Years ago, I read an essay written in the 1980s by a Westerner, I think an
American advisor, a "
China Hand", that showed how negative and positive "public opinion" waxed and waned towards
China and
Japan. Basically, when China is a friend of America's, Japan isn't. When Japan is a friend, then China isn't. Without examining this closely, it seemed to be to be at least an interesting
observation.
I do not know enough about the United States to say much about this. But the general topic of what makes one ethnic group acceptable or acceptable as a target and others not would seem to involve a large array of socio-economic influences. Tracing this would be very useful. Does anyone have more information on this?