Historiography

This exhibit contains pieces of history that were very important to American perception of the Japanese during the war years and that continue to be relevant to day in our knowledge of our past. All the elements of the exhibit demonstrate varying degrees of racism in a variety of places that were, and often still are, well regarded news sources and entertainment companies that have few ties to the US government. When they were published, even the most offensive of the posters and propaganda above was considered normal to a point where it wasn’t offensive. As testified to by Mr. Shoemaker, “[Americans] all knew...that [Japanese] all had buck teeth and they all wore thick Coke bottle glasses. And they were all mean.” So what would now be considered highly offensive, was assumed to be true in the time these were published. The original value for most of the artifacts was to shape the American point of view to a point where the death of Japanese people was not seen as important, the value now is that we are able to see how the government manipulated the citizens as well as how the citizens responded in their mood, actions, and beliefs. The limiting factor for this exhibit is the focus on the racism due to the artifacts or the effect of racism on the artifacts, but got into very little beyond that with background on cultural differences or the root reasons for the intense hatred many felt for the Japanese. The bias in the exhibit comes from the authors American viewpoint and education which has caused preferential ideas of the US.