Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Jap n.

also jap
[abbr. + negative stereotyping f. the lingering dislike of the Japanese as America’s ‘trad. enemy’, esp. in the context of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII]

1. (also Jappo) a derog. term for a Japanese person.

in McCauley With Perry 100: The Commo: gives a grand dinner to the Japs on the 27th.
[US]S.P. Boyer diary 10 Apr. in Barnes Naval Surgeon (1963) 34: The Japs have a high opinion of Americans — call us No. 1 (icheban). [Ibid.] 9 Aug. 89: Mr. Jap took upon himself the right to arrest and detain the ward room steward.
[US]Overland Monthly (CA) July 44: One Jap, more or less, didn’t matter.
[US]United Service Aug. 148: The Japs are young, too [HDAS].
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Apr. 9/2: We had not seen for years, perhaps, / More merry chaps than these dark ‘Japs’.
St. Paul’s Dly Globe (MN) 22 May 1/3: The Jap the Winner. Muldoon Makes a Stern Struggle to Throw Sorakichi, the Celestial.
[UK]Leeds Times 2 Dec. 7/5: The Japs and Foreigners [...] At one time is a Japanese girl married a foreigner she was instantly decapitated.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) Feb. 1/7: Which of the three interested parties is the most ‘respectable’, the respectable Jap, the respectable civil servant, or the respectable girls.
[NZ]Otago Witness (N.Z.) 1 Apr. 51/4: In a short time the Jap had everything imitated, even to the firm’s name.
[UK]Wilmott & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Geisha 🎵 So I packed my traps and on board ship / To the land of the Japs took a third class trip.
[US]H.H. Lewis A Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 110: I gave the shirt to the Jap.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 5/1: The average person [...] isn’t rabidly pro-Russ or pro-Jap.
[US]W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 170: I stopped [...] for breakfast at the restaurant of a Jap who stood in with us.
[UK]Union Jack 5 May 3: Japs and lascars, for the most part.
[UK]‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 82: It was even money whether the Jap or he would win in a practice bout.
[US]Broadway Brevities Aug. 7/2: Those not in the know who visit the shop are impressed with the Jap-like personality of ‘Lotta’.
[UK]‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 165: I’ve even had sixpences off Japs, and blackies, and that.
[UK]G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 15: He never gave a damn for all the Japs in China.
[US]L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 13: I don’t suppose I’ll see any Japs for a while.
[UK]A. Burgess Right to an Answer (1978) 250: I wouldn’t mind ’aving one of these two little Japs that you’ve got ’ere.
[US]M. Puzo Godfather 91: I killed some Japs.
[Aus]K. Gilbert Living Black 159: Americans are winning all the time. The Germans never win. The Japs never win.
[UK]A. Payne ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ in Minder [TV script] 7: The Japs have got this down to a fine art.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 15: My Dad [...] hates the Japs.
[US]F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 276: I’ll [...] tell him you been sparring with Mack’s Jap.
[Aus](con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘Why are you running round with crooks [...] instead of defending us against the heathen Jappo’.

2. (Aus.) the Japanese language.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Apr. 9/2: On which each one said ‘Jap’ for Hip-Hoo-ray’ .

3. (US gang) a sneak, a spy.

Hal Ellson Duke 31: If you’re a Jap or a turkey [...] it’s going to be bad stuff for you.
J. Bouton I’m Glad You Didn’t Take it Personally 211: If you knew Bouton / Like we know Bouton / Oh boy, is he a Jap. / What he calls candor / Is just plain slander [etc].

4. (US gang) a surprise attack by a teenage gang.

DAS.
[US](con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 63: A ‘Jap’. That’s when a group of guys, two guys or three guys, go down to a different club’s territory, get in fast, beat up one or two guys and get out. [Ibid.] 64: A Jap is a small raid. A Jap is where you hit the other team before they hit you first. Hit first and get out is pulling a Jap.
[US]Maledicta III:2 164: jap n [DAS 1941] Ambush; from the alleged stealth and craftiness of the Japanese.
[US]L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 56/2: jap – n. a punch. He was too zooted to see the jap comin’.

5. (US campus) an unexpected test, a bad surprise.

[US]Baker et al. CUSS 144: Jap Difficult Course. Difficult exam. Surprise test.

In compounds

Japland (n.)

Japan; also attrib.

[US]Columbian (Bloomsburg, PA) 5 Mar. 1/7: As for the dramatic talent in Jap-land, it is probably greater than we suppose.
[US]Belmont Chron. (St. Clairsville, OK) 24 May An interesting talk with Rev. J.R. Frazier, recently one of the American legation in Jap-land: .
[UK]Morn. Post (London) 2 May 11/2: Stray Notes of Life in Japland. By the Hon. Mrs A Sugden.
[US]Times (Richmond, VA) 26 Dec. 11/5: [headline] Gift Giving in Japland.
[US]Times (Richmond, VA) 18 Mar. 3/5: The nimble soldier of the Japland scampered here and there [...] fresh and smiling as their tireless leader, Gen. Fukushima.
[US]Daily Ardmoreite (OK) 19 Mar. 8/4: The house was a picture of Japland and the young ladies [...] were beautifully gowned in Japanese robes.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 3 Apr. 4/6: Miss Margaret Gilchrist, who fulfilled the role of Princess Chrysanthemum, mae a daint Japland maiden.
[US](con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 72: He’s out getting his cookies off in Japland.
Jap’s eye (n.) [its resemblance to a ‘slit eye’ and thus racial stereotyping]

the urethral opening at the end of the penis.

[UK]K. Sampson Powder 380: Holding the japseye up under the jet until the pain was too much to take.
[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 33: An intravenous drip of hospital quality heroin and cocaine was stabbed up through the folds of his stomach into his jap’s eye.
Hot Sister [manga] at www.incestquest.com 🌐 Do you like my tongue down your japseye?
[UK]R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 41: It sounded like Johnnie was gouging Angelo’s eyeballs out or slicing his Jap’s eye open.
[UK]R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 174: Donald’s Jap’s eye bulged open in the condom.
Jap-slap (v.) [racist stereotyping of the Japanese as specialists in surprise attacks, e.g. Pearl Harbour]

(US) to slap someone suddenly; also used fig. and as n.

Boogie Down Productions ‘The Style You Haven’t Done Yet’ 🎵 Ghetto Music [album] Instead of a rap I jap-slap all of ’em back / Because the teacher that you see is not wack.
C. Bianchi Dancing with Charlie 115: Jackson Jap-slapped them so fast they didn’t know what hit them [HDAS].
E.W. Rukuza West Coast Turnaround 217: He dropped two gears and stomped the floor with the accelerator, jap-slapping the governor silly with excessive Rs [HDAS].
‘Mystery remains around Lawler’ South Coast Today 10 Mar. 🌐 A group that promotes fairness for Japanese-American citizens has filed a formal protest of WCW. In the Jeff Jarrett segment on Nitro, where Ric Flair portrayed Dusty Rhodes, there was mention of a ‘Jap Slap’.
Jap wise (adj.) [? stereotype of Japanese stealing Western skills and reproducing the form but still lacking the innate knowledge that helped create them]

(US) partially or insufficiently informed.

[US]J.L. Kuethe ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 27: jap wise. Knowing only part of a thing.
[US]Maledicta III:2 164: Jap wise adj phr Knowing only part of a thing, not completely informed.

In phrases

pull a Jap (v.)

(US) to take by surprise, to ambush.

[News-Palladium (Benton Harbor, MI) 14 Sept. 2/5: Congress as a body is about to pull a Jap trick and as soon as election is over, you will find out what a Jap trick is].
Beckley Post-Herald (WV) 1 Dec. 7/4: Pull a Jap —Make a sneak attack. From the attack on Pearl Harbor.
[US](con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 64: A Jap is a small raid. A Jap is where you hit the other team before they hit you first. Hit first and get out is pulling a Jap.
[US]Maledicta III:2 164: jap, pull a v phr [DAS 1941] Ambush someone; deceive.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 216: To pull a Jap or to Jap [someone] became synonymous with a sneak attack of any kind.
you wouldn’t give it to a Jap on ANZAC Day (also …feed it to a Jap…, ...send a Jap there...) [ANZAC day, the Aus./N.Z. memorial to their joint forces landing at Gallipoli in 1915; then ext. to WWII]

(Aus.) said of anything that is absolutely unacceptable.

[[Aus]J. McNeil Chocolate Frog 36: Shirker Our mate ’ere seems ter like people [...] Tosser Like ’em! I reckon he does! He’d kiss a Jap on Anzac Day [...] red ’ot poof, fer mine].
[Aus]Canberra Times (ACT) 12 May 31/5: [A] place where the counter-lunches are some thing that, in one drinker’s words, you wouldn’t serve to a Jap on Anzac Day.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Davo’s Little Something 37: Bloody Wollongong. Fair dinkum – you wouldn’t send a Jap there on Anzac Day .
[Aus]Macquarie Dict. 🌐 wouldn’t feed it to a Jap on Anzac Day, (of food) absolutely disgusting.