantly killed an additional 40,000 people.
The dropping of the atomic bomb is one of the most controversial events in history. The actions of the United States remains very contentious and the misuse of their power and morality are still debated. Many historians have argued that the dropping of the atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were absolutely justifiable because it was necessary to end World War II, while other historians opposed this view. They argued that it was an unnecessary, inhumane, and brutal means of revenge. The purpose of this essay is to support the notion of the unjustifiable use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because they were racially motivated, inhumane, and used to intimidate the Soviet Union rather than to defeat Japan.
Most, if not all, of America's enemies were parodied in propaganda and racially stereotyped. Germans were referred to as "krauds’’ and Italians were referred to as “Tonies”. Even though these references were quite obscene, they were mainly directed towards their political management. An example of this is a poster by C.R. Miller, titled “We’re Fighting to Prevent This”. In this image, there is a boot and on it is the Nazi symbol along with spikes on the bottom of it crushing the White House. This image is trying to convey the message that America is trying to prevent Germany from taking control of the United States’ government. Unlike anti-Japanese propaganda, this image does not make a mockery of the physical appearance of German people. The difference in the features of the types of propaganda in America was clearly visible.
Images of Japanese people, in particular, provided an excellent representation of how race played a part in the perception of them in America. Anti- Japanese propaganda in America was regularly directed towards the physical appearance of Japanese people. They were often depicted as animals (specifically apes) along with having exaggerated features such as huge teeth and extremely tiny eyes. The cover of Collie...
