Use of the word 'Jap' - is it offensive?

wan wan wrote:That being said, it is not surprising that the world "Jap" is considered offensive by Japanese. It screams DISRESPECT and is totally unacceptable even though the user of this word is not being disrespectful.

Here's the thing. It didn't scream disrespect to the user when she initially used it. It certainly didn't scream disrespect to me when I first used it. Until I was told, I would have been surprised that the word "Jap" is considered offensive by Japanese.

^^^

To be honest, I personally don't think it is disrespectful at all. Only the Japanese do.

My British friend was in Japan on a cold night and he said "Corrrr, it's nippy!" and was told by my Japanese friend never to use that word in Japan cos it's disrepectful.

Better watch what you say in Japan.

wan wan wrote:^^^

To be honest, I personally don't think it is disrespectful at all. Only the Japanese do.

My British friend was in Japan on a cold night and he said "Corrrr, it's nippy!" and was told by my Japanese friend never to use that word in Japan cos it's disrepectful.

Better watch what you say in Japan.

Better watch what you say here too, otherwise you'll get rednecks with pitchforks chasing you!

::plays dueling banjos::

My mom when she pisses me off.. Or she knows it's going to piss me off, she well mock Hamasaki Ayumi and then have the nerve to call her a "Chink" if thats how you spell it..

But then she likes a song from the Cd :shakehead:

SubaruWRX wrote:My mom when she pisses me off.. Or she knows it's going to piss me off, she well mock Hamasaki Ayumi and then have the nerve to call her a "Chink" if thats how you spell it..

But then she likes a song from the Cd :shakehead:

The way your mom is using it is definitely racist.

yeah but she smiles and laughs and thinks it's funny while I'm pissed off for what she says..

But yet is ok if I Date a Japanese girl...

"In Japan there are only Japanese ways."

wan wan wrote:To be honest, I personally don't think it is disrespectful at all. Only the Japanese do.

Wrong. I'm not Japanese and I consider it disprespectful.

You don't have to be of that nationality to consider it disrespectful or offensive... It's wrong, period.

bmwracer wrote:
Wrong. I'm not Japanese and I consider it disprespectful.

You don't have to be of that nationality to consider it disrespectful or offensive... It's wrong, period.

Indeed. I fully second that. I also think the first ones to have the right to find it disrespectful are the ones who're called that way.

SubaruWRX wrote:My mom when she pisses me off.. Or she knows it's going to piss me off, she well mock Hamasaki Ayumi and then have the nerve to call her a "Chink" if thats how you spell it..

But then she likes a song from the Cd :shakehead:

isn't "Chink" suppose to refer to chinese people???......i dunno a chinese person was called a "chink" when i was in middle school n i never heard it again. And ya, u spelled "Chink" correctly.

If "Chink" does refer to chinese people i think its funny that your mom confused Hamasaki for a chinese and really messed up how your mom can call her a "chink"


My history book is giving me info i dun remember reading b4. Apparently a popular song back in early 1940s in America was "You're a Sap, Mister Jap, to Make a Yankee Cranky" <---pretty messed up title and most likely to be a pretty messed up song. Any1 heard of this one??

I actually know that song lol. It's a typical song for those times. Then again, you had propaganda posters showing Japanese pilots with HUGE glasses and weird teeth... which makes me doubt that any USMC or USN pilot believed that, because the IJNAF proved to be more than just a hard opponent.

There's a version of the Colonel Bogey March called "Hitler has only got one ball":

England 1939-1940

Hitler, he only had one ball,
Goering, he had two but very small,
Himmler had something simmler,
But poor old Goebbels had no balls at all.
Whistle Chorus:

Frankfurt has only one beer hall,
Stuttgart, die M&#252;nchen all on call,
Munich, vee lift our tunich,
To show vee 'Cherman' have no balls at all.
Whistle Chorus:

Hans Otto is very short, not tall,
And blotto, for drinking Singhai and Skol.
A 'Cherman', unlike Bruce Erwin,
Because Hans Otto has no balls at all.
Whistle Chorus:

Hitler has only got one ball,
The other is in the Albert Hall.
His mother, the dirty bugger,
Cut it off when he was small.
Whistle Chorus:


It's bad, really. So no surprise that the Americans came up with similar stuff, everyone did it.

K.T.Tran wrote:My history book is giving me info i dun remember reading b4. Apparently a popular song back in early 1940s in America was "You're a Sap, Mister Jap, to Make a Yankee Cranky" <---pretty messed up title and most likely to be a pretty messed up song. Any1 heard of this one??

No surprise there. Blatant anti-Japanese racism was the norm after Pearl Harbor... If you ever visit the Japanese-American Museum in Little Tokyo (Downtown Los Angeles) you'll see that stuff along with info on the (totally illegal) internment of the Japanese during World War II...

K.T.Tran wrote:

isn't "Chink" suppose to refer to chinese people???......i dunno a chinese person was called a "chink" when i was in middle school n i never heard it again. And ya, u spelled "Chink" correctly.

If "Chink" does refer to chinese people i think its funny that your mom confused Hamasaki for a chinese and really messed up how your mom can call her a "chink"

I dunno when she said it, it was the first time I heard the word...

And gosh when I had my Morning Musume posters up my friends walked in the room and said "MIKE! What is wrong with you! You have all these Chinese girls on the wall!"

Ugh Why does Every Asian have to be Chinese?

SubaruWRX wrote:Ugh Why does Every Asian have to be Chinese?

Oh I don't know, it's just like how all Caucasions are Americans or British to us. :)

well....i know people confuse Chinese with Korean and Japanese and same thing for Koreans and Japanese or at least with the people i know.

I'm still confuse over how I(being half chinese and vietnamese) was confuse for being Filipino<---sorry if i spelled it wrong and was mixed up for being Hawaiian.....I know im pretty tanned but im not all that dark skinned :sweat:

kiasukid wrote:Hong Kong-ers call Caucasians "gweilo" meaning "ghost person". I believe this was also originally meant to offend. I'm not sure if it's still offensive these days but "gweilo" is still a term that is, I believe, commonly used in HK.

Correction: "gweilo" is used to describe someone that is not asian or a foreigner in

a negative manner. Does not mean "Ghost Person" even though "Gwei"

means Ghost and "Lo" means Person!

yt wrote:

Correction: "gweilo" is used to describe someone that is not asian or a foreigner in

a negative manner. Does not mean "Ghost Person" even though "Gwei"

means Ghost and "Lo" means Person!

Sorry, I meant to mean the literal translation is "Ghost Person". Just like "angmo" in S'pore literally means "red hair" but would be used to describe any Caucasion regardless of his hair colour. I've even heard it used on Africans before which is unusual but not unknown.

I wasn't sure if gweilo is still considered negative in HK, guess I know now that it still is. I also didn't know it was for all foreigners, I thought it was only for Caucasions. Thanks for the correction.

K.T.Tran wrote:I'm still confuse over how I(being half chinese and vietnamese) was confuse for being Filipino<---sorry if i spelled it wrong and was mixed up for being Hawaiian.....I know im pretty tanned but im not all that dark skinned :sweat:

you cant blame them, cuz filipinos has a mixture of everything: mexicans, black, vietnamese, chinese, japanese, hawaiian..etc. while most filipinos (like myself) have chinese and spanish blood.. but i was mistaken for vietnamese cuz of my eyes =T

SO thats the reason :shocked: never knew :sweat:

Thanks for informing me on this :bow:

the word 'jap' -- imo - i find it to be offensive and derogatory. because it is heavily linked to historial racial hostility. i don't use it to describe. always say Japanese or Japan.