You are not the same as the savage enemies you bury. Your enemies come from a strange race - hybrids of humans and apes. If civilization continues to exist, we will have to stay the course. We must destroy these Japanese. General Thomas Bremen December 25, 1942

If it is still illegal to wantonly destroy civilian lives and property during war, then the decision to use atomic bombs in the Pacific War was the only one similar to that of the Nazi leaders during World War II. means of instruction.

Radhabinod Pal's speech at the 1948 Tokyo War Crimes Trial

A war against inferior races.

In Europe, World War II was an intensified continuation of World War I. However, there is still a battle to be fought in the Pacific. The first of the two quotes above confirms this. For the United States and its allies, it is in a sense a continuation of border conflicts, Indian wars, and inter-ethnic wars, which often stir up a paranoid distrust and genocidal impulse in the unconscious of all people. Today, this seems almost unbelievable.

But during the war, people more or less agreed. Admiral William. Halsey once said, "The only good Japan is an old Japan that has been dead for six months. When we get to Tokyo, we will have a small celebration party at the old site of Tokyo." He never missed a beat. An opportunity to call the Japanese "stupid animals" or "monkeys".

Chester William Nimitz, who was fearless in the face of danger during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, restored the confidence of the battered Pacific Fleet in a short period of time. Become the unfailing general of the United States Navy. Even the largest aircraft carrier in the United States is named after it.

The continuous push toward the west is an unchangeable feature of American history. When the war with Japan began, the United States' perimeter had reached Hawaii. Through fighting, the border gradually approached the Japanese archipelago, island by island. Unlike the Italians and Germans, the Japanese were described as a race that was not only different, but incompatible with civilization and even personality.

It is worth noting that during the war, unlike German-Americans or Italian-Americans, all Japanese-Americans were held in concentration camps, just like Indians on reservations. They bear not personal responsibility, but "genetic" responsibility, and their detention is a precautionary measure.

The Japanese skull sent from the Pacific to a female Phoenix employee and the postwar custom of collecting human remains have direct precedents. Official institutions like the Museum of Military Medicine in Washington collected "Indian" skulls.

In the second half of the 19th century, it stationed 2,000 soldiers in the border area. During the Western Expeditions, scalping, that is, cutting off part of the hairy face from the head of a defeated enemy, was a common practice, practiced by both natives and whites. Cut off part of the enemy's body and dehumanize him, that is, make him look like an animal, and his remains are trophies that can be used to make furniture.

Ten-year-old Polish girl Kazimeira Mika lay crying on her sister's body. Her sister was killed by a German machine gun while picking potatoes in a field outside Warsaw. Poland, September 1939.

During the Pacific War, the list of human body parts became particularly long: Americans chopped off the palms, eyes, skulls, hairy scalps, gold teeth, and other items of dead Japanese, sometimes even living ones of. Bones were made into decorative items. A paper cutter made of Japanese bones was given to President Roosevelt as a gift.

Allied propaganda on the European front mainly talked about Nazism and fascism, without attacking any Germans or Italians. However, during the Pacific War, the derogatory term "Jap" was used. 8 Propaganda posters in Europe depicted Nazi-fascist leaders or Hitler himself or Mussolini himself, while in the Pacific War the "Japs" were depicted with very pronounced racial characteristics. This caricature deliberately confuses the image of a human with that of a monkey.

War between different races, total war

The Japanese hardly understand the concept of prisoners of war, because in their military ethics, you must fight to the death. For those who died in Tianjin's acne treatment, it is undoubtedly contradictory for the enemy to pay tribute to him.

On the other hand, they despise any surrender. Why? During the Pacific War, for every Allied soldier killed, four were captured. In comparison, 40 Japanese soldiers were killed for every Japanese soldier captured. Therefore, the probability of Allied soldiers being captured is 160 times that of Japanese soldiers!

Incidentally, this extremely striking figure seems to overturn the stereotype that the Japanese killed anyone who surrendered. However, they fought tooth and nail on their own, and it's a little hard to explain why. There is no doubt that they were taught obedience and self-sacrifice far better than Westerners. But paranoid propaganda certainly played a role, and there were rumors that the Allies were particularly cruel: 84 of the captured Japanese thought they would be killed if they surrendered.

Former Japanese Army Minister Hideki Tojo reads a book in the yard of Oura Prison where he is imprisoned for war crimes.

In the Pacific War, the slogans used by the United States were also a continuation of the border war. So in the end the American military was not as disciplined as on the European front, but as brutal as it was in the American Far West. The usual practice was to kill prisoners, wounded soldiers, patients in hospitals, and survivors in lifeboats. The United States entered World War I to punish Germany. Attacks on German submarines had been expanded to include all ships, even merchant ships bound for Britain. Woodrow Wilson made it clear in his war speech to Congress:

For a moment I could not believe it: that the humane government of a civilized nation, hitherto agreed upon, should do such a thing. Kind of thing. The current anti-trade war by German submarines is a war against humanity. During World War II, U.S. military leaders also declared war on humanity. They considered it normal to sink any ship bound for Japan—even a hospital ship.

Rear Adm. Robert Carney said frankly: "We collided with a number of Japanese hospital ships, some of which sank, others were unrecognizable, and some were damaged by fish because they were close to real military targets." In short, He considered their sinking to be inconsequential. But anyway:

It seems unnecessarily noble to worry too much about these events. There is no doubt that Japanese hospital ships were used for illegal purposes. They were treating people who weren't killed in our initial attack. Anyone who is cured and reinstated could cost many of us our lives.

Just as Herod treated children who might grow up, the rear admiral treated the wounded and sick who might prevent preventive recovery. For Carney, attacking the hospital ship was a necessary "preemptive defense." He was the commander of the Third Fleet, but he studied the strategy in Phaedrus's fable. Say to the wolf and the lamb: "I'm going to eat you because you are undoubtedly slandering me. Even if you are not, you may slander me in the future, so I will tear you apart anyway." Hospital Ship Mistakes Possibly from the origins of a "circular argument" or its conclusion. Say what you will, don't waste your time because Carney has made up his mind to kill the patients being treated on the ship.

The idea of ??ending the war distinguished "good Germans" from Nazis. But during the Pacific War, previous racist stereotypes still prevailed. As they used to say, the only good Indian is a dead Indian. Now,

the statements of public figures reported in the media clearly do not constitute a practical plan, but they can impress simple-minded people. According to Elliott Roosevelt, the president's son, about half of the Japanese people needed to be exterminated; according to Admiral Halsey, most of the Japanese would be exterminated; and according to the chairman of the Military Personnel Committee, every Japanese All should be eliminated. Even in Nazi Germany, no one wanted genocide. Paranoia swings back and forth to amplify the message.

These fantasies that threatened the United States were further promoted and spread to Japan, where they became rumors. It seems impossible to imagine anything more exaggerated.

However, a more bizarre "rumor" is circulating in Japan: after the Allied forces wipe out all local residents, only 5,000 beautiful girls will be left, and they will act as tour guides for tourists - they will transform the country into a International Park.