Race played a dominant role in World War II for a variety of reasons.
Historically, power relationships emerge between the dominant and the
domineered. This has occurred throughout history, from slavery in Roman
times to slavery in our own South. It seems there is always a victor and a
vanquished, and those weaker must bow to those stronger who dominate them.
In World War II, and added tension was added, and author Dower calls this
"race hate." We were not just fighting the Japanese, we were fighting the
"Japs," the "Yellow Bastards" who attacked Pearl Harbor and killed so many
of our fighting men in a single morning. They were not only the enemy,
they were despicable because of their color and their race, and we hated
In Europe, we were fighting the Nazis, the "Krauts," who murdered
millions of Jews and sought to take over all of Europe. In both cases, the
threats were quite real, and it is understood why we were fighting a war,
but it became more than a war, and turned into a racial war because we
hated and feared the things these foreigners had done, and this is common
when we fear the vanquisher, and hope not to become the vanquished.
On the home front, race hate reared its own ugly head in the way we
treated our own black soldiers, who were not allowed to do many of the jobs
that whites were allowed to do. We formed all black regiments, and all
black fighter squadrons, but never mingled the two, thus underlining it was
not just the enemy we were afraid of, it was anyone with a different color
skin. Race played a dominant role in World War II because of fear, and
because of ignorance, but that is not to say it could not happen again.
Race hate will always be an issue when two dominant nations face off
against each other; it seems to be human nature.
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