Support despite American Superiority Complex - Clarence J. Primm

Although the opposition had been loud, discriminatory, and offensive, the support offered a different side to the controversy. Nonetheless, that did not always equate views of Japan or the Japanese in an equal light with Americans. Clarence J. Primm, a resident of Axin, Michigan, while upholding Dr. Young’s motion, equally implied Japanese inferiority in his statement that:  

"I believe that it is entirely possible that the result of the present oriental conflict may be the virtual disappearance of the Japanese as a nationality of world importance, and perhaps even as a cohesive race. I believe that whatever is good in the Japanese development of the past should be preserved, and that the protection and development of students from that race whom circumstances have made it our duty to respect and safeguard so long as these students bear themselves honorably toward American citizens and institutions" (Letter from Clarence J. Primm to Dr. Young, Sept. 2, 1942).

Although Primm’s support may seem innocuous, it implies the inferiority of Japanese culture and the duty of white Americans to guide Japanese Americans in a perceived correct manner. Historian John Dower emphasized the persistence of American superiority complexes above Japan, explaining that the American media and government

"portrayed the Japanese as inherently inferior men and women who had to be understood in terms of primitivism, childishness, and collective mental and emotional deficiency" (Dower 9).

Citizens both vehemently opposed to Japanese American assimilation and those who did not show such disdain maintained a perceived national superiority over the Japanese.  

Dower, John W. War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon Books, 1986. 

“In support of keeping the Nisei Students at Park,” letter from Clarence J. Primm to President W.L. Young, Sept. 2, 1942. Located in Francis Fishburn Archives and Special Collections, Park University Nisei Collection, Park University, Parkville, MO, ID: PC-L-1942.1.560.