Dr. Seuss Goes to War

[Lancer44]

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.

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

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Lancer44

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.

True. I guess that I was temporarily afflicted by the PC bug.

Originally Posted by Lancer44

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.

Did this perhaps have at least something to do with the fighting enthusiasm/tactics of enemy soldiers? The link that you left leads to a file that cannot be opened by Acrobat so I can't see the paper. Are the statistics for soldiers of all nations, or just Western Allies? I'd be surprised if soldiers in rifle divisions on either side of the Eastern Front in World War II had such a low "aimed at enemy" fire rate.

[Lancer44]

Originally Posted by Jim O

True. I guess that I was temporarily afflicted by the PC bug.


Did this perhaps have at least something to do with the fighting enthusiasm/tactics of enemy soldiers? The link that you left leads to a file that cannot be opened by Acrobat so I can't see the paper. Are the statistics for soldiers of all nations, or just Western Allies? I'd be surprised if soldiers in rifle divisions on either side of the Eastern Front in World War II had such a low "aimed at enemy" fire rate.

Hi Jim,

Link is dead indeed. I have the whole book saved on my computer at work and will try to send it to you Monday...
Statistics are just for the US Army.

Eastern front heroes.... Hmm, do not underestimate religious beliefs of conscripted soldiers. They could do a lot of noise with their PPSh'as, but not many kills as a results.

I remember that in late 70's, being in the army in Poland we had discussions "about what we will do if..."
General consensus was: - surrender to Americans ASAP, shoot only "in Gods windows" - mean as far away from the target as possible.

This was specific situation and can not be extrapolated to WWII...

Can not?

Why?
With all nationalities mix... What was percentage of American soldiers of German, Italian extraction? What about Poles afraid to shoot to their brothers in German uniforms? Very touchy subject.

Anyway, I believe you'll enjoy reading book from this dead link... too true to be true... You'll get it Monday.

Cheers,

Lancer44