To be fair, there are lots of Jews who refuse to buy anything German to this day. I think it has to do with whether the other party saw you as sub-human, or you saw the other party that way. The racial issues ran on both sides in the Pacific, but less so in Europe, since so many Americans had origins over there.
Heh, you couldn’t tell that by my synagogue. Our rabbi drives a BMW (the i3 small electric thing, but still). I have a VW Golf R. BMWs, Mercedes, and VWs are frequent guests in our parking lot. Hell, in Westchester County, NY, where my wife is from and where I was this past weekend, you’d swear that Mercedes was the official car of the chosen people. I’m not denying for a minute that there are Jews who won’t buy German, but by and large most American Jews separate the acts of the Nazi regime from the current German nation. Part of this is because so many American Jews are Ashkenazi, and trace their roots to central Europe, where Yiddish and German culture were still very powerful.
Americans didn’t really think of Germans in racial terms at all during WWII; as you note, because so many of us came from Europe at one point or another, not to mention we were all, um, white. The Japanese were always seen as more alien.
In any event, it always struck me as silly to base buying decisions on the past actions of nations. Current actions, sure–boycott South Africa, Israel, Russia, or whatever for what they’re doing now–but unless you’re following a Faulknerian view of the past, where it lingers on and strangles the present, eh, move on and buy that Sony.
I’ve never heard of this guy before, and yet in the same day I see him eating a bunch of raw chicken and sitting with Obama. Coincidence abound!
My father was in the Pacific during WW2 and he never felt anything towards the Japanese. Of course he had grown up friends with a Japanese/American whose family ended up in an internment camp. But his mother, my grandma, would occasionally go off on the Japanese. I always found that strange as the local grocery store at the time was owned and staffed by a Japanese family that she was great friends with and the Vet we all used was Japanese. I think she just saw them as being completely different things.