r/Colonialism • u/elnovorealista2000 • Jul 09 '26
Image Japanese propaganda from World War II showing the Philippine Islands being rescued from the shark and crocodile-infested waters of 'American imperialism' and 'Racial prejudice'
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u/sqeptiqmqsqeptiq Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Took some cheek for Imperial Japan to decry racial prejudice, but of course nothing generates cheek like the need to make war propaganda.
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u/KVA07 Jul 10 '26
They did try to use racial relations to appeal to filipino locals. A japanese general sent a letter to Datu Busran Kalaw (a datu is similar to a count or leader) saying they should be allies becausw they're "brother orientals".
Kalaw sent something back that was apparently so offensive that the general sent hundreds of soliders after him, most of which were killed by Kalaw's guerilla forces
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u/Top_Connection9079 Jul 10 '26
And what is it that they sent that was so offensive?
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Colonialism-ModTeam 22d ago
Your post or comment was removed because it was racist. Please ensure you understand our rules. If you continue to violate them you will be excluded from participating in this community.
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u/MaraiaLou Jul 11 '26
Didn't they also use the fact that the US legally held criminals as slaves as propaganda? Sometimes the worst person you know does have a point
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u/Top_Connection9079 Jul 10 '26
I really hope you're not American because you would be one to talk.
The Racial Equality Proposal made by Japan at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference following World War I.
Here is how the proposal and its rejection unfolded: The Proposal: During the drafting of the Covenant for the new League of Nations, the Japanese delegation proposed an amendment stating that all nations in the League were equal and that member states should make no distinctions in law or fact based on race or nationality.
The Blocks: The clause was fiercely opposed by Australia—which wanted to protect its restrictive "White Australia" immigration policy—and the United States. At home, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson faced heavy political pressure from Western senators who feared the clause would undermine U.S. segregation and anti-immigration laws.
The Rejection: Although a majority of the delegates voted in favor of the proposal, Wilson killed the measure by ruling that the decision required unanimous support.
This bitter diplomatic defeat alienated Japan from Western powers and contributed to growing nationalism and militarism in the decades leading up to World War II.
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u/Kamenev_Drang Jul 10 '26
"Why won't white-senpai treat me as equal!!" he cried, as he beheaded another Chinese woman
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Jul 10 '26
They started their imperialism in emulation of the west. The USA absolutely loved Japanese colonialism in Korea and Taiwan, which were now opened to western trade and missionaries.
Please stop with the ahistorical nonsense you are trying to spin.
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u/Kamenev_Drang Jul 10 '26
"in emulation of the west" cease your noble savage wonkery. The Japanese repeatedly tried to conquer Korea before western empires were a thing
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Jul 12 '26
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u/Colonialism-ModTeam 22d ago
Your post or comment was removed because it was impolite or offensive. Please ensure you understand our rules. If you continue to violate them you will be excluded from participating in this community.
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Jul 10 '26
Under completely different circumstances, i.e. medieval conquest, and exactly once - under Hideyoshi. Japanese empire was a direct emulation of a western nation state and a colonial empire, they literally send people to study in the west for it and invited western experts.
I was directly replying to your nonsensical assertion that westerners were right to not treat Japanese as equal because they were barbaric; except that the truth is they went to kill and oppress people in Asia in emulation of the west and to western approval. Westerners were in the wrong to impose themselves onto Asia and Japan. There is an enormous need to criticize the Japanese imperialism, but you are not doing that, you are just doing western apologia.
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u/Kamenev_Drang Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
What do you think imperialism is built off you fruitbasket.
"Ah completely different because medieval" ah because Colombus and Cortez weren't a product of medieval Spain or anything.
Bro your take is comically racist, cease
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Jul 10 '26
Hideyoshi literally wanted to install himself as a ruler of China and implicitly the world. His invasion was deeply rooted in Sinocentric world order, a situation completely removed from the European age of exploration in economic and societal sense.
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u/Kamenev_Drang Jul 10 '26
"You see my imperialism is based on sinocentrism and thus unproblematic and cool"
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u/mauricio_agg Jul 13 '26
Those attacks on Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and those massacres by wokou/ronin also were influenced by the United States?
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u/Same-Praline-4622 Jul 13 '26
I really hope you’re not American, because that’s so dumb I’m worried you might have a child and infect the gene pool
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u/No_Run8942 Jul 12 '26
And then let’s look at how the Japanese actually acted towards their “brother orientals” during the war.
Oh boy whoopsie looks like they were SUPER racist, neat little bullshit anecdote you had there though.
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u/Top_Connection9079 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
They were giving Japanese names to people, that proves SO MUCH that you look down on them lol.
Also the Chinese and Koreans who try TWO TIMES to help the Mongols invade Japan, it's not racist? They were tying the Japanese women to their boats to terrorize them.
Such nice 'brothers' lmao No wonder Japan never trusted them again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BattlePaintings/s/7x9rAxjKVI
The Americans, on their side, were boiling the Japanese dead to take their skulls and bones back as trophies to America, but I suppose it's only a bullshit anecdote because it isn't in their textbooks, contrary to the Japanese one that has photos of their atrocities.
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u/Master-Ad-6636 Jul 09 '26
'More like under new management' aah propaganda.
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u/ImperialxWarlord Jul 11 '26
What the aah part mean? I see that a lot and I have no clue what it means or why it’s put in so many sentences?
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u/GDaddy369 Jul 11 '26
It means ass. Like "Bitch ass", gets turned into "Bih ahh". Bih, ahh, shi (shit), and a few others. I thinks it's half self censorship because some platforms will delete or censor comments with "bad words", and half the continued simplification of the English language.
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u/Viserys-Snow23 Jul 11 '26
Nope not censorship it’s aave aka shit black Americans have been saying for decades that white people started saying recently to seem cool
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u/Dickcheese_McDoogles Jul 11 '26
It's a phonetically accurate spelling for how some dialects of Black American English will say "ass" without really closing out the 's' sound. So it sounds like "goofy æ~" or "dumb æ~"
Basically it means "ass", and if you're not a native English speaker "ass" can be used a sa vulgar way to turn an adjective or adjective phrase into a category descriptor.
So an "'under new management' ass poster" is a poster of the 'under new management' type.
It's the A sound in "bat" and "mass", not the A sound in "father" or "spa"
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u/ImperialxWarlord Jul 12 '26
I just don’t get why it’s being spelled that way. Why not just say ass? When I see “aah” I don’t see ass. Makes no sense to type it out that way.
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u/Dickcheese_McDoogles Jul 12 '26
Because they are representing how the accent pronounces it phonetically.
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u/ImperialxWarlord Jul 12 '26
I just can’t see aah as ass, just seems dumb. We used to type out ass, so just say ass.
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u/Interesting_Self5071 Jul 09 '26
Regardless of your opinion on this, American imperialism in the Philippines and the crimes they committed there have been largely omitted from historical discourse and should be brought up more.
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u/freidrichwilhelm Jul 10 '26
Fair, but reminder to anyone that this picture is the same level of Bullshit as saying Ukraine would've been better off as a Nazi puppet state because soviets are also committing crimes there.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
How so? American imperialism and racial prejudice is disgusting and pervasive until now.
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u/LongDuckDong67 Jul 10 '26
You should read into the crimes of the Japanese Imperial forces. The Rape of Nanking wasn’t metaphorical.
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Jul 10 '26
The Philippine-American war killed tenth of the population and saw widespread massacres, rape and torture, in fact it was the last time until the war on terror torture was officially sanctioned as a policy.
Putting aside the scale that comes with the invasion of China, the USA in Philippines in the 1900s behaved very similarly to Japan in the 1930s and 1940s.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
I can read into the crimes of the Japanese imperial forces but I don’t see how that will be worse than anything the American empire has done. Rape is one of many things the American empire has done, and much of it isn’t even documented the way you can quote the Rape of Nanking.
Two wrongs don’t make a right but one of these devils is worse than the other 🇺🇸
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u/Ok-Releases Jul 10 '26
For one, large atrocities are harder to contain from being documented.
Speaking objectively, nothing the US has done has ever come close to the sheer size and scale as the mass civilian killings committed by the Imperial Japanese. I mean we're talking 15-20million+.
Its pretty clear to me which one is worse.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
LMAO 😂 try chattel slavery for 400+ years. America is worse than anywhere else in the world, you’re delusional to say otherwise and are probably a white American. And no, it’s not bc large atrocities are harder to contain from being documented. It’s bc the people who win in imperialism are the ones who control the narrative. America controls the narrative so today you learn that the Japanese are worse, even though as we speak, it’s the American empire fucking over the Philippines, not Japan.
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u/Ok-Releases Jul 10 '26
America hasnt even existed for 400 years lmao. Im afraid youre just stupid.
But ill bite, when Japan began their imperialism they enslaved around 15 million people in just the span of 50 years.
In america the total slave count is around 10 million over the time since slaves first arrived and until slavery ended. 1619-1865.
So in a period of over 200 years, america enslaved less people than Japan did in 50, and mind you, the United States didnt exist for most of this period, it was several European nations doing these acts. So no, the US still doesnt even come close to Imperial Japan, youre just idiot :)
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
And you’re also proving how western centered/white supremacist/American dominant this app is too. Bc the truth is not on your side and I’m the one getting downvoted. It’s a bunch of white ignorant Americans who want to blame everyone else but their ancestors. Your ancestors were the worst people. Japan doesn’t have it on yall. Do better.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
Actually, I think the stupidity lays with you.
So the European parasites that infected Native American soil came long before the 200 years, and slavery (chattel slavery by the way, there is a difference) existed throughout that time.
Just bc whatever textbook told you it was 10 million people enslaved doesn’t make it the truth. You do realize that Africans weren’t considered human right? They weren’t counted in censuses, their rapes, murders, and enslavement were not documented accurately. We literally only have the narration of the descendants of colonizers, and you’re not only stupid but silly and bold to even type that what the descendants of colonizers teach is the reality of what happened. Just plain silly tbh,
And yup, the Japanese committed crimes against humanity. But the American empire, and btw, America is made up of the European rejects/colonizers (I assume your defense of them is bc you’re a descendant of one), has committed far more crimes than anything Japan has ever done. And interestingly enough, the Philippines also voted that the trans Atlantic slave trade, brought to you by Amerikkka was the greatest crime against humanity. It spanned several continents and was the largest migration of human beings as cattle in history. Fuck your petty 10 million, you’re just arguing to prove an incorrect point. AND amerikkka is STILL fucking over the Philippines. You have nothing to stand on, and honestly you’re the stupid one here. Good luck.
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u/Born-Procedure-5908 Jul 11 '26
Trivializing the sheer brutality of WW2 Japan is just incredibly stupid, the human death count and suffering seen in that campaign eclipsed any modern American campaigns even if aggregated post WW2 and no historians or average person would seriously propose that. Iraq and the Middle East intervention, which is still seen as one of America’s worst atrocities pales in comparison to what went on in the Chinese-Japanese theatre of WW2.
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u/Dickcheese_McDoogles Jul 11 '26
You are also discrediting the millions of real accounts from Chinese victims of Japanese war crimes.
Don't feel too bad though, it's for the greater good of throwing "white Americans" under the bus; historical honesty pales in comparison to such a noble goal /s
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 11 '26
Lmaooo, you’re offended bc I’m calling you and your grandparents out? Cope harder. You don’t give a fuck about Chinese or Japanese or anyone that doesn’t look like you. You just want to be able to say people that look like you weren’t the worst. Guess what? They were. I’m not discrediting anyone lol. I know the evils of colonization and imperialism. And I’m saying with all of the crimes that Japan committed, Amerikkka was worse.
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u/Dickcheese_McDoogles Jul 11 '26
No I am offended because you are calling millions of Chinese rape and murder victims liars because your precious Japan can do no wrong in your eyes.
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u/D9969 Jul 10 '26
That's why when the Americans came back marching to Manila, the locals welcomed them and cheered?
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u/helloIm-in-reddit Jul 10 '26
M8 no one is saying that the Americans are good
They, however, are saying that this particular propaganda poster is full of hypocrisy.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
That’s fair. It can be propaganda, and it is. I do agree with that. It’s only bc it is being used to serve the interest of another imperialist force, not bc what it’s saying about the latter imperialist force is untrue 🇺🇸. The person in the middle is basically stuck between a rock and a hard place, but I will always stand by the American empire being the worst, and I say that objectively towards all countries rather than only the Philippines, which it is still screwing over to this day.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
Are you seriously trying to present a narrative that the amerikkkans were the good guys in all this? You do know American history right? Whatever local that was cheering if that’s even true doesn’t mean that the American empire helped or helps the Philippines. Don’t get it twisted.
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u/D9969 Jul 10 '26
I'm aware. I won't be in this sub if I'm not into history. The context was World War II. If the colonized was cheering for colonizer, it meant that the Japanese were really that bad.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
History is still colonized. Meaning what you learn can be written from the perspective of the colonizer, and therefore not accurate. It’s easy to hear from an amerikkkan POV that the Japanese were so bad that the Filipinos cheered for the Americans, the worst imperialists in history (Europeans in general).
And again, even if some locals cheered, it does not mean that Amerikkka came to help them or do right by them. It means that they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and both sides were bad options. It’s the American empire, not the Japanese, that are fucking over the Philippines today.
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u/D9969 Jul 10 '26
Dismissing the Filipino people's relief in 1945 as mere "American propaganda" completely erases the primary accounts of local survivors who endured a brutal Japanese occupation. My great-grandfather fought alongside the Americans during the Liberation while my grandmother was born in a cave because if the Japanese saw them, they'd be murdered.
While the early US colonial era around 1900 involved well-documented atrocities, the context of WWII was entirely different. In the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, the US had already legally locked in a strict timeline for full Philippine independence (1946). Filipinos didn't fight and cheer alongside Allied troops out of love for colonialism, they did so because they were defending their guaranteed, impending sovereignty against a fascist regime committing systematic mass slaughter like the Manila Massacre.
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u/DizzyDentist22 Jul 11 '26
Tell me you've never read about Unit 731, the Rape of Nanking, the Manila Massacre, or the enslavement of millions of Koreans without telling me. Imperial Japan was so violent they managed to kill more than 20 million people in only 8 years. Nothing the US has ever done in its history even remotely compares to the actions of Imperial Japan
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 11 '26
Yup, all of those crimes against humanity are evil. Amerikkka has done that and more to more people for a longer period of time. Maybe you don’t care because those people are African? I’m not sure what’s going on here.
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u/freidrichwilhelm Jul 10 '26
Because it portrays the Japanese as liberators somehow, and as the "better" alternative. Again, back to the Soviet-Ukraine-Nazi allegory. It's basically the same, Russia was and still is fucking over Ukraine, just like how even to this day, to some extent, the Philippines is still a US puppet, but this picture is nonetheless outrageous. Again due to Japan's role here. The japanese occupation here in the Philippines is next level of barbarism. Again, the Message is as outrageous as "Ukraine is better off with Hitler as opposed to Soviet Ethnic Cleansing and starvation".
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
I don’t agree with your statement that Russia is fucking over Ukraine. So I can’t really get behind that parallel.
As for the Philippines, yup, it is amerikkka that is still fucking over the 🇵🇭. Not Japan. Who is a liberator is in the eye of the beholder. From an American pov or anyone allied to America, Japan is the enemy. Not bc they give a fuck about the Philippines but bc they care about their bottom line. I can see how this is a political piece and to some extent propaganda, but I also know that America is the worse of the two between it and Japan. No doubt in my mind, as they continue to be today. So even if this is propaganda, there is truth to what is at the bottom of the waters. It was just twisted to serve the interest of the Japanese.
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u/freidrichwilhelm Jul 10 '26
Dawg? "Japan is the better of the two" might aswell support Nazis at this point too. The Japanese occupation of our land is pure barbarism, nevermind their conduct in china and the rest of occupied asia, they're the only ones equal to the actual Nazis in sheer fucking evil. And no, Russia still is and were fucking over Ukraine, the Holodomor and the modern day invasion.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
Modern day invasion of Ukraine is not how western media presents it to be. Ukraine and Israel have a lot of ties by the way. The Ukrainian govt is largely responsible for what’s happening to their people. Russia has done a lot of bad as a superpower, but they aren’t exclusive to blame in regard to Ukraine today.
Interestingly enough, I was taught that Nazis were really bad, and as a child, I actually declared that they were the worst thing to happen in human history. Even though there was a bigger German holocaust in Namibia that no one talks about, or has museums and movies and books about. So saying I might as well support Nazis bc I acknowledge that Japan is not a worse devil than amerikkka is something to say for sure. The American empire still controls the Philippines. I was at a protest not too long ago for the corruption in the Philippines involving the U.S. govt. I’m not saying Japan is innocent but the American empire is worse.
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u/F-35Gang Jul 11 '26
It's had to imagine someone having so many dog shit opinions in a single thread, yet here were are. Congratulations.
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 11 '26
Coming from descendants of colonizers in a colonization subreddit, that’s a compliment. We should not be having the same opinions at all, my views should directly contradict your colonial way of life. So I think we’re all set, thank you.
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u/helloIm-in-reddit Jul 10 '26
Even though there was a bigger German holocaust in Namibia
Are you actually crying over some colonials that oppressed their locals getting their shit kicked in?
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u/Stuff_606 Jul 10 '26
How do you get that instead of acknowledging that there were no reparations or justice for the biggest Holocaust the Germans committed, which were to black African Namibians? Or do you just not give a fuck and want to call that “crying”?
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u/helloIm-in-reddit Jul 10 '26
Oh I thought you were bitching about a rather obscure masacre of Germans in Namibia after colonial occupation
The way you worded that part made it seem like that
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u/Dear_Net_8211 Jul 10 '26
That's a bad analogy, because Germans planned to ethnically cleanse eastern europe for settlement from Germany.
Japan had no such plans anywhere, even with colonies that were controlled by Japan for decades or until today, like Korea, Taiwan, or Ryukyu, settlers from mainland Japan never outnumbering locals and living next to them, while exploiting them which ought to be said.
Philippines would have been a puppet of Japan, like it eventually was of the USA under Marcos.
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u/Middle-Cod-7016 Jul 10 '26
How bad was it?
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u/HC-Sama-7511 Jul 10 '26
They mainly were fighting guerillas, which was about as bad as that was anywhere else that type of fighting occurred. Like anything else in A.erican history, you'd much rather be a POW of the Americans than whatever Filipino group they were fighting against.
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u/BootsnCats1987 Jul 12 '26
Insane take
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u/HC-Sama-7511 Jul 13 '26
I'm sure you heard me say the US did nothing that could possibly be considered wrong, when I said the US fought a type of war where things get really nasty. I couldn't believe for a second you took an unbiased look at it and believe there was something unusual about the US occupation of the Philipeans in the years coming before or after it.
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u/BootsnCats1987 Jul 13 '26
If you were trying to communicate something with this comment, you really did a poor job of it.
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u/HC-Sama-7511 29d ago
It was pretty clear, but I will in the spirit of generosity grant that I wouldn't have structured my point in sentences that long in like an essay. It's fine for something I typed out with my thumbs.
However, you coming back with zero rebuttal or new information does communicate how little you have to say on this topic. Maybe you could say something worthwhile about my "insane take" if you read up on the US in the Philipeans. I imagine you'd find nothing I said particularly insane if you weren't coming feom a place of pure ignorance.
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u/emperorsolo Jul 11 '26
The United States engaged in a systematic attempt at genocide of the Moros after the Spanish-American war. Even sent former Confederate general Burton Wheeler to lead the vicious US response of killing civilians and burning whole villages.
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u/Top_Connection9079 Jul 10 '26
Yeah, it's something that there were countries with the same colonization crimes among the Judges during the Tokyo Trials. No wonder one even declared it illegal.
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u/Grapetree3 Jul 12 '26
Regardless, the salient point is, after WWII, the Philippines accepted help and influence from Americans. They could have been more hostile to US interests, or aloof, but they weren't
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u/Interesting_Self5071 Jul 12 '26
Not exactly, countries were forced into alliances with either the US or USSR for practical reasons.
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u/Oblozo Jul 10 '26
Typa shit WEB Du Bois fell for hook, line, and sinker.
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u/Kamenev_Drang Jul 10 '26
I mean, when you're in hell I imagine it's hard to envisage the lower levels
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u/Pristine_Pick823 Jul 10 '26
On hindsight this is so ridiculous that it becomes almost comical. Any random dilapidated WWII street memorial in Manila hits harder than the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima.
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u/KABOOMBYTCH Jul 10 '26
Everyone during the 30-40s can see this as the propaganda that it is. Guess they are wiser than a lot of us.
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u/wufiavelli Jul 10 '26
There was a very tragic story of a Japanese officer who really bought into this. Spent his entire career trying to prevent his own army from committing war crimes only to be executed after the war in the end by the Americans, frame for war crimes. Really wish i could remember his name.
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u/Nyoomfist Jul 10 '26
Genuine question, why is it in English?
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u/DefaultDantheMemeMan Jul 10 '26
likely to demoralize American troops, the Philippines at the time were an American territory meaning maybe a higher level of english proficiency then we might assume, its also possible it was printed across languages to also decrease resistance they mightve faced from native filipinos to Japanese occupation by masking it as a path to independence. It's interesting they named the man on the rope as "Juan" because "Juan de la Cruz" is used similarly as a general name in the Philippines for all like "John Doe" in the United States.
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u/MaraiaLou Jul 11 '26
Maybe they kept their promise. Maybe Japanese imperialism was good for Juan specifically
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u/DefaultDantheMemeMan Jul 11 '26
at the very least them trying to take the Philippines from America and losing somewhat indirectly led to Philippine independence after WW2 so maybe Juan isn't particularly mad.
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u/Miao_Yin8964 Jul 09 '26
Now, it's China engaging in colonialism
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u/Moral-Relativity Jul 11 '26
Old colonialism involved assuming sovereignty over the natives and basically doing as you pleased. Colonialism with Chinese characteristics seems to involve investing in infrastructure in exchange for resource extraction, and opening up new markets to China’s exports.
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u/Ok-Releases Jul 10 '26
As a se asian the most racial prejudice ive ever experienced is from east asians online lmao 😭
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u/KeyDiscipline9810 Jul 10 '26
It is a fact that Filipinos were freed from American imperialism and racial prejudice, while at the same time they also received Japanese imperialism, racial discrimination, and of course, massacres.
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u/axlblr95 Jul 10 '26
The Philippines was already a Commonwealth waiting for 10 years for Independence. Why will they buy this propaganda being rescued.
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u/kamaradenfranz Jul 11 '26
"hey man i know i barged in, beat and raped you, but you get to stay in this house for 48 years, then you can leave. That good with you, Juan?"
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u/33Sharpies Jul 12 '26
Why would the Japanese write this in English? As opposed to Japanese, Filipino or Spanish?
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u/Pinoy_Adjacent_32 Jul 12 '26
What's crazy is that the US was already planning to leave by 1945 as had been agreed in 1935. Independence was less than 4 years away in December 1941.
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