Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim O
In looking through the cartoons I was also struck by this issue. I can't know what he was thinking but as much as Japanese thought themselves superior and their land sacred, common American sentiment of the time saw them as inferior.
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Common American sentiment, as well as very same Australian attitude, was not viewing Japanese as inferior humans,
but as animals.
Drastic, I know, but true.
In the last answer to Quiz thread I included some links to scholarly investigated "attitudes towards the enemy" from AWM Canberra.
WWII quiz thread
This topic is perhaps going beyond Dr. Seuss scope and touches propaganda and psy-ops, (not named in 40's, but very much present).
To win Pacific war, Americans and their Allies needed that bit of extra fighting instinct in every soldier. Killing "yellow monkey" was much more plausible than killing German or Italian.
WWI statistics followed by Western European WWII statistics shows that only 1 in 10 soldiers fired his individual weapon actually aiming at enemy soldier.
Pacific war surveys shows that 8 out of 10 soldiers shoot to kill.
(Statistics valid for infantry soldiers only. Team operated weapons, artillery, tanks ships and even machine guns had more than 90% ratio of conscious, effective shooting = killing.)
Source:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...1995/wp/fm.pdf
Cheers,
Lancer44