by Shawn Hikosaka, Class of 2021, History
The 1980s pitted Japan against the United States in a fierce trade war. Japanese products were flooding the U.S. market, much like Chinese products have today. This was particularly the case in the world of electronics in which Japanese companies like Toshiba, Sharp, and Matsushita came to replace previous household U.S. companies like RCA. This seeming economic takeover angered Americans and led to “Japan-bashing” and a variety of expressions of anti-Japanese sentiment. Such a moment is perfectly captured in the image below, in which sitting members of Congress took sledgehammers to destroy an unassuming Toshiba radio in front of the Capitol. Led by Maryland Representative Helen Delich Bentley, nine members of Congress gathered with labor union leaders and military personnel calling for a boycott of Toshiba’s products. The event was covered by major news outlets like The Washington Post and The New York Times and received special attention in Japan. According to a Washington Post article from 1992, Japanese TV stations were still “dusting off the old tape of that unfortunate day in 1987 when six sledgehammer-wielding members of Congress gathered on the Capitol lawn and smashed a Toshiba radio.”
The image is both comedic and surreal. Technically, the congressmen were protesting Toshiba’s sale of sensitive technological equipment to the Soviets, a flagrant violation of export laws. However, the congressmen decided to aggressively smash a totally unrelated piece of Toshiba equipment, a portable radio, with great enthusiasm. The set, consisting of a Toshiba radio placed on top of a metal trash can, was complete with a sign right below with the Toshiba logo crossed out. To make the scene even more bizarre, a large placard that quoted Vladimir Lenin was set up beside the display: “The capitalists themselves because they are so greedy will sell us the rope with which to hang them.” According to the Associated Press, The American Conservative Union “awarded Toshiba a ‘Golden Rope Award,’ a large gold-tinted noose, at the news conference” alongside the placard.
An already dramatic scene of Japan-bashing is further complicated by this placard and “award.” It highlights Japan’s role in the Cold War and the complex nature of how Japanese economic prowess in the 1980s fits in the typical discourse of the Cold War. Although the Lenin quote makes some sense in the context of Toshiba’s actual sale of sensitive equipment, in the context of the sledgehammer bonanza of a Toshiba radio that happened in the foreground of the placard, it only depicts how disorienting Japan’s competition with the United States was in the Cold War framework of Communism vs. Capitalism. Japan competing aggressively with the U.S., a capitalist ally and chief architect of Japan’s post-war reforms was a bewildering curveball. Japan was a country that the U.S. had nurtured back to health after obliterating most of its economic capacity during World War II. Now, this country was sparring off with the U.S. in a trade war using the same capitalist system of free-market competition. And Japan was winning.
Sources
“. . . BUT NOT THAT.” Washington Post. July 3, 1987. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/07/03/but-not-that/033c0d2f-402d-4ccd-9ebb-e8d43979dd3d/.
Packard, George R. “The Coming U.S.-Japan Crisis.” Foreign Affairs 66, no. 2 (1987): 348. https://doi.org/10.2307/20043377
Reid, T.R. “Hammering America’s Image.” Washington Post. March 8, 1992. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1992/03/08/hammering-americas-image/bdd81faa-7f68-407e-afb9-dbc96baa718a/
Skidmore, Dave. “Rep. Bentley: None Dare Call It Toshiba.” AP News. July 2, 1987. https://apnews.com/article/c5f3c744b7b368b7a83b895f43872afe.