Mr. Harrison's observations draws some interesting questions.

It would be interesting to find out whether the British attitude toward the
Japanese is caused by their wartime experience or racism per se.

There seems to be two ways to think of this issue.

First is the obvious problem of historical memory. As Mr. Harrison acknowledges
a far larger number of British have been captured and subject to "cruel"
treatment by the Japanese. Wouldn't this be the major source of hatred rather
than racism? All nationalities it seems to project hatred to instances of
victimization; such as the Americans on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese on the
Tokyo Bombing, Okinanwa, and the A-bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Such hatred,
however, might be fragmented and not part of a more integrated attitude toward
certain races. In such cases, victims have to reconcile their hatred with more
reasonable attitudes toward others of a certain race. Furthermore, in such cases
the hatred felt by elder generations might not be passed down to the younger
generation. The problem of the media in this case is simply that it prints
stereotypes without reflection. (As a matter of fact, I am surprised of the
interest shown by UK publishers on topics of contemporary Japanese society,
which seems far more favorable and widespread than the US.)

Second is how to explain the sensitivity of the media on different kinds of
discrimination. Even the Japanese press seem to be sensitive to discriminatory
terminology against the physically and mentally handicapped. It is true that the
UK press seem less sensitive to racist terms, not just to the Japanese but to
others as well, but that is in comparison the the US, which is extremely
sensitive to racist terms. It would be interesting to know the extent to which
historical incidents and political consideration shape such different
sensitivities to numerous discriminations, and whether being sensitive to
terminology really changes reality.

One could argue that the proliferation of "politically correct" terms in
American English is related to the number and activeness of political
associations in the US representing numerous interests. Or, would that be going
too far. What about Japan, then?

Nobuhiro Hiwatari