Was my dad wrong? [View all]

My dad fought in the Navy in WWII in the Pacific. He lost a lot of buddies during the war. When my siblings and I were growing up, we were not allowed to buy anything made in Japan (and their products were as ubiquitous then as Chinese products are today). One time, while attending his annual Tin Can Sailors reunion in Seattle, he and a cohort of veterans stepped off the elevator when a group of Japanese visitors got on. Was he wrong? Today he'd be considered a racist or bigot. But given his experience, were his actions excusable?