[MuttTheHoople]

We had a lot of misconceptions about the Japanese that were deadly for us. I will say that the Pacific war was a race war ON BOTH SIDES. both sides had contempt for the other, and reacted accordingly.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

There were, and it was. And like I said, eventually everyone's perceptions got adjusted down to reality and thus they fought accordingly.

 

 

[ETCM]

I will say that the Pacific war was a race war ON BOTH SIDES.

I wouldn't call it a race war. Sure, there was plenty of racism on both sides, but since before biblical times, it has been pretty standard to paint your enemy as an evil monster. By WW2, everyone was pretty good at it. Killing your fellow man is hard, and damaging to the soul. Killing a monster, like the Imperial Japanese and the Nazis, was easy, and you felt much less tortured by it. This went on through Korea, Vietnam, and still goes on in today's wars in the middle east, even to the point of teaching Pali children in school that the Jews aren't even human. Killing without hate is much harder than with it. The challenge is to restore the enemy's humanity after you have won the war. That takes generations.