Japan's stereotype of American Police

[Liberal_in_LA]

American Police Fit the Stereotype in Japan

The opinion of cops in America is varied. Television and film paints them as either handsome, muscular law enforcers who have taken an oath to protect and serve, or fat, lazy, doughnut munchers quick to taze an 80-year old man or a pregnant woman.

Take for example this image from a Japanese magazine. Combining America’s love affair for fast food, the growing obesity problem, and the widespread yet erroneous belief that American cops live up to the offensive “pig” moniker commonly bestowed upon them, we’re given a cogent reminder of how others view American law enforcement agents.

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/04/21/american-police-fit-stereotype-japan/

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Not too different than Americans' stereotypes of American cops

it seems to me.

[paulsby]

3. with the understanding that polling data year after year

ranks public respect for cops in the US amongst the top professions (also: teachers, etc.)

[ShortnFiery]

72. How much does FEAR morph into the report of RESPECT? eom

[paulsby]

75. not at all

considering they are anonymous polls

people fear the IRS

needless to say the IRS does not rank high

hth

[Shell Beau]

5. or Americans in general

[chrisa]

67. Exactly.

These stereotypes can be found in every cop movie.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Those bastards.

Umm...

[slackmaster]

4. You've got to love stereotypes

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. Those aren't stereotypes, they're propaganda posters

Depicting a wartime enemy as vicious and ruthless. Not sure I like the exaggerated facial features, though.

Which they were, unless that history has also been rewritten?

[slackmaster]

15. They're propaganda posters that use stereotypes to incite hatred

Specifically a stereotype of Japanese as murderous thugs.

HTH

[Dreamer Tatum]

17. They were aimed at US soldiers tasked with fighting the Japanese

And when the enemy is armed and shooting at me, yeah, I'm OK with them being portrayed as murderous.

Or was the Pacific war just a case of us bad ol' Americans interrupting peaceful Japanese soldiers' rest?

"HTH"

[slackmaster]

49. I can't wait until the first week of August to see what you have to say about the atomic bombings

:nuke:

[Dreamer Tatum]

64. No need to wait: I think it was the right thing to do, under the circumstances nt

[BreweryYardRat]

25. In case you haven't heard, the Imperial Japanese Army WAS a bunch of murderous thugs.

Does the Rape of Nanking ring a bell? Bataan Death March (that last poster) sound familiar?

Standard policy for the IJA was to torture and murder male prisoners and civilians (hell, at Nanking, the IJA had a contest to see who could cut off the most Chinese heads), and rape, torture and murder female prisoners and civilians.

If they'd depicted ordinary Japanese civilians as murderous thugs, then you might have a point, but I'm only seeing IJA uniforms there.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

26. So you're saying the racism in those posters is justified...

[LanternWaste]

69. I would say it's simply irrelevant.

I would say it's simply irrelevant.

[DaveinJapan]

39. Many Japanese soldiers of WWII WERE murderous thugs. It's no "stereotype" to say so.

Edit..I'm not a fan of racism. Obviously the propaganda there was nasty and the images probably uncalled for (they could've said the same things sans the racial angle). But as far as giving them hell for being brutal, I've got no problem with that since it was very much true.

[slackmaster]

47. How do you feel about the racism in the image depicted in the OP?

Just wondering.

[DaveinJapan]

51. By "racism" I'm guessing you mean the "fat cop" stereotype, or the "fat American" stereotype?

I'm not sure exactly what you're driving at, but if you are asking if I feel offended by a Japanese magazine portraying an American police officer as "fat and lazy" or something like that, I would say no. I don't find it offensive in particular.

It's certainly not exclusive to Japanese people anyway (that particular attitude towards cops, or even Americans in general).

I guess I've just seen it before, many times from many places. OBVIOUSLY, it's a stereotype (whether it be towards police (American or otherwise), or towards Americans in general). But it's not particularly shocking to me. Maybe it should be, I dunno.

[slackmaster]

52. Fat Caucasian stereotype

FYI none of the images portrayed in this thread have offended me at all.

[DaveinJapan]

55. I guess I never really processed "fat caucasian" as a stereotype, myself.

More along the lines of "fat Westerner" or "fat American", but I suppose that's just my perspective (along those lines, I never think of "heavy Frenchman" or "big Dutch guy" even though they, too, are caucasian).

Like all stereotypes though, it's never a good thing to categorize groups of people as this or that. In that sense, I think the OP pic is uncool, of course!

[Romulox]

56. Is this a racist image? Would it be if it were printed in Japan?

:shrug:

[slackmaster]

57. Depends on context

Like most other images.

[Romulox]

54. Can you define precisely HOW the image in the OP is racist? Thanks! nt

[petronius]

43. At the D-Day Museum in New Orleans they have a display of wartime propaganda posters,

discussing the stereotyping and dehumanizing that is so common. What I found interesting is that they have a number of Japanese posters as well, and the same bloodthirsty imagery is used to depict the American soldiers...

[slackmaster]

46. Yes, I've seen a few of those too

[proteus_lives]

16. I don't think wartime propaganda is the same as the pic from the OP.

[slackmaster]

48. How is it different? Both are racist.

:hi:

[14thColony]

76. Cops are a race now?

[baldguy]

80. Sus constabularus

[marmar]

18. WTF?

:wtf:

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Berserker]

38. I can see it now

Grandpa Macain singing Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Japan OH FUCK wait we did!!!!

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. How old is that picture? Looks to be 70's/80's nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. current. fastfood logos are recent

[namahage]

11. Didn't know Mickey D's still used styrofoam burger containers. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. You are right...styrofoam went away.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. What year is it where you are? Careful not to cut your finger on a Schlitz pop-top, ok? nt

[salguine]

20. Dude! Did you know Schlitz™ is back? I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's back.

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. lol ok.

[Blue_Tires]

10. late 70s maybe? look at that watch! lol

[myrna minx]

12. I haven't seen styrofoam McDonald's containers since the '80's.

That A&W can looks ancient as well.

[Love Bug]

8. Doesn't say much for McDonald's, either, does it?

What's a "Wild Mook"?

[Godhumor]

13. This issue of Wild Mook (a "magazine/book") was released in 1980

I saw absolutely no mention of that in the article link.

[Indy Lurker]

19. where did they get that idea

[Dreamer Tatum]

22. Ever hear the Fat Cop Theorem?

Never get in a footrace with a fat cop.

[aikoaiko]

21. Where are the doughnuts?

:shrug:

[Ikonoklast]

23. Delivery will be, uh, delayed a bit.

[whathehell]

59. Since I have a friend (female) who was a city cop for over 20 years,

I've got to share something about where the "cop and doughnut" thing comes from;

According to my pal, years ago, I don't know how many, but probably before they were unionized, cops only got a 20 minute lunch period...Doughnuts made a quick lunch.

[JVS]

24. Where is the taser?

[Bonobo]

27. The magazine is from 32 years ago. The real question you should ask yourself is:

Why did this come out now?

Why did you gleefully consume it without any degree of filtering?

How did it make you feel? (What baser instincts is it appealing to in you?)

So really, WHO are the racists?

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. Don't quite get the racist reference

[Bonobo]

32. Usually stories like this appear and are consumed because of our own inherent racism.

Why do people respond with so much anger when such 'criticism' comes from foreigners?
Why did the thread descend so rapidly into a discussion by some about Japanese atrocities during a war 65 years ago?

It is called 'xenophobia' or 'racism' and it is a good way to sell shit or to whip people up and get them to look the other way (misdirection). That is the only point I wanted to make (about the media in general).

I just think people need to start asking themselves "why" when they watch the "news". Everyone should read Neil Postman.

[Dreamer Tatum]

36. WADR, what the F*** are you talking about? nt

[EFerrari]

37. Bonobo, who is Neil Postman?

[Bonobo]

40. The author of "Amusing Ourselves to Death".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) is a book by educator Neil Postman.
The book's origins lie in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on Orwell's 1984 and the contemporary world. In the introduction to his book Postman said that the contemporary world was better reflected by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, whose public was oppressed by their addiction to amusement, than by Orwell's 1984, where they were oppressed by state control.
It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 200,000 copies worldwide. In 2005, Postman's son Andrew reissued the book in a 20th anniversary edition. It is regarded as one of the most important texts of Media Ecology.<1>

Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights. Drawing an analogy with the latter scenario, Postman sees television's entertainment value as a present-day "soma", by means of which the consumers' rights are exchanged for entertainment. (Note that there is no contradiction between an intentional "Orwellian" conspiracy using "Huxleyan" means, which is an argument advanced in the later book The Unreality Industry: the deliberate manufacturing of falsehood and what it is doing to our lives by Ian Mitroff and Warren Bennis . Postman evidently did not disagree, since he provided a blurb for this book.)
The essential premise of the book, which Postman extends to the rest of his argument(s), is that "form excludes the content," that is, a particular medium can only sustain a particular level of ideas. Thus Rational argument, integral to print typography, is militated against by the medium of television for the aforesaid reason. Owing to this shortcoming, politics and religion are diluted, and "news of the day" becomes a packaged commodity. Television de-emphasises the quality of information in favour of satisfying the far-reaching needs of entertainment, by which information is encumbered and to which it is subordinate.

Postman asserts the presentation of television news is a form of entertainment programming; arguing inclusion of theme music, the interruption of commercials, and "talking hairdos" bear witness that televised news cannot readily be taken seriously. Postman further examines the differences between written speech, which he argues reached its prime in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and the forms of televisual communication, which rely mostly on visual images to "sell" lifestyles. He argues that, owing to this change in public discourse, politics has ceased to be about a canditate's ideas and solutions, but whether he comes across favorably on television. Television, he notes, has introduced the phrase "now this", which implies a complete absence of connection between the separate topics the phrase ostensibly connects. Larry Gonick used this phrase to conclude his Cartoon Guide to (Non)Communication, instead of the traditional "the end".

[EFerrari]

41. Thanks, I'd never heard of him. Interesting. n/t

[petronius]

44. I don't think it's necessarily racism that causes an angry reaction - most people

dislike being criticized by people from outside their own particular circle because we generally feel that the right to speak bluntly is reserved to those who are involved or connected. For example, I can tell you plenty of bad things about my family, but I won't take it well if some stranger starts ripping on my folks. I have complaints about California, but if someone from another state starts a 'California Sucks!' thread, then it's on. And, I'm not always pleased with US policy (or in this thread US law enforcement) but when someone from outside makes fun of my country I may not be amused. None of those responses are triggered by racism or xenophobia - if anything, it's a socially constructed notion of private business being off-limits to outsiders...

[Bonobo]

45. That is actually a very good point.

You are 100% right.

[whathehell]

62. True...and not acknowledged enough, IMO. n/t

[NM_hemilover]

50. Read thru your posts,

And you seem to be one of the few, if not only person making sense. If you understand Japanese, I'd be curious what else the magazine is about, I doubt it is just that month's issue of "Fat American Cop".

[TexasObserver]

28. Is that photo from a documentary?

[Bonobo]

33. Simple question: Why did you post this?

What was your motivation?

How did it make you feel when you saw this?

Did you realize the magazine is from 1980 and no longer even exists?

How do you feel about cops? About Japanese?

[yawnmaster]

35. From what I read, that magazine is actually for those Japanese who are enthusiasts of...

American police.
I'd like to see a translation of the cover, but the inside is apparently full of detail about American cops,
written for those who are fans of the American police. The cover seems to imply that the readers hold the Am police in a bad light,
yet, in fact, it's just the opposite.

[Xenotime]

42. racists.

[Romulox]

53. Well, this thread has been a lot of heat and very little light!

Why don't our experts on Japan translate the cover for us? I, for one, love Japanese magazines and books ("mooks" even) and I find the mystery more interesting than the judging of just who is or who is not a racist. :shrug:

[Art_from_Ark]

78. Looking at Japanese sites about this magazine/book

I found that it was issued in 1980, so it's 30 years old. Not exactly representative of the current Japanese image of American policemen, I would say. One of the Japanese explanations I read said that while the cover was a little excessive, the contents pretty much covered the spectrum of American police. Put another way, it seems that the cover was just an attention grabber.

[apples and oranges]

58. That's funny!

[Lucian]

60. I see that stereotype fitting a lot of Americans, not just the police.

[whathehell]

63. Yeah..and like all stereotypes, it's only partly true and rather unwelcome coming from a nation

with its own set of problems.:eyes:

[Lucian]

70. Partly true?

Look around you. How many people do you see as overweight eating fast food? I don't know where you come from, but where I come from, that's a common occurrence. And sadly, it's becoming more of a problem throughout the rest of the United States.

[whathehell]

83. Yeah..Partly true...We have a lot of overweight people, some eating fast food

some not. The only real question here is: What the hell does Japan care?...They have their own issues.

[whathehell]

61. Stereotypes tend to suck...although we're all probably guilty of indulging in them

Japan is known to be rather zenophobic..and before anyone goes ballistic on me, I speak with some authority, having had a Japanese roomate and a spouse who works for a Japanes company and travels there frequently.

[Fumesucker]

65. Would you like some Freedom Fries with that?

Japan ain't the only place that's rather xenophobic.

[Romulox]

66. Is it not OK to notice things? I had a Japanese co-op mate back in school who could

not be dissuaded from wearing a "Little Black Sambo" bowling shirt. I simply refused to accompany him anywhere while he wore it.

While I am not drawing broad conclusions from this, part of my house-mates argument was that the garment was purchased at a mainstream Japanese department store, and therefore must somehow be socially acceptable everywhere. :shrug:

[Fumesucker]

71. I think it's hypocritical to point out the mote in another culture's eye..

When we have a honking great beam in our own..

In this particular case the beam I pointed out (Freedom Fries) was in our national fucking legislature.

And the truly ironic part is that french fries aren't even from France, they were invented by a man named French, which adds sheer dumbass stupidity and ignorance to foaming at the mouth bigotry, once again all of this is exhibited in our most august national legislature.

And the coup de grâce of the whole damn pathetic scenario is that even the Republicans now admit that the French were correct all along and going into Iraq was a mistake of colossal proportions.

[Romulox]

73. Well, Japanese xenophobia isn't a hobby horse of mine, but it's well documented.

"In this particular case the beam I pointed out (Freedom Fries) was in our national fucking legislature."

And the Japanese PM visits the graves of war criminals. At minimum, a true humanist must admit each culture's capacity to be truly awful.

"And the truly ironic part is that french fries aren't even from France, they were invented by a man named French"

You're thinking of the toast. The recipe for fried potatoes probably goes back to time immemorial.

[Fumesucker]

74. I guess you missed Ronald Reagan telling us that the Nazis were victims too?

While at Bitburg?

Yeah, you're right about French Toast, but they renamed that one too.

For a culture that claims to be a "melting pot" we are remarkably bigoted, the Japanese at least have the excuse of being an insular and long isolated culture.

[whathehell]

85. But this whole thing started with a Japanese send-up of our culture..

Does not your "mote and beam" analogy apply to OTHER cultures as well?...Or are WE the only one with the big honking beam?....I think not.

[whathehell]

84. The answer to your question is "No"...It's not OK on DU

to notice ANYTHING about any OTHER culture which could POSSIBLY be construed as "a problem".

America is the BE and END of all WRONG and BAD!...We must continue to self-flagellate... Criticizing any aspect of another country is to risk serious fallout with the PC Police here.:eyes:

[DaveinJapan]

79. +1 nt

[whathehell]

82. No, I'll wait til we get onto France...

As to xenophobia...No shit, sherlock..The point is, we're not the only country with a culture that is less than ideal.:shrug:

[jberryhill]

68. An American Policeman Wouldn't Bring A Carl's Cup To McDonalds

It is obviously a blatantly false image, since no fast food restaurant would allow a cup from another chain inside.

[leeroysphitz]

77. Are you saying that this photo was staged? n/t

[BlooInBloo]

81. It's sad because it's true.

[Art_from_Ark]

86. This is not Japan's stereotype of American police

This is one magazine editor's image of what would sell his magazine, 30 years ago.
I don't think the Japanese have a stereotyped image of American policemen. If they even have an image, it's most likely gleaned from American TV programs or movies.

When it comes to portraying foreigners in Japanese TV programs, however, the general rule seems to be "make them as one-dimensional as possible".