Infuriated by stories of defeat at the hands of the allegedly racially inferior Japanese, many high-ranking American military leaders demanded that greater attention be paid to the Pacific campaign. In addition to emphasizing the supposed apish features of the Japanese (b), this poster depicts the victim as a white woman, undoubtedly to increase American horror even more.ĭespite the Allies’ Europe First strategy, American forces took the resources that they could assemble and swung into action as quickly as they could to blunt the Japanese advance. Anti-Japanese propaganda often portrayed the Japanese as inhuman (a). Kamikaze attacks that took place towards the end of the war were regarded as proof of the irrationality of Japanese martial values and mindless loyalty to Emperor Hirohito. The “Bataan Death March,” during which as many as 650 American and 10,000 Filipino prisoners of war died, intensified anti-Japanese feelings. Admiral William Halsey spoke for many Americans when he urged them to “Kill Japs! Kill Japs! Kill more Japs!” Stories of the dispiriting defeats at Bataan and the Japanese capture of the Philippines at Corregidor in 1942 revealed the Japanese cruelty and mistreatment of Americans. Wartime propaganda portrayed Japanese soldiers as uncivilized and barbaric, sometimes even inhuman ( Figure), unlike America’s German foes. Stories of Japanese atrocities bordering on genocide and the shock of the attack on Pearl Harbor intensified racial animosity toward the Japanese. The Pacific Theater and the Atomic Bomb Overviewĭuring the 1930s, Americans had caught glimpses of Japanese armies in action and grew increasingly sympathetic towards war-torn China. The Pacific Theater and the Atomic Bomb.The Origins of War: Europe, Asia, and the United States.Presidents of the United States of America.The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century.From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000.Political Storms at Home and Abroad, 1968-1980.Contesting Futures: America in the 1960s.Post-War Prosperity and Cold War Fears, 1945-1960.Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1941.Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? The Great Depression, 1929-1932.The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929.Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914.Leading the Way: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920.The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900.Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900.
Go West Young Man! Westward Expansion, 1840-1900.Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses, 1820–1860.Cotton is King: The Antebellum South, 1800–1860.
A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 1800–1860.Industrial Transformation in the North, 1800–1850.Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820.Creating Republican Governments, 1776–1790.America's War for Independence, 1775-1783.Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763-1774.