Quote:
Originally Posted by Esinem
I accept that I might be a cultural dinosaur  |
More likely you're either not old enough to remember or, being British rather than American, haven't been as heavily exposed to offensive uses of the word in question.
The particular short form you're thinking of had a
very offensive tone in the U.S. during the Pacific War and the years leading up to it. I suppose its use as an insult in the U.S. may go back a lot further, to the "yellow peril" panic in the Western states over Japanese and Chinese immigration during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In any case, its use in this form began in an atmosphere of suspicion, mistrust, and hostility, with a whole lot of racism mixed in, which eventually blew up into a death struggle filled with bitter hatred.
For comparison, think of certain common British slang terms for the Germans used during the two World Wars; the connotation is roughly similar.
Oddly enough, I have seen some Japanese and other Asians, apparently young and probably not American, use the word with no apparent clue of its negative tone. In some ways that's a good sign, since it shows we live in happier, less fearful times and aren't dwelling on the traumas of the past. Anyway, I think it's actually older people, and especially Americans, who are most likely to find the word offensive, because of the mental associations it stirs up. (I'm among those people, by the way.)