okiescout wrote:
tuold, I am no so sure that is how the average American saw the Japanese, in the early stages of the war.
Well, I sure wasn't around then so I can't speak with any authority. You may be right. But there are plenty of sources on the Net to indicate most Americans didn't think much of the Japanese before the War. This quote is from a Wikipedia article on anti-Japanese sentiment:
Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan was intent to adopt Western ways in an attempt to join the West as an industrialized imperial power, but a lack of acceptance of the Japanese in the West complicated integration and assimilation. One commonly held view was that the Japanese were evolutionarily inferior. (Navarro 2000, "... a date which will live in infamy") Japanese culture was viewed with suspicion and even disdain.
That's from before the war. Some of the graphics you can find online from then are too embarrassingly racist to post here.
Of course, during the war the propaganda pictures added the more sinister elements making them look more demonic than cartoonish. They became animals that needed to be extinguished. We could never get away with using that stuff today. Well, except in political ads maybe.
It's been an interesting thread. My main interest in WWII has mostly been in regard to combat aviation but these other aspects are interesting too.
boilermakerandy wrote:
MacArthur had his faults but his handling of post-war was outstanding. He was the right man at the right time.
I read
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964 a number of years ago. Highly recommended.
