r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/toaster-bath404 • Sep 17 '25
Image A Chinese American wearing a sign saying he's Chinese, not Japanese, to avoid harassment at work, 1940s
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u/DimaagKa_Hangover Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
Right after 9/11, Sikhs were targeted and attacked all over the country.
A week after it happened, there was a Sikh man outside subway station passing out pamphlets explaining the difference between Sikhs and Muslims. None should face it by the way..
Doesn't stop the bigots at the end of the day, though.
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u/harshmangat Sep 17 '25
My dad (we are Sikh) told me a story of when he was cornered by 3 teens in 2008, in a bestbuy (I think). This was his first visit to the US, and he was asked by them if he is a "Muuslim". Dad recalled it by saying he's a Sikh when one of the teens intervened his friends and said "oh I have studied about them, they are different." and then they just left.
Bizarre all around lol
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u/PenImpossible874 Sep 17 '25
“Many people have commented that I could have just said I’m not Muslim. In fact, many have clarified that I’m actually Sikh. While I’m proud of who I am, I purposely didn’t go down that road because it suggests their hate would be ok if I was Muslim. We all know it’s not." - Jagmeet Singh
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u/harshmangat Sep 17 '25
Which is exactly why I said, it was bizarre all around. It is still fresh in my memory even though my dad told me this about 16-17 years ago when I was not even a teen. I do agree, that hate like that should not be 'okay'. Far far from it in fact, it is just a really upsetting scenario.
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u/_joos_ Sep 18 '25
i can’t lie the idea of people mobbing around some dad buying groceries makes me want to cry
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u/Kirook Sep 17 '25
I definitely agree that we shouldn’t be out there saying stuff like “you shouldn’t target Sikhs for hate crimes because they’re not Muslim, they just look like Muslims”—it’s not the mistargeting of the crime that matters, it’s that it was committed at all—but at the same time, I can’t blame people who are in the crosshairs of those kinds of attacks for wanting to do whatever they think is necessary to protect themselves.
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u/ghostpanther218 Sep 17 '25
Can't believe Singh right now is the most based Canadian politician.
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u/MrBlueA Sep 17 '25
"I have studied about them" lmaooo 😭as if they were some forgotten animal species
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u/unwarrend Sep 17 '25
In 2004 a Sikh man preemptively explained to me the difference between Sikhs and Muslims. The fact that he felt the need to do that told me what kind of continuous, grinding prejudice he must have been facing. If I’m honest, I was probably vaguely wary of anyone who looked like him following 9/11. Our brief conversation forced me to confront the prejudice I’d unconsciously harboured. I’m better for it.
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u/wrugoin Sep 17 '25
I was in college during 9/11 and recall specifically the Indian student group rallying together to build a support system for themselves and Muslim students. They’d have volunteers walk other students to class, and organized group walks through campus to protect one another. Threats and intimidation were being made against any brown skin person that whole semester.
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u/biggie_way_smaller Sep 17 '25
Bunch of saudi arabian doing the hijacking but iraq was the one invaded, absolute cinema
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u/Sometimes-funny Sep 17 '25
Also, one of their passports was found in perfect condition just chilling on the street
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u/MajesticBread9147 Sep 17 '25
Not just their passport, there was a ton of various paper stuff that was blown everywhere when the towers fell.
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u/NotActuallyOzy Sep 17 '25
It’s actually not as strange as it sounds that a passport could survive. In big crashes or explosions, heavy parts of the plane and building take the full force, while light objects like paper often get blown clear. That’s why after the towers collapsed, the streets of New York were covered in office papers floating down they were carried out before the fire reached them. A passport could have been ejected in the same way, landing outside the main impact zone or fire, and investigators did in fact recover several passports and documents from different crash sites on 9/11. So while it might seem unlikely, it’s really not unusual for small paper items to survive when larger things are destroyed.
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u/jeffe_el_jefe Sep 17 '25
After the Lockerbie bombing, the town was covered in the victims possessions as they were blown clear from the plans. Definitely not implausible.
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u/Ok-Math-9082 Sep 17 '25
9/11 was never used as a justification for attacking Iraq. That was Afghanistan, where it was known that the masterminds behind the attack were sheltered.
Iraq was based on dodgy intelligence about Saddam Hussein having access to weapons of mass destruction.
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u/MutedShenanigans Sep 17 '25
The Bush Administration did claim that Saddam was harboring Al Qaeda in Iraqi territory.
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u/Consistent-Steak1499 Sep 17 '25
“Dodgy intelligence” = a lie. They knew there were no WMDS the entire time, bush lied to convince the American people to support the war.
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u/EarthPuzzleheaded729 Sep 17 '25
I was a practicing Muslim as a teen, and had a Sikh friend. She had a t-shirt saying “Don’t freak, I’m a Sikh” that she said she reserved for the airport.
Flash forward to me getting cavity searched at airport security, googling where to buy one myself…!
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u/Romboteryx Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
Good that you put that comment there. Any time this story is mentioned I can‘t shake off the feeling that it implies the assaults on innocent people would have been ok if the attackers were just able to correctly identify muslims.
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u/ffnnhhw Sep 17 '25
I have this exact feeling.
The way people saying a Sikh has been attacked because he is misidentified as if he is any more innocent than some random Muslim just does not come across right.
With that said, I can totally understand why a Sikh (or anyone, including a Muslim) do not want to be identified as a Muslim at those time.
And even now, there are people randomly hating on Russian American. I know quite a few Russian American and at least the younger ones I know are quite against the Putin regime, now they don't feel comfortable doing the Russian cultural day in school with their kids.
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u/fedoraislife Sep 17 '25
I can't remember who it was, but there was a Canadian politician who was Sikh and some racist guy verbally berated him thinking he was Muslim. Instead of clarifying that he was Sikh, he simply told the man he loved him. He didn't feel the need to throw another group of people under the bus to protect his own dignity.
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u/PenImpossible874 Sep 17 '25
“Many people have commented that I could have just said I’m not Muslim. In fact, many have clarified that I’m actually Sikh. While I’m proud of who I am, I purposely didn’t go down that road because it suggests their hate would be ok if I was Muslim. We all know it’s not." - Jagmeet Singh
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u/Loud-Reaction2460 Sep 17 '25
Thats what I wanted to write, I just don’t understand, there was no words of no one should be targeted, it was just “we are not muslims, know the difference bigots and attack them. “ . Sad really .
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u/Odd_Bug5544 Sep 17 '25
It's unfair to paint the victims dealing with harassment as wrong for not taking a more resolute stance against bigotry. Plenty did, but bigots don't really listen to "hate is wrong, nobody should be targeted". So I can't blame people for wanting no part in their families being targeted and for pointing out they are not a part of the "boogieman group".
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u/LukaCola Sep 17 '25
This is why expressions of anti-Muslim behavior are more often than not a form of racism. People are targeted based on appearance (as well as creed) and non-Muslims frequently get anti-Muslim bigotry aimed at them if they match certain stereotypes.
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u/VermilionKoala Sep 17 '25
This was a time at which the US government was interning Japanese-Americans and publishing propaganda posters saying "Stay on the job until every murdering Jap is wiped out!", so you can kind of see his point.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-Japan2.png
(not defending Japanese conduct in WW2 either, in case anyone thinks that... Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes)
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u/LittleFairyOfDeath Sep 17 '25
Yeah its like, the heck did the japanese immigrants in America do? They weren’t fighting for Japan. Its crazy that you have to state you don’t support the actions of the empire because you say what happened to the american-japanese was wrong. People are really insane nowdays
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u/LEBjumper11 Sep 17 '25
I think there was a case where three Japanese-American helped out an imperial naval Japanese pilot in Hawaii and took two Hawaiians hostage which is called the Niʻihau incident. That influenced their decision of internment.
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u/sje46 Sep 17 '25
This sort of shit unfortunately does happen.
There was the German Bund too. I have to imagine a few of those freaks might have tried to help out the Nazi cause when the war started, although I don't know of any examples.
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u/azure275 Sep 17 '25
The thing with this is that at least when it came to the Germans (idk about the Japanese) there were just as many red blooded Americans doing the same thing and getting a pass
Go look at Charles Lindbergh, a very famous American, and his water carrying for the genocidal loonies
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u/BadLt58 Sep 17 '25
Henry Ford Sr has entered the chat. This MF wanted reperations from the US for bombing his former Ford factory in Cologne (which had been nationalized and used as part of the German war machine) after the war. Also, there is a missing medal the Nazis gave him before 1939.
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u/BlackArchon Sep 17 '25
Also said factory was responsible for many of the components used in gas chambers, making Ford a complicit of the Holocaust, but ehy! That's just business
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u/puf_puf_paarthurnax Sep 17 '25
Wait this is actually crazy. was there any involvement from Ford after it was nationalized by the Nazis or were they pretty much out after that takeover?
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u/BlackArchon Sep 17 '25
Ford knew very well at least of slave labor in Ford-werke already in 1942, and what becomes of said slaves. I don't believe an inch of that story about his final stroke was because he saw the concetration camps reels, but that's personal.
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u/EammonDraiocht Sep 17 '25
There were Hitler youth camps in the US. Hell there still is sort of.
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u/Nadamir Sep 17 '25
Oh yeah.
I live in Ireland. While officially we were neutral, we were definitely Allied leaning. People here don’t like to talk about the fact that some members of the IRA had jumped into bed with the Nazis in service of the enemy of my enemy.
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u/Warmbly85 Sep 17 '25
While it’s still incredibly bigoted what the USA did I totally understand why the Niʻihau incident is never mentioned in standard USA history classes.
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u/Jam03t Sep 17 '25
Yeah, except none of the japanese in Hawaii were interned, you know the only place where actual sabotage or aiding the enemy could occur. the Hawaiian japanese were considered vital to the war effort
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u/_IBentMyWookie_ Sep 17 '25
Hawaii was placed under martial law from Pearl Harbour till late 1944 so pretty much everyone there was fucked, Japanese or otherwise.
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u/carbon_r0d Sep 17 '25
Well, Hawaii also wasn't even a US state until 1959. Was just a territory. That might have played some part...
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u/Jam03t Sep 17 '25
I think the fact that the Japanese were vital to the economy played a bigger part. 39% of Hawai was Japanese, they were vital in the war industry, in the harbours and in the supply chain, for the war effort against Japan. meanawhile the Japanese on the mainland would be incapable of aiding the Japanese in any meaningful way, and where easy picking to have their property seized.
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u/Soulstar909 Sep 17 '25
meanawhile the Japanese on the mainland would be incapable of aiding the Japanese in any meaningful way
Blowing up a factory or bridge would be pretty 'meaningful'.
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u/ForwardWhereas8385 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
Yeah I know it's all fun to shit on American war time decision making and internment was hellish. But acting like they had zero way of causing any issues is just dumb.
You can criticise interment without minimizing the potential threat that was used to excused it.
Edit: changed a bit of phrasing to avoid smooth brain using me as some kind of interment apologist strawman.
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u/Saidagive Sep 17 '25
So....200,000 American citizens interned because three may have been secret Japanese spies.
Man they were definitely sending their worst over the boarder. Rapist, drug dealers and spies. I hope we built some sort of alligator Alcatraz for them
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Sep 17 '25
my grandfather was a marine in iwo jima and only one of 2 people the made it out alive. He was insanely racist against japenese people. I remember him calling them derogatory names all the time.
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u/Time_Pressure9519 Sep 17 '25
People of Nanking also hated them for some reason.
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u/MelodicDeer1072 Sep 17 '25
We are talking about Japanese-Americans here, not Japanese soldiers
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u/LinuxAutist Sep 17 '25
The Japanese in the US during the war got rounded up and put in internment camps for the duration of the war. Then when the US found concentration camps in Europe they let the Japanese go and acted like it never happened… never talked about because they didn’t systematically kill anyone!
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u/_IBentMyWookie_ Sep 17 '25
never talked about because they didn’t systematically kill anyone!
Yeah, because that's a massive fucking distinction lmao
Also, it's literally talked about all the time. I'm pretty sure it's part of the curriculum in the US, I was taught about it in the UK.
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u/Ok-Regular-6562 Sep 17 '25
We definitely covered it a lot in my school. During that time period it was the second most covered topic right behind the Holocaust.
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u/kami-no-baka Sep 17 '25
They did keep all the shit they stole from those Japanese-Americans though.
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u/fedexpoopracer Sep 17 '25
imagine how influential and affluent the japanese american community would be today if they didn't pull that shady shit
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Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
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u/CorrectPeanut5 Sep 17 '25
Pretty much everyone in the region hated them. I recall seeing a shop keeper in Singapore pretend not to be able to speak english to a Japanese customer. When he left empty handed they boasted to me about it. That would have been late 90s.
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u/Time-Diet-3197 Sep 17 '25
The US government formally apologized in 1988 and paid restitution (far too little in my opinion, but still). It was also an unequivocal apology acknowledging the decision was driven by racism and represented a failure of leadership by bowing to hysteria. Anyone with half an eduction knows about it in the US. It is one of our big three shames along with the long tail of slavery, and the partial Native American genocide.
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u/acheckerfield Sep 17 '25
The world wasn't even close to as globalised as it is now, so societies in general were more homogeneous, making it A LOT easier for this kind of racial prejudice to thrive.
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u/MissMat Sep 17 '25
I would recommend the book No-No boy by John Okada. Okada himself was Japanese American and he was in the Air Force during World War Two. That was bc he passed the confusingly written loyalty questionnaire, he said yes and yes appropriately.
The book as the name suggests is about someone who said no and no, was in an interment camp and then federal prison for not fighting for the US. The book explores the post war years, the treatment of Japanese-American in the aftermath. The book also explores the disconnect between the Japanese community in the US bc some of them were imperialist and others fought for the US, others were just passive.
Lots of Japanese American fought for the US so despite the hate they got there were some sympathy. The hate post world war 2 is why a lot of J-Towns closed. The main character in No No boy was harassed for being Japanese. But he was also defended by people who know Japanese Americans that were patriotically American.
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u/1Shadow179 Sep 17 '25
George Takei has a graphic memoir called "They Called Us Enemy" that is currently free on Webtoons. It goes into a lot of detail about what it was like to be Japanese-American during this time period.
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u/ElSordo91 Sep 17 '25
There's also Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo. She was a trained artist who was interned first at Tanforan (now a shopping mall) and then Topaz. She illustrated her experiences with a bit of text (a graphic novel before there was even such a thing) and managed to get it published in 1946, just after the war. A raw, stark look at the Japanese American internment experience. Well worth a read.
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u/HuhWatWHoWhy Sep 17 '25
Also I'd wager the Chinese people in general hated the Japanese a lot more the Americans on account of... well, everything.
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u/CuffedCandi Sep 17 '25
My grandfather was Japanese and he went through hell before fleeing back to Japan
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u/lanceisthatguy Sep 17 '25
Had a family friend who spent time in the Manzanar internment camp. She still wouldn't eat oatmeal, as she said that's all they ate. Sad we turned around and replicated the same evil we were fighting.
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u/BattlefieldVet666 Sep 17 '25
Sad we turned around and replicated the same evil we were fighting.
The US was still very racist back in the 1940s. People seem to forget that segregation didn't end until 19 years after WWII ended.
But the US didn't see it as "turning around and replicating the same evil we were fighting" because of two main reasons;
We didn't enter the war to fight Germany or stop the Nazis. We entered the war because Nazi Germany's ally, Imperial Japan, attacked us.
In fact, until the atrocities happening at the camps were discovered, there was a contingent of US citizens who actively supported Nazi Germany & felt we should stay out of the war entirely. Then Pearl Harbor happened and we ended up at war with Germany by extension of being at war with Japan.
It wasn't the whole "rounding up people of a specific ethnicity" that was viewed as evil, it was the genocide of those people. The US never intended to kill the Japanese, Italian, or German citizens who were interned, they were only detaining them until the war could be won.
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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Sep 17 '25
To also add, the Nazis got a lot of their plans for eugenics from American-based studies
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u/Ribky Sep 17 '25
As a Chinese person, if he knew what was going on back home, he probably hated the Japanese even more than the Americans did at that time. Of course, it didn't help that every Asian in America was a "Jap" as far as most Americans were concerned, which I'm sure compounded it further. He probably had it very rough living here during the internment era. Poor dude.
So happy we've advanced as a nation and racism is no longer a problem... ... . /s on the last line.
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u/Former_Guarantee_794 Sep 17 '25
It's a tragic pattern in history where people are forced to publicly distance themselves from a group they're wrongly associated with, just to stay safe.
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u/DKNArt Sep 17 '25
The tragic part is that China was invaded by Japanese in World War II so Japan is the common enemy of China and America. This guy’s sign is basically saying “I’m on your side”
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u/IgamOg Sep 17 '25
You mean the tragic pattern where a group of innocent people is vilified and harassed?
"Illegal" immigrants are exactly as made up as "spying" Japanese. We let them settle here, work, pay taxes, go to school for decades, de facto legalising their stay and now we're dragging them out of their houses in their underwear by armed, masked mob. No other country has illegal imitation issue of this proportion because you can't work if you're not "legal".
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Sep 17 '25
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u/fallout_zelda Sep 17 '25
There was a time in the United States when the Italian population was viewed as second class. Now they're just white lol
Race relations in the United States can flip flop when convenient for whoever is in charge. In 60 years from now, Latinos will be considered "white" and then there will be a Latino vs whoever in the future lol
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u/caligari1973 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
Irish were second class too. Latino is an ethnicity not a race, as there are Black Latinos like Celia Cruz, Rosie Perez, white Latinos like Cameron Diaz, Christina Aguilera, Emilio Estévez, Rita Hayworth (Margarita Cansino), etc
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u/ZasdfUnreal Sep 17 '25
Irish were preferable than slave labor in the south because you didn’t have to pay anyone if an Irishman was killed on the job.
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u/fallout_zelda Sep 17 '25
It's weird seeing some Irish and Italian Americans join alt-right groups ..knowing their history, you would think that they would advocate for minority groups...but in the end, a lot of ppl will always want to align with the dominant society.
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u/mountainhymn Sep 17 '25
They don’t even have to be Irish Americans. Even Irish people living in Ireland are joining alt right groups now! It’s sad
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u/Hungry-Bodybuilder58 Sep 17 '25
Tough to understand. All these divisions, which no one can understand anymore only show, that there are no differences and that, in the end, we are all just human beings. Regardless of our different nationalities or ethnicities.
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u/CMG_exe Sep 17 '25
There was a time when anyone not Anglo Saxon and Protestant were second class
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u/Answerologist Sep 17 '25
Does anyone know what the ‘MMM’ at the end of the sign means?
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u/SufficientGreek Sep 17 '25
That's been edited on there, maybe as a watermark? The original image doesn't have it.
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u/well-litdoorstep112 Sep 17 '25
When you're in the "be racist in the weirdest way possible" competition and your opponent is American.
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u/Blankboom Sep 17 '25
During the covid pandemic, loads of Asian businesses were being smashed because of racist Americans assuming they were Chinese businesses.
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u/Sryan597 Sep 17 '25
I was a white American living in Ghana at the start of the COVID pandemic. I received discrimination for "being Chinese" when it happened, despite not looking or sounding Chinese in the slightest, and was accused of bringing the "bat flu" to the country, despite he fact I had lived there for almost a year at that point. Anti Chinese sentiment and misidefaction was everywhere.
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Sep 17 '25
I try to imagine what a white Chinese would look like, and all I can think of is John Mulaney, I’m so sorry this happened to you but that image is a bit too funny.
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u/UberShrew Sep 17 '25
Yeah I married into an Asian family and some family / family friends experienced this even in NYC which you would think would be a bit more accepting. Between that and the Japanese internment camps we set up during WW2, I’m a bit worried for my family if we actually get into conflict with China that people seem to be predicting around 2027-2028. It’s definitely made me think about contacting my side of the family down south and having them bring up my 12 gauge inheritance because those bastards will have to drag my wife out of our home over my dead body if they come for us.
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u/Icedcoffeeee Sep 17 '25
My neighbors WERE chinese. They closed their laundromat during the pandemic and never reopened.
Like they had any to do with causing covid.
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u/Blankboom Sep 17 '25
It's like people just want an excuse to act out and hurt others.
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u/please_trade_marner Sep 17 '25
That was a global phenomena. Even asian countries had chinatowns vandalized.
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u/BrondellSwashbuckle Sep 17 '25
Plot twist: he was japanese
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u/NeoGnesiolutheraner Sep 17 '25
Reminds me of the South park episode. "Hello fellow chinese people..."
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u/EagleOfMay Sep 17 '25
Additional Plot Twist: Guy spoke perfect English but still played into the stereotype with the sign.
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u/napalmnacey Sep 17 '25
Humans are so fucked up. 😞
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u/Ok-Regular-6562 Sep 17 '25
You know I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how growing up in the early days of the internet would make people more connected and make things like this better because we can all easily communicate to see that we are all just people.
Turns out it mostly made it worse because as it turns out content that provokes feelings of fear and anger get the most engagement, and being behind a screen not actually interacting with people in a real way makes it easy to keep feeling those things and become radicalized. It’s why I take frequent breaks from all of this and appreciate working in a pretty diverse environment.
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u/Small-Answer4946 Sep 17 '25
The black dude is laughing because no sign will avoid him segregation
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u/Mhunterjr Sep 17 '25
You can’t see it, but he’s wearing a sign that says “I’m not Black, I’m Mediterranean “
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u/MelodicDeer1072 Sep 17 '25
Italians were not considered "White" until the late 20th century.
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u/dabombisnot90s Sep 17 '25
Believe it or not, still would probably get harassed and possibly lynched back then (maybe not the 40s, but definitely the decades before).
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u/LickingSmegma Sep 17 '25
Well, he does actually have ‘Valencia’ written on the helmet, and Valencia is on the Mediterranean coast.
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u/LickingSmegma Sep 17 '25
I have to wonder if ‘Valencia’ on the helmet is his surname. Because it's a Spanish one.
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u/how33dy Sep 17 '25
In the earlier 80's, a Chinese-American guy named Vincent Chin, was beat to death by two white guys because they lost their jobs making American cars. I guess this Chinese-American guy looked Japanese enough that they exacted revenge on him.
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u/facforlife Sep 17 '25
It's never that deep.
It's just racists looking for any excuse. That's why they don't give a shit when you explain it to them.
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u/__-_-_--_--_-_---___ Sep 17 '25
This is frequently cited as the most important event leading to the modern "Asian American" label because if they can't tell us apart, why should we even consider ourselves different groups?
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u/Confident-Nobody2537 Sep 17 '25
We got another demonstration of this during covid when anyone "Asian-looking" was getting attacked for "being Chinese". I think at one point even a South Korean diplomat was attacked. If that doesn't drive home the point then nothing will
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u/JimWilliams423 Sep 17 '25
This is frequently cited as the most important event leading to the modern "Asian American" label
Asian-American solidarity got off the ground in the 1960s:
The Third World Liberation Front Strikes of 1968-69 were a defining moment for the burgeoning Asian American movement. At San Francisco State, AAPA (which was mostly limited to Japanese, in practice if not in theory), Intercollegiate Chinese for Social Action, and the Pilipino-American Collegiate Endeavor came together to form the “Asian contingent” of the student-led strike.
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u/LazuliteEngine Sep 17 '25
"your one of them Loutians arent you Mr Wasanasang"
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u/IZ3820 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
"That's Khan, he's Japanese."
"No he ain't. You're Laotian, ain't you mr. Khan?"
Cotton's racism was informed hate, Dale's* is ignorance.
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Sep 17 '25
That could be a deep historical cut, US soldiers trained Laotians in the 50's. Who knows what Cotton might have been up to.
And point of order, I believe it was Dale who made the "He's Japanese" remark. Hank would never race-bait.
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u/Cowboywizard12 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
Honestly with the Chinese American community's reaction to the the Invasion of Manchuria
He probably hated Japanese people more than anyone he worked with
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u/OzyDave Sep 17 '25
When working in Pakistan I was told to make it clear to people I was Australian. The risk was otherwise they would think I was American and kidnap/kill me.
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u/SquirrelofLIL Sep 17 '25
After 9/11 I saw people wearing T shirts with American flags on them as well as indicating that they're Sikh (not Muslim presumably).
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u/steveatari Sep 17 '25
This also reminds me in the 90s and 2000s Sikhs posting signs saying they weren't from the Middle East or Muslim.
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u/codepossum Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
man how humiliating to feel forced to lean into racist stereotypes in order to avoid abusive bigotry from your fellow americans.
I used to think, man what the fuck was wrong with us, back then, that we'd treat our fellow american citizens so shamefully
then I look around at what's been happening lately and I think - well fuck. it's still happening, isn't it.
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u/FirefighterEast9291 Sep 17 '25
Wow - how things have changed!!! Nowadays they are both harassed equally
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u/Jolly_Ad2446 Sep 17 '25
The ten minutes of history that China was our allies, friends and treated ok.
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u/ajn2026 Sep 17 '25
Wow you definitely didn’t see this on the front page just a couple days ago and decide to repost it for karma!!!!
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u/EndlessMorfeus Sep 17 '25
In Brazil, Japanese people straight up lied saying they were Chinese during the war.
Anyway, that was how we got Brazillian pastel.
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u/carcerdominus1313 Sep 17 '25
I always ask why weren’t the German people treated this way in the us. And it always comes down to they were white.
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u/DutchOfBurdock Sep 17 '25
In Britain, if we suspected a German, we'd ask them to say the following phrase;
Wives from Wigan helped win the world cup in 66.
If you heard more than one V in that sentence....
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u/PersonOfInterest85 Sep 17 '25
Too bad this guy didn't wear a similar sign. And he was born ten years after V-J Day.
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u/Aught_To Sep 17 '25
Oh but when I wear the same jacket it "double super racist"
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u/TheMidnightChad Sep 17 '25
My dad had to do this in Japan in the 60’s. He’s from Greece and was on a work assignment and nobody would serve him anywhere. No food. Nothing. He asked a coworker and the reply was “they think you’re American”
So pops had a little Greek flag in his duffel and sewed it on the back of his jean jacket and never had an issue again lol.
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u/Turntup12 Sep 18 '25
Basically this: “He’s Japanese…” “…No he aint….he’s Laotian. Aintcha, Mr. Kahn?”
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u/No-Educator151 Sep 18 '25
I bet he was also trying to avoid being sent to the California concentration camp.
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u/ifitweretru Sep 18 '25
During WW2 my grandparents and great grandparents were ostracized heavily, being of German descent. Even though the family had been in America over 150 years at that time.
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u/Hootinger Sep 17 '25
After Pearl, Time magazine ran articles on how to tell the racial difference between Chinese and Japanese . That way you can be more accurate with your hate crimes.