The Mysterious Orient(al) Schema: Images and Attribution*

Historically, Japan has been viewed as the “mysterious Orient”; and its people, inscrutable. Framed in terms of the mysterious Orient(al) schema, these cultural images of the Japanese are traced through triangulation, including a discourse study of American training films for its personnel during the Occupation of Germany and Japan. These postwar films, authored and produced by the intellectual elite, provide both a means for tracing the mysterious Orient(al) schema and for identifying an instance of the “fundamental attribution error. ” A contemporary example of the schema is also provided by the children’s cartoon series Mask.. These cartoons clearly show imaging of Japanese inscrutability and suggest a way of enculturation as well. Such findings offer the intercultural trainer useful material for facilitating perceptual skills and for understanding related concepts. These findings also hope to encourage, conversely, the study of Japanese images of North Americans for mutual benefit