thumb|Headlines announcing Surrender of Japan|Japan's surrender in [[World War II]] Jap is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". In the United States, Japanese Americans have come to find the term offensive because of the internment they suffered during World War II. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jap was not considered primarily offensive. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese declaration of war on the US, the term began to be used derogatorily, as anti-Japanese sentiment increased. During the war, signs using the epithet, with messages such as "No Japs
Article
9 sectionsContents
- History and etymology
- Reaction in Japan
- Around the world
- Asia & Oceania
- Europe
- North & South America
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|Headlines announcing Surrender of Japan|Japan's surrender in [[World War II]] Jap is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". In the United States, Japanese Americans have come to find the term offensive because of the internment they suffered during World War II. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jap was not considered primarily offensive. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese declaration of war on the US, the term began to be used derogatorily, as anti-Japanese sentiment increased. During the war, signs using the epithet, with messages such as "No Japs Allowed", were hung in some businesses, with service denied to customers of Japanese descent.
==History and etymology== thumb|WWII propaganda poster using a rhyming slogan in its text According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest recorded use of Jap as an abbreviation for Japanese dates to 1854, in the diary of Edward Y. McCauley, a member of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan: "The Commo: gives a Grand dinner to the Japs on the 27th". An example of benign usage was the previous naming of Boondocks Road in Jefferson County, Texas, originally named Jap Road when it was built in 1905 to honor a popular local rice farmer from Japan.