Honolulu:University of Hawai‘i Press, 2022. xi, 231 pp. (B&W photos, illustrations.) US$68.00, cloth. ISBN 9780824890124.
Unthinking Collaboration is a compelling historical account of the relatively unknown and untold history of Nisei (second generation Japanese Americans) who were living in Japan during World War II and actively supported the country by serving as soldiers in Japan’s military, using their English skills to advance the country’s military and propaganda objectives, and contributing their labour to the war effort in other ways. After the war, they apparently switched sides and supported the Allied occupation. The book centres around Buxton’s argument that the war-time collaboration of Japanese Americans with Japan against the United States should not be morally judged as treason because it was a type of externally-induced and subconscious “unthinking collaboration” rather than the result of conscious free-will and rational decision-making. The topic is inherently fascinating; the narrative style is engaging; and the insightful historical analysis includes oral histories that the author conducted with Nisei who lived during this period in Japan.
I especially like Buxton’s transwar historical framework in which the Nisei’s ethnic experiences during the prewar period in the United States are examined to understand both their collaboration with the Japanese war effort as well as with Allied occupational forces during the postwar period. Nisei Japanese Americans in the US were raised bi-culturally in the context of anti-Japanese sentiment and exclusion from mainstream American society and the ethnic segregation of the Japanese immigrant community, necessitating them to oscillate between Japanese and American cultural behaviour as they navigated both social environments.
Ultimately, however, Nisei were regarded as falling short of their idealized status as cultural ambassadors and intermediaries who could effectively bridge and improve understanding between the two cultures and countries. Nisei were distrusted and viewed suspiciously by mainstream Americans as insufficiently assimilated and Americanized because of their connection to their Japanese ethnic heritage. At the same time, the Japanese immigrant community felt that Nisei lacked adequate knowledge and appreciation of their ancestral homeland and culture. In this context, a large number of Nisei went to Japan to study abroad, including through special educational programs. Because they experienced ethnic prejudice and discrimination in Japan despite the lack of racial difference with the host populace, many made efforts to act Japanese and hide their cultural Americanness while continuing to act American in front of fellow Nisei and other foreigners. As a result, they developed the cultural flexibility to code-switch and alternate between Japanese and American cultural performances, which was critical for their ability to adapt and survive in Japan during World War II and the postwar American/Allied occupation.
When war with the US began, tens of thousands of Japanese American Nisei were either stranded in Japan because they could not leave the country in time, or decided to stay because of family or financial considerations. Even though Nisei were not seen to be a threat like foreigners of non-Japanese descent and were not deported, interned, or placed under house arrest, they were still subject to suspicion and surveillance by Japanese military police and even by vigilant members of local communities, causing them to avoid speaking English and suppress their American cultural backgrounds and demeanor through assimilation. They were also influenced by wartime disciplinary practices, ideals, and “soft propaganda” that permeated society which extolled the Japanese spirit, emperor worship, patriotism, and self-sacrifice. Thousands of Nisei eventually ended up volunteering or being conscripted into the Japanese military or used their English skills to serve as communications monitors or interrogators in POW camps, thus working directly against their country of birth. The labour of other Nisei (including women and students) was also mobilized for the war effort, including for war-munitions factories, agriculture, and propaganda broadcasts intended to demoralize American soldiers.
During the post-war Allied occupation of Japan, the Nisei in Japan again employed their bicultural code-switching abilities by shifting back and re-assimilating to American culture and serving as effective intermediaries between American occupying forces and the Japanese populace. Not only did they demonstrate their support for the Allied occupation, they were able to justify and rationalize their wartime collaboration with the Japanese by claiming they were brainwashed by propaganda and coerced by the militarized government, which also allowed many who lost their American citizenship to reinstate it and return to the US.
Buxton’s main (and oft-repeated) argument is that we cannot pass judgement on Nisei collaboration with Japan as treasonous, disloyal, or traitorous because it was a product of subconscious actions conditioned by the immediate hegemonic and discursive environment instead of rational choices and conscious decision-making. To buttress this claim, Buxton cites “neuroscience” research which indicates that almost all human behaviour and decisions are a product of subliminal forces outside of conscious awareness. Not only does this defy belief, the historical narratives of the Nisei clearly indicate that they were aware of what they were doing and they provide active and conscious explanations of their actions (even if they are retrospective justifications) based on social/familial pressures, economic constraints, institutionalized coercion and discipline, internalization of propaganda/hegemonic ideals, as well as personal achievement, desires, and a sense of pride and Japanese patriotism.
There is a tendency throughout the book to conflate the structural constraints to which Nisei were subject with subliminal mental pathways that produce preconditioned and habituated behaviour devoid of active reflection and intentionality, especially when they are compounded by the personal desperation and distress of total war. However, actions that are regulated or even coerced by external and situational forces are not necessarily outside of conscious awareness. It would have made more sense for Buxton to adopt the classic framework of how human agency and free will are constrained to various degrees by structural forces. Although this may make some Nisei actions that were less structurally coerced (such as those who volunteered for instead of being conscripted into the Japanese military) liable to moral judgement as “treasonous collaboration,” it is a more realistic conceptual framework that still avoids portraying people as rational, calculating subjects who are thus completely responsible for their actions.
Takeyuki Tsuda
Arizona State University, Tempe