Nip

In the English language, nip is an ethnic slur used against people of Japanese descent. The word is an abbreviation of Nippon (日本), the Japanese language term for Japan.[1][2]

For other uses, see NIP (disambiguation).
The 1944 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, which uses the slur as part of its title

History

The earliest recorded usage of the slur in the English language is possibly in the January 5, 1942 edition of Time magazine, which used the word "nip" to describe three Imperial Japanese Armed Forces pilots.[2][3] As a result of the entry of English-speaking nations into the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, the usage of racial slurs against Japanese people, such as "jap" and "nip", saw a significant increase among the citizens of those nations.[2] The slur was commonly used among military personnel of the Western Allies.[2] A journal published by the Royal Air Force in 1942 used the phrase "Nip pilots", which generated numerous puns using the term among British servicemembers.[2] The phrase "nasty nip in the air" was used in an article published by British satirical magazine Private Eye regarding Hirohito's 1971 visit to the United Kingdom.[4]

As part of American wartime propaganda, caricatures and slurs (including Nip) against the Japanese diffused into entertainment,[5][6] such as exemplified by the Warner Bros. cartoon Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944).[6] In General Kenney Reports: A Personal History of the Pacific War (1949), George Kenney made racial statements about the Japanese, remarking for example that "Nips are just vermin to be exterminated".[7] In a manner to evoke further anti-Japanese agitation, a Seattle Star editorial titled "It's Time to do Some Thinking On Nips' Return" from December 14, 1944, discussed the citizenship rights of Japanese-Americans and framed their return to American society as a problem.[8] On 16 November 2018, the abbreviation for the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems was changed from NIPS to NeurIPS in large part due to its perceived connotation with the slur.[9]

See also

References
  1. Savill, Richard (4 October 2006). "Vicar says sorry for 'nip in the air' Japanese joke". The Telegraph.
  2. Hughes, Geoffrey (2006). An Encyclopedia of Swearing. New York: M.E. Sharpe. p. 261-261. ISBN 978-0-7656-1231-1.
  3. Glusman, John A. (2005). Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945. Viking. p. 167. ISBN 0142002224.
  4. "Hirohito". The New Yorker. Vol. 69, no. 11–15. New Yorker Magazine, Inc. May 1993. p. 52.
  5. Casey, Steven (2001). Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public opinion, and the War Against Nazi Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-19-513960-7.
  6. Bennett, M. Todd (2012). One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II. University of North Carolina Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8078-3574-6.
  7. Meilinge, Phillip S. (2001). Airmen and Air Theory: A Review of the Sources. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air University Press. p. 38. ISBN 1-58566-101-5.
  8. Speidel, Jennifer (2005). "After Internment: Seattle's Debate Over Japanese Americans' Right to Return Home". Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium, University of Washington.
  9. Brown, Jennings (19 November 2018). "'NIPS' AI Conference Changes Name Following Protests Over Gross Acronym". Gizmodo.
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