Olympics: US victory marred by racist tweets

USA's victory over Japan in the women's gold medal football last night was marred by a slew of racist tweets. Photo / AP

USA's victory over Japan in the women's gold medal football yesterday was marred by a slew of racist tweets.

The 2-1 match had barely ended when the terms 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Japs' started trending on the micro blogging site.

Olympics fans tweeted how the U.S. victory had been 'payback for Peal Harbor' and made reference to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. military in WWII.

Before the match ended one wrote the game would end 'the same way WWII did. With Hiroshima and Nagasaki burnt to the ground'.

The game - and the tweets - fell on the 67th anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bomb attack, which killed 70,000 people on August 9, 1945.

But the anniversary seemed to have little bearing on the Twitter messages. One user @treywimbo wrote: 'This was payback for the USS Arizona!! Take that you Japs!'

Another, @CocoSully7 wrote: 'Watching this game makes me think of how much I really do hate Asians.'

@emilydunderwood tweeted how winning a gold medal in the women's football meant the U.S. was 'almost even' with Japan for the the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbour attack.

Others hit back at the racist tweets, arguing the women's game had nothing to do with either attack.

User @Sandra_Lee1123 wrote: 'I wasn't aware Japan's women's soccer team were the ones who planned Pearl Harbor.'

While @oh_deir wrote: 'Just because the US won a gold medal in soccer doesn't mean you have a free pass to make racist jokes about Pearl Harbor #growup.'

Another user @lissybluebell wrote: '3 things in life are certain: death, taxes & that whenever the US beats Japan at anything SOMEone will call it 'payback for Pearl Harbor'.'

The U.S. team's win made up for the heartache of last year's World Cup final when they lost to Japan on penalties.

The women's coach Pia Sundhage even declared her side could be 'unstoppable' at the next World Cup in 2015.

American Carli Lloyd scored both goals last night in front of a record 80,203-strong crowd at Wembley Arena in London.

Lloyd said: 'Wembley was amazing. 'To play in all these historic stadia is amazing. 80,000 people for a women's final is unbelievable - it says a lot and we feel very lucky.'

- The Daily Mail