It is far easier to kill someone who you believe is not only evil but may also be subhuman. I don't fault the propaganda nor the American Military during the war years, but I don't feel Hanks is accurate comparing any of that to the conflict in Afghanistan. I have never seen any effort to diminish anyone in the Middle East, there may an effort but it isn't mainstream nor is it backed by the American citizen or the US Government.
That said, the propaganda during the war years was far more cruel to the Japanese than it was to the Germans. Yes, Hitler was constantly mocked in posters, comics, and even cartoons but I've never seen the individual German soldier or German citizen mocked with images of an individual wearing thick glasses, with buck teeth, and an inability to grasp basic thought.
very true.
japan's self-enforced isolation led to a culture of seeing other races as subhuman also. this is why few japanese soldiers at that time gave little thought to killing/torturing/maltreating all chinese during the rape of nanking. live chinese civilians and POW were used for "bayonet practice" and to help instill "
yamato damashii" in new japanese army recruits. in french-indochina, when "local provisioning" became insufficient in the later years of the war, indo-pakistani POW's were eaten/cannibalized by japanese troops. they would cut and cook ears, nose, lips, fingers first and tie up the POW- this to keep him alive and for his meat to remain fresh(if he dies his meat turns bad faster in tropical heat.) later they would get the very same person(still alive but missing previous parts) and cut his thigh meat, buttocks, chest. last to be taken are internal organs, the liver in most cases which ultimately leads to the POW's death.
reading james bradley's "flyboys" will give you a better insight into the cultural divide that existed between americans and japanese prior to and during the war.
this is why i say the pacific war was a hundredfold more brutal than the ETO.
