This has been weighing on my mind for a while, and I've been trying to formulate a post in my mind to discuss the weight of the word "Jap" but I kept putting it off. I feel that I must write about it now before I hesitate yet again.
Many people use this word primarily in its harmless original context, to shorten the word "Japanese" into "Jap". However, after World War II, this word means something quite different, especially to Japanese-Americans.
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, there grew an intense anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States. Many white Americans posted banners on their stores to "keep Japs out" and spread propaganda messages against the Japanese, posting exaggerated comical representations of the Japanese people. American soldiers referred to them simply as "the Japs" and used that word to facilitate killing this group of people. During this time the word was used as a weapon to oppress the Japanese people living in the United States.
( images )One infamous event in United States' history was the Japanese Internment camps in 1942 where Japanese people were rounded up into designated areas. Even United States-born people of Japanese descent and others who are only part Japanese (even Korean-Americans, since Korea was occupied at one point by the Japanese) were rounded up. People who had nothing to do with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor were thrown together and ostracized by the people they may have even supported previously.
This wasn't meant to be a lecture on why people are bad for using the word "Jap" but to spread the knowledge about how this word can carry quite negative connotations to certain people. I realize that most people who I talk to about it had no idea about this, so I'm hoping that by posting this more people will learn about the meaning of this word. So if you were to shorten the word "Japanese" please use abbreviations such as "jp" or "jpn". And please know to be especially careful when speaking to Japanese-Americans because this group of people are most badly hurt by this word. In the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, according to their dictionaries this word is considered as "derogatory" and "offensive".
For more information:
The word "Jap"Anti-Japanese sentiment Japanese-American internmentAnd if you have had no idea and used this word in the past, please do not feel bad about it. As long as you know now, right?
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