Ronald Dore wrote:
> Hugh Patrick kindly invited me to the celebration of
Columbia's
> Business School's 25th. It began with a dialogue
between Ambassador
> Roos and Gerry Curtis about the north-east Japan
disaster and
> Operation Tomodachi.
> They are both throughly decent men with many genuine
Japanese friends;
> Gerry a half-century long friend of mine for whom I
have deep respect
> and surely the epitome of the ties that Ellis talks
about. But what
> struck me most was the way both of them
referred,never to any
> particular Japanese person, but consistently to "the
Japanese", a
> collective noun representing the jieitai, the Kan
government, the
> devastated farmers, and whatever,. Americans were
referred to as
> individuals, patrol boatcommanders, marines,
President Obama.

This same pattern is very prevalent in American news reports. Acts that are very explicitly those of a particular corporation or even of specific individuals are presented under "Japan Does ...." headlines.
Apparently Americans are the last true believers in the wartime slogan - "One Hundred Million Hearts Beating as One."

EHK