It's crazy how the western perception of Japan went from this too kawaii anime girls.
>>83463042Actually, it flipflopped between those two. Before that you had a "wow their art is so sugoii" moment when artists like van Gogh replicated them. Actually, their cruel nature was only talked about during ww2. Before that they were no threat, and even when the chinese war happened, westerners would cheer for the Japanese.
several generations, puppet governments and a very deliberate "this is our strong ally against communism" campaign... yeah
>>83463042>>83463063yeah before ww2 orientalists loved japan
>>83463063It's interesting reading about how anti-segregationist like W.E.B Dubois felt about the Japanese. At least in Dubois case, he thought they were swell for kicking Russia's ass in one war. and didn't care about their expansion in Asia because 'it was an Asian issue' and he thought it was better for China than being carved up by the western powers.
Ot's funny that Hirohito died in 1989, he lived long enough to see Japan go from empire to anime.
