Chapter 2 sets out to demonstrate the implications of racial identity in the conflict between the US and Japan during the Second World War. This war was characterized by vicious animosity especially between Americans and Japanese. Dower argues that the hatred between the two led to the escalation of racial intolerance as each side sought to defeat the other. 1 He observes that while the war escalated the racial denigration of the Japanese people, it did not initiate them. These racist thoughts were a part of the European and American consciousness and the war simply brought them to the surface. Dower begins by observing how flawed the present day American memory of the War is. 2 While Americans today view Nazi Germans as the most terrible participants in World War II, the truth is that Americans viewed the Japanese as the most atrocious enemy during the war. The Japanese were seen as evil and Western academics and journalists reinforced this perception through their works. The hatred for the Japanese led to the arrest of Japanese Americans during the war. The Japanese were viewed differently from their wartime allies, the Germans, due to their race. Japanese aggression was seen as an attack on white supremacy and this led to the vicious reaction by the US. The popular press presented the entire nation as inherently evil and this fostered deep hatred for the Japanese. The US engaged in efforts to dehumanize the Japanese as the war efforts continued. The Japanese were viewed as vermin to be exterminated, an attitude that led to both military and civilian Japanese facing attacks from the US. Dower notes that dehumanization during war leads to appalling consequences since when the enemy is viewed as vermin, there is no moral inhibition to exterminating him. 3 Dehumanization served as stimulus for the US troops to annihilate the Japanese enemy. Popular press also represented the Japanese as apes and monkeys. However, this demeaning racial stereotype by the west was not confined to the Japanese since the same image of the monkey had been used in reference to Negroes and various Central American peoples. Dower reveals that representing the Japanese as apes demonstrated the western mindset that the Oriental race represented a lower stage of evolution compared to the Caucasian. 4 Racism was not only confined to the Western forces since it also shaped the Japanese perception of self and others. Japans ability to resist Western Colonialism in the 19th century made her regard herself as superior to the weaker nations that had fallen prey to the West. 5 This arrogant and contemptuous attitude led to the expansionist trend against her Asian neighbors. Dower reveals that racial revenge was the motivation behind many atrocities carried out against white people in Asia. 6 The Japanese viewed all the other people as outsiders and this justified the brutal behavior they meted out to them. Mythohistory, which depicted the divine descent of the Japanese people, was used to bolster the alleged superiority of the Japanese people. Such notions gave rise to the concept of blood nationalism that purity of the race. By proclaiming themselves as the pure race, the Japanese cast others as inferior. 7 The Japanese also dehumanized the Americans by referring to them as the “Devilish Anglo-America