At least the Japanese and Germans tried to keep it confined to the military and adults whereas the Americans were all too proud to have it played in movie theaters…
Really?
The Germans kept it confined to military and adults?
Ever hear of Schaeffler? A big player in the automotive industry, known for a variety of products related to suspension and ride. One of the Schaeffler group companies, FAG, invented the ball bearing, and was famously bombed by the USAAF in 1943.
Schaeffler group acquired the tires business of Continental about 15-18 years ago. When the auto industry experienced a downturn soon thereafter, they applied to the German government for some financial assistance. But there was this problem… see, the company was family owned since it's inception, and that same family, with that same business (though under a different name at the time) had used human hair shorn from inmates in the deathcamps at Auschwitz-Birkenau to produce insulated linings for winter boots (and some sources say for auto upholstery, though I am less confident in that). After the war, some 1.9 tons of human hair with measurable traces of Zyklon-B (the chemical used in the Auschwitz gas chambers) were found in their warehouses.
The German government had some trouble financing that family's business endeavors, as their business empire was largely built up in the post-war era from profits made during the war, when they were harvesting the remains of murdered Jewish, Romani and Slavic civilians as an industrial raw material.
So if you are suggesting that the Germans kept their racism confined to the military, or that the same level of racism suffused the US war effort, I would suggest your case is a bit … weak.
That's not to say that there weren't racist elements in US society and propaganda. Indeed there were. But equating the two is ignorant at best, with no mention of what it may be if not born of ignorance, which is notably worse…
One still is …
The hierarchy of races is still a prevalent theme in Japanese culture, or at least it was when I traveled there frequently (more than 25 trips) some 20-25 years ago.
We had one VP in the manufacturing group of our company who was from India. When he traveled to Japan (where our manufacturing bought hundreds of millions of dollars of output from several large factories), he would be treated with many forms of traditional Japanese courtesy. At some point, he would be offered a trip to the hot baths (a Japanese custom almost as deeply ingrained as the Finns' saunas). He stopped accepting the invitations after the first few times, because it always played out the same way.
He would be invited to the baths. He would enter with his host, disrobe along with his host, and be washed with soap and brush by an attendant before entering the large communal tub of steaming hot water. Then his host would suddenly get an urgent call he had to take, and bowing with all embarrassment make his way to a side room. Our VP would enter the tub. All the others in the tub would smile and nod. But within moments they would mumble some excuse and leave. He would sit alone in the communal tub for however long he chose. Then he would get up to dry off, and his host would almost immediately return offering all sorts of excuses.
His hosts never once got into a tub with him, and the unknown others in the communal tub when he entered never stayed more than 2 minutes. He always wound up alone in this famously accepted social bonding scenario. His boss, our Sr. VP of Operations, who was very British, always recounted the happy experience of sitting in the tub and relaxing with his hosts. White man in the tub = OK. Brown man in the tub = find some excuse because not OK. It was unmistakable.
It became clear in our company that white guys got one level of treatment, Indian and Persian guys got another, and Chinese guys (there were many) got yet a third. And the women received in all cases a different level yet again.
I have never seen that in Germany. I have always seen there that business etiquette is business etiquette, and guests are treated by their hosts with careful attention to courtesy. Although Americans often receive a less formal version than others, which I perceive as almost an uncomfortable deference to American preferences, as we tend to be a rather casual society.
This message may not reflect the opinions of TMP management. I alone am responsible for the contents of this editorial. Unless I'm not. Your tankage may vary.
-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)
tackles his greatest foe - another Green Vehicle...
