Question about rude americans

[Nuala]

Have any members witnessed a rude american reacting badly to a japanese person? Have they ever brought up World War II, and rubbed it in ones face? Answers please!

 

[mad pierrot]

I have

Never seen an American rubbing WWII in a Japanese person's face. The possibility of that happening on a wide scale seems ludicrous at best.

Americans acting plain rude? All the time!

 

[byp]

just as

europeans will not throw at today's germans any remarks about WWII. even if you can see, here and there, so called "nazis nostalgics" groups.

 

[Ewok85]

Americans acting rude? Hell yeah
Bunch of poms acting like idiots? Yup
Aussies acting like wankers? Ahuh
Germans just plain pissing everyone off? That too

Its nothing unusual, I met some awesome people in Japan of all nationalities, and some real idiots. No different to anywhere else really.

 

[Cryptnotic]

I was yelled at once by a drunk old guy in Japan when I was there travelling on vacation. He said something about WWII, but I didn't understand what he was getting at. It didn't bother me though. The other time I got WWII brought up was when I was in Akihabara and there was a guy on the street with a clipboard approaching Americans saying in English that he wanted money for victims of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I don't play around with scammers, so I just pretended I didn't understand English.

At the bars in Roppongi, the Americans (mostly soldiers) were very well behaved, much better so than the local Japanese who were hanging out there. The local guys basically mistreated the Japanese women who went to the bars, presumably because they disapproved of them being interested in meeting American men. These locals would basically treat them like *****, try to pour beer on them, grab their breasts, et cetera. It was very confusing.

 

[Brooker]

I was looking for parking on my street and this American women flipped me off because I didn't get out of her way fast enough. She didn't mention anything about WWII though, but maybe that's because I'm not Japanese.

 

[lexico]

Nothing about WWII, i don't think.
But Japan bashing?
Some time late 1980's, there were a whole bunch of people on TV smashing Japanese TV's with sledge hammers and such.
How more rude can it get?
Rudeness on a national scale; putting that on air is yet another thing.

 

[Pachipro]

Yes, and I remember when the Japanese were buying up America in the 80's and building their auto factories over here they were samshing Toyota's on TV with a sledge hammer. Even elected officials got into the act. Pretty rude and immature if you ask me.

But getting to the original question, no I have never wittnessed any American being rude to a Japanese person in public whether it be in Japan or the US. Here in the US, unless one is informed of the person's nationality, Americans usually assume orientals as being Chinese.

 

[Mike Cash]

Nothing about WWII, i don't think.
But Japan bashing?
Some time late 1980's, there were a whole bunch of people on TV smashing Japanese TV's with sledge hammers and such.
How more rude can it get?
Rudeness on a national scale; putting that on air is yet another thing.

Have you forgotten the context that went with that famous bashing?

 

[den4]

I think most of the WWII crap that gets brought up was during the '70's and before, or from veterans or sons of veterans that served in that war. I used to hear it quite often from disgruntled Americans 3 decades ago...and I guess it sometimes still occurs in larger cities or small town communities every time December 7th rolls around. I do occasionally hear it mentioned on talk radio, but that is usually using the same line with the 9-11 issue as well.
But rude behavior? I see it every day...and Americans don't have a monopoly on that, despite what a great many other countries are in denial over...it just is one of those things that the media likes to focus on because it gets good ratings...

 

[Yukipenguin]

My friends hate that I am interested in the Japanese. (well the guys anyway) They can't believe that I would be interested in a country who attacked pearl harbor. But like I always say...They attacked our military base, guys who signed up for things like that, and we bombed their civilians who had nothing to do with the attack. I don't think that seems fair, so I don't sympathize with people who are anti-Japanese for those reasons. Not that I'm siding with the Japanese, they did attack us and they've done other horrible things in history (nanking, etc) but that just doesn't seem like a good reason for hating an entire culture. I don't hate Germans for what Hitler and the Nazis did.

 

[Brooker]

If you hated every country who did bad things in their past, you'd hate every country. Besides, why hold the people accountable for something the government did, and before they were born?

 

[Sally_Hawn]

Have you forgotten the context that went with that famous bashing?

Was it something to do with the Japanese Prime Minister called American workers lazy in 1992? But I think it was only a fuse... The real problem was competition between the two economies.

Here's an article written at that time, but it is soooooo long that even myself couldn't finish reading it. Basically I think this was some Americans felt at that time. Now the two are strong allies. In real life, I had only encountered one American who said bad things about Japan and all Japanese. He was very old and he mistakened I was Japanese.

http://www.mstrauss.8m.com/Japanyes.htm

 

[Brooker]

My grandfather fought in the South Pacific against the Japanese in WWII and still holds a grudge against Japan. He wasn't happy when I decided to live in Japan. But after hearing all my stories from Japan I think he's softened a bit and even once said he'd like to visit Japan. :nihonjin:

 

[Mike Cash]

Was it something to do with the Japanese Prime Minister called American workers lazy in 1992? But I think it was only a fuse... The real problem was competition between the two economies.

No, the famous bashing scene was triggered by the Toshiba corporation selling technology used for the precision machining of nuclear submarine screws to the Soviets.

 

[TwistedMac]

No, the famous bashing scene was triggered by the Toshiba corporation selling technology used for the precision machining of nuclear submarine screws to the Soviets.

And the poor cars had to pay. It's always someone innocent.

 

[sabro]

My uncle who was an army engineer in the Pacific (and saw the horror- I'm certain at the time he hated the Japanese)-- married my aunt from Japan after the war. After she died, he married a Japanese woman who was living in the US. His brother (my father) married my mother, a Japanese American after being married to an Itallian woman after the war. If his generation can learn how to forgive and move on, then there is definitely hope for the rest of us.

...or it could be that hakujins will marry anyone?