Note, KS plates follow an "123 ABC" standard. For example, a KS plate may be "666 JEW".
Posted on 11/29/2018 11:21:22 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
When Barbara Johnson, a 67-year-old Japanese-American Kansas resident, saw a license plate in her state with “JAP” on it, she told the Associated Press she still vividly recalls “being called ‘Jap’—and how it made [her] feel so small and hurt” as a child born about six years after World War II. There are more than 700 Kansas plates with that lettering, and, after about a year of complaints, the state is now recalling them.
The AP reports that Kansas Department of Revenue said there are 731 active license plates with “JAP” in their lettering, and that the plates in that count are standard ones with random letter combinations, not personalized ones. Owners with those plates got a letter on Tuesday asking them to trade the plates out at their county vehicle office for free within the next 30 days, and those who don’t get it done by then will get the plates replaced at their annual renewal.
But the state’s been hearing about the plates for a year or so, that we know of, before this recall. The AP reports that California resident Keith Kawamoto saw a Kansas plate with that lettering on it in his home state last year, took a photo and sent letters to officials including Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer.
Kawamoto, 70, said he got an apology letter back, but that he wanted the plates to be recalled. From the AP:
“I let them know it is considered a very derogatory racial slur and I don’t think it should be allowed anywhere,” Kawamoto said. [...]
Kawamoto’s photo of the Kansas plate was first published by the Pacific Citizen , the newspaper of the Japanese American Citizens League.
Barbara Johnson and her husband Rick Johnson saw the photo of the license plate online, and attempted to get it and the others recalled, as Kawamoto hadn’t been able to do from California. The AP reports that Kansas Department of Revenue spokesperson Rachel Whitten said the department decided to pull the plates with “JAP” written across them in late October, and restrict the combination from showing up on future plates.
“It was very gratifying to know there is someone in government that was willing to hear our side of the story and to recognize it and to proactively act on it as quickly as it did,” Rick Johnson told the AP.
I have a Kansas plate with “LEG” followed by 3 digits. I wonder if some handicapped people will be offended. BTW, its not personalized.
Do Italians get mad at every flat tire because it goes “Wop, wop, wop” as it goes down the road? what about helicopters? Are ski reaorts really offensive to pollocks because non polish people use them? Do the chinese turn there heads everytime someone drops a bunch of silverware? And am I really “ turning japanese “. I could go on. but life is too short to waste time always looking for reasons to be offended. lighten up Francesca.
Go for it.
It would put them in a real bind trying to accommodate both of you.
Very entertaining.
Note, KS plates follow an "123 ABC" standard. For example, a KS plate may be "666 JEW".
They can replace the license plates with pictures of snowflakes.
I heard it in the 70’s...................
“Do people just drive around looking for something to be offended about??“
Yes...
Yes they do.
Welcome to the Age of the Precious Snowflake.
I guess NIG is out..................
I guess that japchae needs to come off of Korean restaurant menus.
Pack of morons.
I thought asians weren’t allowed to be victims
I can imagine Joan Rivers saying it.
How about “FAG”? I’ve seen several Priuses with DUH plates. And if JAP is offensive, is NIP? POO? GYP? JEW? PUD? DIP?
They’re arbitrary combinations of three letters, snowball.
I think they should replace the JAP plates with “NIP.”
There must be a chunk in the system that allows these plate numbers to slip through. I’m sure that the Kansas DMV will nip this in the bud.
I’m about as sensitive as a volcano, but if I was an American of Japanese descent it would be an insult. Sounds like a computer programming error at the DMV.
Geeez! And here I always thought JAP meant ‘Jewish American Princess’.
What about Chinaman? Or Englishman?
They’re not snowflakes, they’re crybullies getting their way over the rest of us. It’s all about power & nothing but.
None of the civilian Americans imprisoned in Japanese concentration camps in the Philippines were ever compensated for their suffering. Screw the Japs.
Might try GRR instead.
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