Transformation of the image of Japanese Americans in U.S. newspapers: From the raid on Pearl Harbor to the internment act

The article is devoted to the transformation of the image of Japanese residents of the United States in the American press after the country’s entry into World War II and before the beginning of their internment. The main sources chosen were the media that influenced the formation of public opinion: the press of the western states, where most Japanese lived, and The New York Times, a national newspaper. The study examined published editorials, speeches by politicians, officials of various ranks, and representatives of public associations and groups. Content analysis of The New York Times publications allowed us to interpret the quantitative characteristics of the articles’ content.

In different editions of the periodical press, the image of the Japanese living in the United States was similar, but, in the West, it had its own specific features. In the western states, the history of interaction between different ethnic groups, including after the beginning of immigration from the Asian region, contained many more contradictions than in the rest of the United States. Japan’s aggressive actions in the Pacific Ocean exacerbated the attitude of coastal residents towards members of the “enemy nation.” Publications took on a form of outright antipathy, which distinguished their tone in the press of the western states and the more moderate The New York Times.

The analysis of the press allowed us to identify a consistent change of the image of Japanese Americans in the pages of newspapers in the period from December 1941 to February 1942. Initially, they were “loyal residents of the country, not associated with the policy of militaristic Japan,” while in February 1942 – “potential subversive elements capable of sabotage and betrayal of U.S. interests.” Based on the research, works of domestic and foreign authors, it was concluded that there was a set of reasons that influenced this transformation of the image of the Japanese living in the country after the entry of the United States into World War II. 

1. Aleksander, C. (1995). Khoroshaya li eto byla voina dlya Ameriki? [Was It a Good War for America?] In A. Chubar’yan, U. Kimboll, D. Reynolds (eds.), Soyuzniki v vojne. 1941–1945 [Allies in the War. 1941–1945] (pp. 303–325). Moskow: Nauka. (In Russian).

2. Daniels, R. (1971). Concentration Camps USA: Japanese Americans and World War II. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

3. Grodzins, M. (1949). Americans Betrayed: Politics and the Japanese Evacuation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

4. Hovanskaya, E. (2017). Tragediya internirovaniya v gody Vtoroi mirovoi voiny v sovremennom khudozhestvenno-dokumental’nom yaponsko-amerikanskom diskurse [The Tragedy of Internment in the Years of World War II in the Contemporary Literary and Documentary Japanese-American Discourse]. Uchennye zapiski Kazanskogo universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye nauki [Kazan University Bulletin. Series: Humanities], 1 (159), 264–273. (In Russian).

5. Stanley, G. (1992). Justice Deferred: A Fifty-Year Perspective on Japanese-Internment Historiography. Southern California Quarterly, 2 (74). Retrieved July 15, 2024, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41171622.

6. Surzhik, D. (2016). «Yaponskii vopros» v SShA v gody Vtoroi mirovoi voiny [«Japanese Question» in the U.S. in the Years of World War II]. Novye istoricheskie perspektivy [New Historical Perspectives], 2 (3), 61–71. (In Russian).

7. TenBroek, J., Barnhart, E., Matson, F. (1958). Prejudice, War and the Constitution. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.