japanese posters
Out of context: Reply #42
- Started
- Last post
- 49 Responses
- monokrom0
"Yank" is the abbreviation of Yankee, just as Jap is an abbreviation of Japanese.
You're coming at it assbackwards, as though "Yankee" derived from "Yank".
As for native Japanese people using or not using the term "Jap", they have no reason to - Japanese and Japanese-culturally-influenced items are all around them, so there's not enough novelty in seeing such items that they'd prefix any reference to same with "Jap" ... just as I'm surrounded with Americana 24-7, so I don't have much cause to bandy around the term "Yank".
Several Japanese-American friends (born and raised in the USA) of mine regularly use the term "Jap" (i.e. "I've got some Jap VCD's if you wanna borrow them"). They don't hate themselves.
If we were all grizzled old WWII vets sitting around reminiscing about WWII and the years we spent in a Japanese POW camp, the cruel treatment at the hands of the camp guards, etc., then use of the term "Jap" would probably carry the significance that you're trying to attach to it here, but I'm betting that none of us are members of "The Greatest Generation".