[TrentLarr]

>thinly veiled expression of xenophobia about the Japanese.

while that is an unfortunate and awful aspect of one its central aesthetic tenants, i do not think that it is the core.

[mlyle]

Kind of an understandable xenophobia, given rhetoric in the US in the early 80's. It's a work that fits the cultural context of the time it was written, in that respect.