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During the first half of the twentieth century, the Shepherd Dog came to be strongly identified with Imperial and Nazi Germany, as well as with many other masters in the colonial world. Through its transnational diffusion after World War I, the breed became a pervasive symbol of imperial aggression and racist exploitation. The 1930s Japanese empire subtly Japanized the dogs who became an icon of the Imperial Army. How could a cultural construct so closely associated with Germany come to represent many different colonial regimes? Using Imperial Japan as a case study, this paper argues that this symbolic pliability is a derivative of the high functionality, wide adaptation, and conspicuous nature of the Shepherd Dog as protector, deterrent, and enforcer of social control. As a visible intermediary in hierarchal relationships between different human groups, the Shepherd Dog became a powerful metaphor of Nazi and colonial memories throughout much of the world.

In the last decade or so, an increasing number of historians have written about the relationship between animals and imperialism. Their work builds on pioneering scholarship by environmental historian Alfred Crosby and cultural historians Harriet Ritvo and John MacKenzie, among others. Recent writing on animals and imperialism, influenced by wider trends in animal studies and history, has taken this topic in new directions. Namely, history writing on animals and imperialism has become more concerned with actual animals and their relationship with people, the metaphorical deployment of creatures, animal agency, and sources that give voice to animals. Work on animals and imperialism will likely benefit from becoming less Western-centric and more transnational and transimperial.Animals and imperialism are two topics that have (separately) attracted a tremendous amount of attention from historians for over a decade. Already in 2004, Harriet Ritvo noticed an increasing interest among fellow historians in animals and declared that "animals have been edging toward the mainstream" of the discipline.

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